It helps if you wait until they are ripe and ready to drop off the tree...otherwise they will be bitter and/or sour tasting. The best way to improve the trees is through pruning and the best way to start new ones is with some cow manure buried an inch or so....or even better, start them in a bucket so you can protect them and plant them in the fall or early spring. Some of the best apples I have ever eaten have come from trees in the middle of the woods that were most likely started from European seeds brought over by the settlers. Good luck.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I appreciate the comment. I will definitely try planting a few. They are dropping fast now and I am having a hard time keeping up with the deer that are hitting the best tasting apples as quickly as they hit the ground. Not sure if they are selecting them or if it is just that they are hitting all the apples. But, in order to get any of the best ones, I will have to get up into the trees somehow. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe I can't even reproduce those better trees from seed. Much to learn here. Have a great day.

I decided that fruit trees would be the least time intensive food plot years ago. I’ve planted well over 200. I fenced each one to protect them from young bucks sparing matches. I bought each tree from lots of outlets. I’ve got a water trailer with a pump that I pull around every 10 days to water the trees that are less than 18 months in place. Yes, that’s a pain in the back side but I’ve decreased my losses substantially! I’ve been doing this for 5 years. FYI, wild apples or wild pears of standard size grown from seeds need 6-10 years minimum before seeing any fruit.

@usernamehere6061

11 ай бұрын

Least intensive?

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I am sure that many of the smaller trees here are at least that old, but have been browsed down by the cows for so long they are just bushes. I need to figure out a way to turn them into trees! I agree, once established, apple trees produce a very significant food source that the deer will focus on each year in the early fall. I can't wait to see how they respond to all these apples now that the cows are gone.

That's exciting for you Bill. I'll enjoy watching how you manage and hunt the apple orchard in the seasons ahead.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

It will be interesting to see how the deer relate to the apple trees. With so many there and so many years of use, it may not be a big deal to the deer. I suspect they hit them in passing, but I will be interested to see if the apple trees are primary food source. I tend to doubt it - but we will see. Have a great day.

This a so cool to see. I have discovered the same thing on our property. We only own 6 acrees. We now have hundreds of wild apple and American plum growing in our abandoned pasture.

I had found one smack dab in the middle of a bunch of smaller walnut trees last year. Didn’t look to be anything special but I cut maybe 10 walnuts down around it and cleaned up. That same apple tree this year is beautiful and just full. Great episode. Thanks Bill and Jordan for your editing 👍

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Shane. That's exactly what I need to do on all these apple trees here. Will be tons of work but I think it will really make the farm more attractive and productive.

Thanks for sharing, Bill. I agree with the more sustainable "food plots" and only planting once. Been trying that with various oaks and hybrid chestnuts on my property. Also, I always appreciate your subtle humor while.taste-testing haha. New idea for a show, "Tasting Deer Food w/ Bill Winke" 😁

Love the episodes. Thanks for producing nice easy informational content.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it.

This is a very good topic to continue to investigate and follow up on. There's wild apples and pears and persimmons possibly growing on all the properties we hunt so understanding how we can help them thrive and multiply will be a valuable benefit.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, so true. I am hearing from a lot of people now that have found wild apples and other fruit on their properties wondering how to manage them. My next step is to find someone who is a true expert and pick their brain. My guess that through a system of grafting and pruning, these trees can become something really special. Have a great day.

I’d like to come up for the apple tasting! That’s awesome you have all those apple trees on the dream farm Bill. Cool episode.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Thanks Eric. It will be interesting to see what we can turn them into over time. Hopefully the small ones that are only a few feet tall can find a path upward. Right now they are just bushes because of how the cows browsed them down. If they are all start to produce a central leader, there will be many hundreds of productive apple trees here some day.

