This group was started in pots. I watered them as seedlings in the pots, watered them well when transplanted, then left them to their own devices.
Part of the problem I have is that there is very little shade. I have a couple pine trees, and other than that all the shade is along the edge of someone else’s property and regularly mowed/sprayed.
I’m going to have to make my own shade, which means trees.
Yes. I know that one, because the rest of the garden used to be a cow pastry. This summerwind just came in and blew it all dry dry dry. It’s better now the peach trees block wind.
I got thèm lined up quite close like every two feet. I’ll let the one grow high and keep the next one bushy, high, bushy etc. Chopping and dropping for building soil
I’ve planted a plum hedge right behind that hedge. When everything has taken, select for best growers, fruit etc.
I have mine set up in parallel rows where the south wind is partially blocked by the neighbors hedgerow and the north wind partially blocked by my house.
I am trying to select for, and eventually breed for, trees that grow in a bush form, as I think they will survive the high winds and animal pressure a little better.
The tree seedlings are in the main garden, rows 15 feet apart but the seedlings grow as close as they wish.
I may or may not have just planted twelve baby apple trees in my squash swales for exactly that “living shade cover” reason. 
In all seriousness, I realized that I want more apples than squashes anyway, so even if the squashes become less productive, it’s not an issue. And I suspect the squashes will probably be more productive, both because of the shade cover and because I’ll be more motivated to add compost to the area because I want my apple trees to thrive.
I planted in pots pretty covered place, but I suspect they suffer from drought and low quality soil. Grapes, apples, acorn, carob, very few survived.
Now I am trying more direct seed with the seeds that I got available and can spare them. I try to plant them next to trees, but the place that I want to enhance is very barren. Plowing every year has not helped at all.
I was in Spain, Benidorm area and saw people of a group reforesting.
They dug a hole of a meter round (3 fret) ans half a meter deep. Conic shaped. In thé center they planted. I guess all thé rainwater ran towards thé roots in winter. Leaves and débris gets blown in. They had plastic around thé trèes, for deer i guess. It was so full of little snails, just waiting for leafs. But they managed to grow them! They planted a hectare this year another hectare another.
Interesting, I plant my trees like that but I fill to the brim with dirt. Maybe they are protected from the wind too? And encourage growth with limiting sun exposure? You got more photos?
Which type of tree is that? Pine?
Here in Mallorca we have goats and rabbits. No deer or wild boar.
I hear you with drought and low-quality soil! I’ve been digging holes and filling them in with twigs and all my kitchen scraps, as a way to fix my barren soil. So far, I think it’s helping loads.
Here. I sée they even made a sloth in thé soil which will bring water to thé tree in case of a big rainevent.
Thanks for that. I found three wild pecan groves within driving distance, and one had both white oak and burr oak mixed in!
I now have a bag full of oak and pecan seeds for my food forest!
I have a question about some plum seeds and apple seeds I planted.
This is the first time I have planted tree seeds. I sprouted them in the fridge. I forgot about them and did not plant until July in small pots. I have kept them alive one is losing is leaves.
So when they go dormant, should I let the soil go dry or keep it moist. I don’t want to kill them from dehydration or rotting.
(The plums were small sized ones from Sprouts. The apple seeds I bought from J. Edmund -Skillcult.)
I would really like to know the answer to this, too.
My suspicion is that “moist, but not sodden” is a good idea. I tried germinating some goumi seeds in very wet mud in the fridge, and, well . . . they all rotted away. (Wry grin.)
My suspicion is also that probably you don’t want to let them go completely dry. They probably need a little bit of water, even while they’re asleep.
Maybe soil that is slightly moist to the touch on top, no more and no less?
It may also depend greatly based on species?
I would love advice from people who know what’s best from experience.
That’s delicate indeed…
Most of my trees are outside, apples, plums, peaches, ash, black locust. The ones inside, i divide them in no leafs and leafs.
The one that have no leafs , Anna Paulownia, is inactive, i believe too much water will hurt it. I’ve given it quite a bit before Christmas, it’s still very wet. I’m going to dry it out at room temperature and put it back in an unheated place. I’ll monitor how it ‘feels’ by looking at its bark and buds. And once it ‘feels’ thirsty, it will be less erect. You’ve just got to look like in zen mode, hard to explain and grows with experience.
But once it’s less happy, i’ll water it from the bottom, and that’s important. People just splatter water on the top soil making a marsh, just to be sure, but that’s wrong. Put it on a plate or something. Water the plate scarcely. If it soaks up to the top soil, let the top soil dry out again, before watering again. Wet top soil leads to mold. If the moisture is down there mostly, the tree will be happier.
