Sometime in ’04 or ’05, Landlady and T planted a whole bunch of fruit trees. Most promptly died. One apple tree managed to survive, though never to fruit, despite being sheared of its foliage year after year by cattle and elk. In recognition of the fact that Landlady’s meadow is going to look awfully good to the cattle this new outfit plans to lure onto her land, we did a bit of armoring…
I’ll be pleasantly shocked if we ever see an apple from the poor abused little thing. But it’s the last of T’s apple trees, and we’d both rather it stayed alive if possible.
I’m no horticulturalist, but doesn’t it take a mommy apple tree and a daddy apple tree (who of course love each other very much) to produce baby apples?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_tree_pollination
Heh. I’ve heard that, and other things as well. Dunno.
In high school it was referred to as “cross-pollination” . . . and we all snickered.
😉
Depends on what variety of apple it is. Some are self-pollinating. If you know the variety, type it in Google and you’ll learn more than you probably want to know about it. If it needs a companion to produce apples it may need a specific companion (some apples don’t care to cross pollinate each other), so you buy and plant one of those. Even if you don’t have apples, you’ll have shade.
1) Water
2) Mulch
3) Protection – done…
Don’t forget that there may soon be plenty of free fertilizer…
}:-]