Good topic Bill! I'm lucky enough to have a similar situation, I have a few hundred apple trees on my property (if not more) and this summer I was wondering the same thing about food plots vs apple orchards. I have four legacy orchards that I know of with 10-50 old trees that I've started pruning and bringing back to life along with hundreds of wild trees, and we are slowly sorting through and discovering which ones are edible and preservable. Long term, after we identify which ones are the best, I will be focusing on making them super productive and planning my hunting spots around them.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

That is what I am going to do, but these are all wild trees, I think. Possibly a few old homestead trees that started the rest. I am going to let nature run its course on growing the smaller ones, but I am going to prune and release the bigger ones to see how much more productive they become. Some of these are full sized trees, 30 feet tall and I don't see a good way to prune those! Possibly with a pole saw. Will be interesting. I am also going to plant a few apple halves to see if they will grow naturally. I understand it takes a long time to establish a viable tree from seeds, but now is a great time to start.

Best of Luck to you and your daughter Bill, I appreciate your show alot

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks Ralph. Much appreciated. Good luck to you too.

Bill, this is a topic that I have been working on at my property also. I did not get through all of the other comments to know if anyone else has brought this up, and I know the cheaper route is to plant wild trees, but this leaves things very unpredictable for the outcome for a true hunting perspective. One very fun thing to look in to for your property or anyone else hunting over apple orchards is to look at ripening dates of apples. For your property you could look at which trees are dropping at which time of the year and have treestands near those. Otherwise you could look at grafting your own on like the B.118 or M.111 and put some early ripening apple varieties (august) mid ripening (sept-early oct) and late ripening (Late oct). With the different varieties your are able to control when the apples fall on the ground for you to hunt near.

Great information Bill! I can’t believe all the apple trees on your property! Great video! Oh and how many acres is your farm! Mine is only 40 acres and I am doing something all the time I am getting to the age (69) that I enjoy doing all the projects on the farm more than the hunting! Thanks for all the great videos you post on You Tube!

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment. We have 625 acres, so there is are way more projects than I have time for. I can't micro-manage anything. Whatever I do needs to be something I can do at a larger scale. That is why I can't cage trees. It would bankrupt me and drive me crazy keeping up with it. I need to create so many trees (oak, apple, plum, whatever) that the deer don't eat it all in the spring each year and the trees/shrubs can keep getting bigger. In the process, I need to keep my deer numbers down so all this stuff can grow and establish. Have a great day.

I cant wait to see if you can plant them by just dropping them in the ground. I found one large wild apple tree in a patch of woods on our ground but it wasn't producing so i pruned it back some and this year its loaded. I am hoping to replant with some of the seeds because the apples taste pretty good and because you dont find many full size apple trees for sale anymore and if you do they are usually pretty pricey. I've been watching and learning from you for years and i appreciate all your help.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I am going to give it a try just to see what happens - if they will even germinate and sprout. I have decided to cut the apples in half and plant them about three inches deep. I will let everyone know how/if it works. Have a great day.

Great topic keep updates on these please everyone loves these topics

@bill-winke

6 ай бұрын

Thanks Jarrod. I will keep everyone updated on this. Have a great day.

Bill, I have a American Chestnut in my yard and I've started to rake up everything that falls off that tree, put it all in my loader which is several loads and simply dumping it where I want them to grow. Then, I stake and wrap fence around it as if I'd just planted an immature tree. It's working. I've done this 3 years now and I plan on continuing this trend with my up and coming apple trees. The only trees I need to plant now are Persimmons.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

That is a really cool way to keep them spreading. I am going to try it with the apples, but I think I will actually bury them so I don't have to fence them, at least for now. Good input.

Bill, as a bowhunter and apple orchard owner this video definitely caught my attention. Just keep in mind that once you remove the multiflora and canopy to release the young trees, the deer will heavily browse the buds in the winter and the trees will produce a ton of suckers. Also to get great apple quality, the trees will need to be heavily pruned at least once and mayb twice a year! Crab apples are usually quite resistant to pests and fungus but if your looking for something more edible, look for the newee disease resistant strains. Also keep them away from cedar trees! Keep the great content coming.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

That is great information Dan. I am wondering what those small "apple bushes" will turn into now that the cows are out. Will they produce a central leader? I am sure they will keep growing out until I prune them and then they will be easy targets for the deer. Not sure how to manage the little guys. I am good with releasing and pruning the larger trees, but what to do with hundreds of three foot tall apple bushes is the big question.

