A GROWER'S EXPERIENCE WITH DWARF APPLE TREES IN MASSACHUSETTS 



Dominic A. Marini 

 Regional Agricultural Specialist, Southeast Extension Region 



There is much discussion about the practicality of apple trees on 

 EM IX rootstocks for commercial orchards. Advantages attributed to 

 dwarf trees are: earlier bearing, higher yields per acre, and ease of 

 pruning, spraying and harvesting. Few growers in New England have had 

 actual experience with dwarf trees, however. Deciding to find out for 

 themselves, the Morse family, operators of Pine Hedge Orchards in Wren- 

 tham, Massachusetts, established a planting of dwarf apple trees in 

 1961. Here is their experience to date. 



The Morses planted a one -acre block to Mcintosh, Cortland, Red 

 Delicious and Golden Delicious, all on EM IX rootstock. A planting dis- 

 tance of 8 feet X 12 feet was selected, requiring 4-53 trees for the 1 

 acre block. The trees are supported on trellises of 7-foot-long, pres- 

 sure-creosoted posts set 2 feet in the ground and spaced 2h feet apart. 

 Four number 9 galvanized wires stapled to the posts complete the trellis. 

 The. bottom wire is 2 feet above the ground, while the others are spaced 

 1 foot apart above it. The cost of establishing this acre of dwarf 

 trees was about $1,000 for trees, posts and wire, plus labor for which 

 they have no record. 



Eight limbs per tree are trained to the trellis -- 1+ on each side 

 of the main leader -- by twisting the limbs around the wire 1 or 2 turns. 

 Spring type clothes pins are used to hold the branches in place. Wire 

 "twistems" ^vere found unsatisfactory since they frequently girdled the 

 limbs, whereas the clothes pins expand as the limbs increase in circum- 

 ference. Brittleness of the graft roots is the main reason why good 

 support is essential for these trees. 



Sod is permitted to grow between the rows and the area in the tree 

 row is kept free of weeds by means of a Friday cultivator and the use 

 of herbicides. The weed-free tree rows aid the mouse control program, 

 which is critical, since mice are fond of these trees, and prevent weed 

 growth into the lower branches of the trees. 



The Morses used simazine to control weeds the first year after plant- 

 ing, but some of the trees were injured and about 3 trees died. (Insuf- 

 ficient agitation of the herbicide may account for part if not all of 

 this damage.) Following the elimination of the grasses and broadleaf 

 weeds with simazine, poison ivy flourished. At the sacrifice of 1-year' s 

 crop, amitrole was used to eradicate this obnoxious weed. In 1956, dal- 

 apon and 2-4 D (Dacamine M-D*) were used to control perennial grasses and 

 broadleaf weeds with good results and there was no apparent injury to 

 the trees. 



The fertilizer program for the orchard has been horse manure supple- 

 mented with commercial fertilizer. 



