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Can answer the first, they are all spur bearing types.I do early winter pruning on ours. Summer pruning makes them produce lots of 'water shoots'.Apples are best stored cool and dark. Rats got at ours which when you are talking of over 1 hundredweight of apples is a lot to lose.You can but long handled fruit picking gadgets.No idea.
Quick response to item 5.This is unlikely to work. The bit that broke off is the scion wood, so will no longer be on a dwarfing rootstock. If it does develop its own roots (possible though unlikely) there is no way to tell how big the tree will grow as it matures (it might be small, it might be huge) or if the roots will be weak or vigorous. And if it does grow the number of years it will take to start fruiting is also an unknown.Of course, you could see this as a fun experiment. Just wanted to manage your expectations. On the plus side, if it grows it should fruit true to the original scion wood. Sometimes it is enjoyable just to try these things, provided you don't have unrealistic expectations.
ut as a minimum you must prune out any dead or diseased wood, and remove wood that is crossing and growth that overcrowds the centre.
Quote from: Beersmith on January 15, 2019, 15:27:31Quick response to item 5.This is unlikely to work. The bit that broke off is the scion wood, so will no longer be on a dwarfing rootstock. If it does develop its own roots (possible though unlikely) there is no way to tell how big the tree will grow as it matures (it might be small, it might be huge) or if the roots will be weak or vigorous. And if it does grow the number of years it will take to start fruiting is also an unknown.Of course, you could see this as a fun experiment. Just wanted to manage your expectations. On the plus side, if it grows it should fruit true to the original scion wood. Sometimes it is enjoyable just to try these things, provided you don't have unrealistic expectations.It is more of a fun experiment than thinking I will get a tree - to be honest I have nowhere to put it.
Quote from: Beersmith on January 15, 2019, 15:48:34ut as a minimum you must prune out any dead or diseased wood, and remove wood that is crossing and growth that overcrowds the centre.When should I do this winter or summer? Or does it depend on whether I want to stimulate growth or not?
Since we are moving to a property with no fruit trees, storing the apples in future is not needed. If we were stopping here then I would have to find somewhere where the rodents could not get at them. They ate their way through a wooden floor to gain access to them.
I tried & failed to persuade a nearby plot against throwing away a slightly rusty steel filing cabinet - they are perfect for storing apples in a shed - leave the drawers open until the colder weather but close them before the rats arrive. There should be enough ventilation for the colder periods but it's also easy to jam the drawer not quite shut - a gap the width of a biro won't let rats in.I didn't need the cabinet myself because I have the old stainless steel container (& lid) of an ancient upright washing machine in my shed (and an old fridge in my back garden for beets etc.). I also use old galvanised cold water tanks as ratproof compost heaps.
I think it was Bob Flowerdew who suggested using defunct fridges and especially freezers for storing apples in garages without vermin access.
Quote from: galina on January 16, 2019, 12:36:10I think it was Bob Flowerdew who suggested using defunct fridges and especially freezers for storing apples in garages without vermin access. I did use my spare fridge in the garage a few times. I had it on until the average temperatures got near fridge temperature and then left it off for the rest of the winter (otherwise it freezes up!). It worked OK but I noticed mould appeared in there when I stopped opening the door for a few days ('cos I ate the best varieties first) - I'd recommend wedging & fixing the door slightly open as soon as you turn it off.Old fridges outdoors are excellent as clamps for roots as the humidity is a bonus, but for fruit it would be tricky to crack the door without rain getting in.Cheers.
Literally a minefield - and any fridge in the open wouldn't have stopped the winter of 2010/11 from freezing your apples anyway.
We have an ancient caravan in which we store apples. And those did survive down to -16C successfully. Undoubtedly it never got that cold inside the caravan, but neither would it get that cold inside an outdoor fridge or freezer.