@dannjohnsonZ28

10 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke That's a tough one. I have semi dwarfs and we do major pruning (remove 25% of tree) in the late winter to promote "scaffolds" of fruit bearing branches and prevent the tree from getting too tall and bushy. Then we prune again late summer to remove suckers and promote sunlight and airflow to the apples. If you remove the top of the tree, the highest branch will become the new central leader. But it's a double edged sword because now you need to continue pruning every year. If you don't prune you'll have a bushier tree with a rounder shape, more vegetation and smaller apples. In your case it seems to defeat the purpose to prune all of those trees every year. The deer also benefit from all that browse over winter, but it can kill young trees if you only have a few. Since you have so many, maybe your best bet is to give them sun and space but not to prune. Then select one or two choice trees to try pruning and observe your results. I'm curious to see how it goes for you! I've been reading your articles since i was a teen so I'm thrilled to offer my input. Thanks Bill.

This will be an interesting experiment on if you can get them to grow easily and how it affects the deer herd. Thanks for the information.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Agreed. Much to learn here, but a huge opportunity to really transform this farm into something special. Have a great day.

I am VERY intrigued by this. We have this kind of thing going on with native persimmon trees here in SE Kansas, but a large number of them are male trees that have to be grafted in order to produce. I'll be looking forward to what you find out; I've never heard of this happening on the level you're experiencing. I might not pay for an apple tasting tour, but I might pay you a little $$ for some of those sweet apple seeds you got there! 🙂

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Thanks User. We are going to figure out how to do some grafting too. I need a lot more expertise to really figure this one out. The more I look, the more trees I find. I bet there are more than 1,000 trees if you count the ones that are a couple feet tall. I need to get a real expert to tell me how to manage those little trees that have been shrubbed off by cattle browsing. I am not sure I can just let them go and expect them to find their own central leader or if I try to create one through pruning. Would take years to get to them all. I bet there aren't many people that have dealt with this in the past. Maybe I will sell a few seeds at some point. I have so many other projects on my list that I can't take time out to even think about that one. Have a great day.

The better ones looked more like honeycrisp the best tasting to me. I tried to grow from seeds last couple years but failed to get them past 8-12 months after germination. That’s cool as heck Bill! We can’t keep black bears out of our pear and apple trees in VA. The Dr Deer pear trees are pretty resilient and hardy for us. We also have a couple pear trees that are absolutely huge height wise at an old homeplace on our property. Not sure what they are but they taste great.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Brad, thanks for the comment. I think the wild trees have an edge over the stuff we plant because their root system is already established and resilient enough to survive. I think I will do all I can to get as many little trees established here as possible and then come up with a system for grafting branches from better tasting apple trees into them. Should be really cool, but very time consuming. Have a great day.

I laughed when you spit out the apple. I thought the video might take a twist and it be all about you spitting out apples at different locations. Seriously, another great video.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

That one was terrible. The rest were at least edible. It was fun to make that one - got a free meal out of the deal too. Have a great day.

What an awesome video, I am from Hawaii. We don't have apple trees. So this is so neat for me. Thanks for the video

@bill-winke

2 ай бұрын

Thanks Robert. We appreciate the comment. Have a great day down there in sunny Hawaii.

Find you favorite trees, best tasting and producing year in and year out that drop during hunting season. Then get the root stock of choice, I would use the ones you said in the video is what I use in Illinois (midsize tree with great roots) Clip this years growth and graft away. Great winter project!!!

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Sean. That is a good project. The other option is to find the established trees with bad apples and graft good wood from preferred trees onto those. I bet that would produce apples very quickly. Have a great day.

Can’t beat that. I’ve been starting apple seedlings from apple seeds for years. You get all kinds of variety and deer love them.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, that is the plan. I am going to plant a bunch and see what nature can do without much help from me. I can do a wide area that way and hopefully by virtue of the numbers alone, I hope to end up with something. Thanks for the input and hope you have a great day.