Then there’s leafy trees, somebody gave me an Albizia, it’s keeping it’s foliage, it’s slowly still photosynthesising so need a bit more water than the Anna Paulownia.
And then, the smaller your tree is, the closer it’s leafs and main stem will be to the evil surface of the topsoil, the dryer it should be. But then the problem becomes, a small tree has tiny roots, so then it’ll be in a smaller container mostly and will completely dry out quicker, which also could be not good, especially if it’s still busy photosynthesizing. So then frequent monitoring becomes a thing, but if you put it somewhere way in the back, you might forget. It’s puzzling and moving pots at times.
But ideally we don’t do all this moddycoddling, just let them fend for themselves, obtain a zillion seeds and STUN the heck out of them. But when you only have a few seeds or limited money supply and when you’re growing trees outside their natural range of preferred climate, we need to be a bit more active to get them past their starts.
That’s true. If apples and stone fruits grow well in your area, you may be better off just direct sowing them.
I haven’t yet direct sown apple seeds on purpose, but . . . last year, I got hundreds of mystery seedlings happily growing out of my garden beds in spring, where I had buried all my kitchen scraps. Turns out they were all baby apple trees from my apple cores! Hundreds of them.
I wound up pulling them all out because they weren’t in places I wanted apple trees, and they weren’t from particularly delicious fruit I had chosen. But I made a mental note that I should definitely try direct sowing seeds from delicious fruits on purpose in the future.
Speaking of which, I just bought some apple seeds from Skillcult today . . .
Thank you! Last time I checked he was sold out. Going there now.
…minutes later… most are sold out, they go fast, but I got some.
Oh, I know! Apparently he opened for orders on apple seeds on January 7th. Almost everything was gone by the time I checked today.
But not everything! There were about ten types still available, so I got a few each from the seven types remaining that interest me.
I also saved seeds from some Opal apples I got at the grocery store which had great crispness and a strong banana candy aftertaste (yum!), so I have those to plant this year, too.
This year will be my second attempt and I will have more focus on the tree seedlings I plant this time, I neglected last year’s seedlings. I will keep a calendar reminder to take them out of the refrigerator and grow these in larger pots or in ground with the goal of grafting the apples to a 20 year old Anna apple tree and a Fuji apple tree. Last year’s are: William’s Pride x Pink Parfait, Rubyat and mixed early OP apples. The ones I just ordered for this year are: Wickson, Dutch Master x Golden Russet, King David Open Pollinated, November Blend- Open Pollinated and October Blend- Open Pollinated. Also date plum persimmon and another non-astringent persimmon - both from EFN.
If I have time the tree will turn into a Franken tree where I can easily try controlled cross pollination and repeat with grafts from the seedlings and prune off ones that are not to my liking.
Likewise with the stone fruit and persimmons.
Ohhhh! I just managed to get some of the open pollinated apple seeds. And even better, the store also still had those white breadseed poppy seeds in stock… I’ve been putting together the best mix of breadseed poppy seeds I could find to start a grex and those look like a great addition. I may have to put some in the seed swap box when I get it, tho… I have SO MANY poppy seeds now!
It’s the time of year when many of our grocery store apples have sprouting seeds inside when we cut them open, so we have some from a delicious Pink Lady and some Granny Smiths sprouting in pots on my seed shelves, and Honeycrisp seeds in bags almost ready to pot up. Since I already have 3 apple trees (4 if last year’s addition survives this deep cold snap) I’ll have plenty of opportunity to make some Franken-apple trees in coming years.
His breadseed poppy variety does look really awesome. The seed heads just stay closed, and you can store them on the stalk, and then shake out seeds like some kind of salt shaker when you need them? Neat!
Right? I think I have at least two that don’t form pores so far in my proto-grex… giant rattle and Hungarian Blue breadseed, which I’ve grown and saved seed from before. I’ll definitely be re-selecting for that trait if I cross in “normal” poppy seed for some color variety.
Back to the fruit tree topic, tho… apples are going to be a somewhat casual focus for me, but I realized I might also want to consider adding in some effort for my plums. I have a Santa Rosa that’s probably ready for a full crop this year (a cold snap hit us at flowering last year, but the three fruits that still set were lovely!) and a semi-dwarf Methley that’s still getting established. I probably have space to add in another small plum, and/or graft some fun genetics onto my Santa Rosa. I guess I should be on the lookout for some nice healthy plum trees locally…