@tommyhunter1817

11 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke you bet, Bill. One other thing I have done is I have grafted known varieties to some and gotten really good results. Just for fun you could do that with some of the small ones that you already have.

You're extremely lucky to have those apple trees.. I rented an old Homestead With50 year old Apple trees on it trim them up and put Jobes fertilizer spikes around them and they produced big time.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

That is great advice. I will start finding all the ways possible (including bringing in honey bee hives) to make these more productive. It is such a no-brainer compared to the time and cost of planting food plots. I will still do both, but the apples would be an awesome way to take pressure off the food plots at certain times of the year. Have a great day.

I have many, I’ve thinned them out a bit over the years, they’ve been a real magnet early season.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Good information. I will do some pruning late winter/early spring, and see where it goes from there.

There a standard seedling. On the smaller ones you can put old hay or straw on in the fall, winter early spring and mulch them 4 to 6 inches deep. I have killed a couple wild apples with round up by hitting a root suckers with spray or drift. Mowing and mulching seems to work best. More of those apples are edible than you would think. Excellent cider and baking probably. Also fall application of lime gypsum and a high p&k fertilizer will get those going well. Or foliar fertilizer.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

All great advice. Thanks Travis. I appreciate it.

Bareroot seedlings and 5ft protective tree tubes is a great way to start your own project. I purchased 300 "bird berry" trees mix from MN State Nursery years ago. I think out of the 60 I planted on my current property about 20% made it to year 10.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Great advice. Thanks Dean. We appreciate the support and the advice. Have a great day.

great clip Bill ! I think Jordan should help with taste testing ! HAHAHA

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I think so too. We need to grab some apples from that good tree and make a pie! Have a great day and thanks for the support and comment.

Great video.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Thanks Jake. Much appreciated. Have a great day.

John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) planted seeds for apples mostly for cider .Most of your trees would be seedlings from seed pooped out by critters .Some winter pruning would give you fewer apples and likely larger apples .Good sunlight is the key in addition to protecting them from deer .I like Plantra tree protectors .I have seedling apples that tasted great .Get seeds from your apples and stratify in your fridge then plant in pots.I suggest Rootmaker pots for great roots .I have hundreds of fruit trees in my food plots .I collect scion from my trees and graft onto rootstock .150 this year .I had about 80% on pears and 75% on apples make it and will take those that did not make it and graft those again this coming spring .

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

That is an awesome plan. I will do more pruning and some grafting this winter/spring. My only concession might be to just try planting apples into the ground (half or 1/4 apples) and see if anything grows. That would save me a ton of time vs stratifying in the fridge and planting small seedlings. Maybe my approach won't work, but it is worth finding out since it would save me a lot of time and allow me to plant many times more seeds per year. I have a lot of open acres! Good luck and thanks for the comment and support.

I’ve just noticed the last month or so I’ve got a ton of small crab apple trees right beside the house in a brushy patch I have. Going to clean out around them and try to get them really going next spring

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I bet they really take off when you release them. If they are big enough, consider pruning them. I have seen that my domestic apple trees do the best when I keep them pruned. I am going to prune a bunch of these wild trees this coming late winter. Good luck.

I've been taking seeds from grocery store apples and placing them on moist paper towels and then placing that in a Ziploc bag. I lay the bag on top of the refrigerator and in no time I have roots growing out of the seeds. I transplant them into cardboard orange juice containers. After two years I plant them on my farm. On thing is for certain... you won't replicate the mother tree. Only grafting/cloning the mother gives you the same fruit as the mother tree. Many of the apples I get are excellent. You better place a welded wire fence material around your trees or the deer will eat your apple trees to the ground. Without the fencing your trees will never make it to maturity and never produce apples. Bucks love to rub on apple trees. I plant one of these apple trees near each of my deer stands. When they are large enough I graft scions from my favorite apple trees onto these trees. I have some apple trees that have ten different varieties growing on a single tree. I pay attention to the maturation dates and strategically graft varieties each with a different maturation date onto a single tree. My first ripe apples are ready to eat mid August, the next variety matures early Sept, then early Oct, mid Oct and so on and so on... I have found some varieties that mature as late as December. Nice caring for one tree that gives a steady yield from mid August until December vs having ten trees to manage. Hope that all makes sense? Fun hobby.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks Harley. I need a way to turn this into a business so I can afford to hire someone to just manage all my apple trees. I had a fellow from Kansas reach out to me who operates an orchard and he said there is a very high demand for wild grown apple trees. Maybe I am on to something here. Would be a really cool way to produce income on an otherwise non-cash flowing investment! I will definitely look into it, but how much would someone pay for a wild tree with three varieties of good apples grafted in? Maybe I need to find out! Great comment.

@harleytrumbo633

10 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke Bill, You are much better at marketing than I am. All my effort is into making my farm a deer mecca. Can't imagine myself with spare time to actually make money doing what I love. Hope you are able to make your apple trees profitable. I got into grafting about a decade ago. I hate the "sissy" trees that are offered at Walmart and such. I want trees that don't need all the special sprays because they are sensitive to every disease and every fungus. For example... I saw a giant apple tree on a farmer's property. I stopped in and asked asked about his unusually large tree that was laden with apples. He said he doesn't prune it, spray it or do anything to it. That is exactly what I'm looking for... trees that need little to no care. He estimated that tree to be 80yrs old! I asked if I could take some scions off of it. I was able to successfully graft it onto some of my rootstock and also onto some of my established trees. A couple years later I revisited his farm. This time I was bearing gifts. I had brought him new trees that I had replicated from his mother tree. He was excited to receive them and I also planted the new trees for him. I have lots of "no name" fruit trees that are tasty and prolific and resistant to almost everything. I now have a pear tree that produces individual pears that weigh a pound each! If I could be any kind of useful resource to you with your new endeavor I'd be happy to help out. I'm not great at tech stuff but I do have grandkids that are happy to show me what a technological cave man I am. I'm guessing you have my email? Email me if you think I can assist. I watch your episodes because you help me with the "poor man" approach to improving my deer property. Thanks for being a great resource to me. Hope I can return the favor. Harley

Great topic Bill. My lease has a ton of wild apples too, I've wondered if there were things I could do, pruning or maybe fertilizing, pesticide maybe?

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Probably all three. My guess, once I get this figured out, is that I will learn that what the commercial growers do to increase yield is exactly what we need to do to improve yield on these wild trees.

Take a look at info related to Hawthorn apples. Wild, hundreds of varieties the ones I have around have thorns on the trunk shoots. They hang forever. Great spot to be near in late late season.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Very good information Kevin. I will check it out. Have a great day.

Great year for Apples especially here in the northeast

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

The trees here are loaded.

The cows likely kept the grass low and allowed for the seedling to make it past the first two growing seasons without being out competed would be my guess. I have wild apples the county extension sold, apples from seeds I've saved and planted (save the seeds, keep them dry and in a refrigerator, plant in the fall so they stratify), and B118 rootstock with enough varieties that I'll have apples most of hunting season when they get to maturity. With a couple exceptions, they all grow. 25 feet of six-foot 14 or 16 gauge wire fence and three fence posts works well to protect them. Add a tube if you plan on spraying herbicides nearby.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

It is definitely a labor intensive project to get them established, but once the trees are big, they really pay off - still need to prune a bit, but overall, they are pretty easy to manage (in my experience) once they get ahead of the deer. Good luck and thanks for the comment.

Winke's Famous Hard Cider, coming to a store near you. I have Apples Pears and Persimmon on my farm, the deer seem to like the fruit based on texture. The super soft Persimmon and Pears are the trees that get the most use, then harder fruits later. Wasps love the sweet pears. And you can hear the deer eating the pears as they blow (like a snort sound but quieter) to blow the wasps off then eat the pear. To me watching the does and yearlings it looks like they are blowing through the nose to do this not the mouth.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I like the sound of that. Yes, I am sure they are blowing through their noses. I am not sure they can blow through their mouths. I have never seen a deer do that. It is a very interesting project. Good for you.

excellent topic

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks Rob. We will keep touching on this. I think there is something here for anyone with land. I need to learn more though. Have a great day.

Prescription fire early in the spring, when the multifloral rose starts to leaf-out and the fruit trees are still dormant, seems to really knock back the multifloral rose and in some cases even terminate it. I have done this in my fields a couple times and it has not harmed our apple trees. Might be an option to help free up some of your trees.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Good tip. I will need to test a small area first as I have lots of apple trees coming up that are only about a foot tall and I would need to know that fire won't kill them. Otherwise, lots of hand labor pulling the MFR out from the roots. There are tools made for this (sort of like pry bars) and I may need to invest in a few of those. Have a great day.

That's a lot of apple trees! They will be great for all wildlife from bees and game birds to deer and if you ever get bear in Iowa. My wild apple trees attract everything and its fun to watch baby bobcats run up and down them.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Very cool. Yes, I plan to make the most of these by learning as much as I can about managing wild apple trees. Have a great day.

Seems to have been a great year for apples in the midwest even with the drought. Seems our bugs have been fewer than normal and no cedar rust this year.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

That is good news. The cedar rust hammered my apple trees in southern Iowa every year, but here there are way less cedar trees and these trees seem to be in really good shape, all things considered. Will be interesting to see how the deer use them this year.

My place is the same with wild apples, especially where the cows used to roam. In my observations the deer prefer the softer apples like the ones in my yard that are ancient. Most of my apples fall in late summer so are not good for hunting season. Have a couple crabapple that hold until November and have been trying to keep the competition away from them. I’m in Pa.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I am going to look into grafting a few branches on the best host trees to see if I can get a few more apples dropping later. I will know more about these trees as I watch them for the next month as I check cameras. I should have an idea which ones hold longer, etc. Have a great day and good luck.

Bill, Small world…. I know Eli Cook…he is my brother’s neighbor in Eastern WV and a very successful Orchard and produce/veggie grower. I’ve enjoyed talking hunting with Eli as well.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Eli is one of the most knowledgeable and successful apple growers I have ever met. Not sure how big his orchard is, but I think it is huge. He really helped me a lot back in the southern Iowa days.

I would be highly interested to see yearly updates and work updates on this area

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

George, we will keep them coming. Thanks for watching.

You are lucky to have that many apple trees established on your farm. Would require a lot of planting and exclusion cages to establish that on another farm

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Very lucky Melissa. It is one of the most interesting features of this farm.

The government gave away heritage apple trees in the 30s and 40s to farms. Per a comment below, yes, they’re more edible that you might think. There’s some fantastic varieties for sale now that will bear in 4-5 years, good for deer, pollinators, and people. Liberty, as you mentioned, is really good one.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I think if I go ahead and plant "people" apples it will be Liberty and Enterprise. I am going to hold off on that for now and see what I can do with these wild apples first. I know some of them are really tasty and if I prune and release them, they should do even better.

Sure would be nice to have some of those seeds to plant!

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I will see if they even make trees. We are going to cut them in half today and plant apples today. I think we will have enough for about 150 plantings. I am going to mark them with flags so I know where they went in. Will be interesting to see if anything grows in those spots next year. Good luck.

Bill I'm jealous, I love your farm. Great videos

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks Fred. The more work I do on it, the more I like it too - even if the deer don't respond! Next step is to get honey bee hives established in those apple areas to improve pollination.

I have a giant, old apple tree and I’ve never seen a deer eat one off the tree but they sure love them when they drop and start to break down. Raccoons and opossums seem to eat more of them then the deer, though. Apples don’t grow true to seed. It’s sort a crap shoot as to what you get. It’s sort of fun to plant, wait and then see what the outcome is. It takes a lot of time but if you start planting them everywhere you can always just cut down the nasty ones (in 5-10 years haha) if there are too many for the deer to eat.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Agree. I am seeing the deer checking all the trees that are dropping each day. It is pretty cool to see how they make the rounds. I will hunt over some of them assuming they are still holding into October. Good luck.

I recommend Enterprise and Liberty also due to disease resistance and drop time (during deer season). I recommend AGAINST B118 as they tend to lean over time.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Interesting. Eli was adamant that B118 was the hardiest root stock for Midwest plantings. Thanks for the input. What rootstock do you recommend?

@craigkowalczyk3516

11 ай бұрын

Eli is spot on with the rootstock you mentioned. I have a dozen trees planted in my 2.5 acre plot. Planted them four years ago at a height of 4-5’. Now they are upwards of 15’. Enterprise, liberty, and a variety of crab apples. What do they say the best time to plant a tree is yesterday

@rnr4204

11 ай бұрын

Question: will the leaning stop at some point or will they continue to get worse? I planted an apple tree in my yard 5-6 years ago and it keeps leaning more and more. I finally put a ratchet strap on it to try and get it straightened out. It’s probably leaning 25-30 degrees. I have no clue what kind of root stock it was.

Slash and kill the multi flower rose but don’t remove. Just let it die around the tree. That will help keep deer off them. Mainly from rubbing them and gurgling them.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I am afraid my method to kill them will also kill the tree - herbicide, for example. Even Garlon on the cut MFR would be a potential issue to the apple tree. My best bet, I think, is to just pull the MFR from around each tree. Not sure yet.

@danhoff4401

11 ай бұрын

​@@bill-winkeglyphosate at 50:50 as a cut stump may work for you. Garlon and imazypyr are both pretty bad about translocation but gly typically binds to soil particles. Might consult with a chemical guy, they might have more effective option.

Bill, you should buy some Scionwood and graft late dropping apple trees to the established wild apple rootstock

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Logan, that is very good advice. I will definitely start looking into that. Have a great day.

On some of the smaller ones that could bear browse pressure you could use a tree spade and transplant them

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Very good point. I have rented them before, but I bet the ones you attach to a skid steer would be much more maneuverable. The one I used you pulled behind truck or tractor and that would be tough in that area.

I plant 10, three to four yr old apple trees every year on my farm. I’m well over 70 apple trees with several different varieties in my orchard now. I’ve got more $ into cages/stakes to protect the trees than the trees themselves. The deer hammer my trees when they blossom, and in the winter when snow gets deep they’ll step right over the cages and eat the tree.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I am sure that is really rewarding and very productive. I hate the idea of having to cage/tube all these little wild trees so I am hoping that I can keep the deer numbers down and produce enough other food that they let them grow. Time will tell.

@kenebarb5377

3 ай бұрын

Eat the deer

We have the same thing going on our farm. The deer just like humans will tend to go to sweeter apples. But the young apple trees make good browse.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks Craig. That is what worries me. I need the keep the deer density low enough that they don't have to eat the little trees. Right now, they don't seem to be, but there aren't a ton of deer and lots of food. The cows were the real culprits in that old pasture. They hammered those little apple trees and turned them into bushes instead of trees. Have a great day.

I hate to ask it Bill, but how was your belly ache after this video? Lol - those first green ones are the ones we have here in western NY growing wild and the deer HAMMER them, they are bitter and bland all at once. I need to get more of them going like this and one of the big things is with that many trees together, is they will pollinate more easily, especially with bees in the area.

Always thought about planting apple trees on my little 26 acre property, but never tried. I do have hundreds of red and white oaks trees that the deer love.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Apples are high maintenance at first but once established are awesome. Plus, they taste good if you get a good variety. I am trying to get around the high maintenance part by over saturating the area with wild apples in the hopes that some naturally make it through.

@trumanwitt5526

11 ай бұрын

I’d opt for pears. They bear fruit heavily with less maintenance. And they don’t drop fruit till late in the season.

Looks awesome in August. What's it look like in January? I'd really like to know, because I'm considering doing this.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I will definitely let you know. We did get around yesterday to look at some of the trees. The ones that are dropping are definitely drawing the deer like crazy right now. I am guessing that I will eventually need to figure out how to graft in a few branches on each of the bigger trees so I have apples dropping later in the season too. Will be interesting to see how these trees play out through the fall. Have a great day.

Bill, I've found apple trees have been better for buck inventory than mineral sites. They seem to hit them more often and throughout the season. The one around the 14 minute mark (dark red) would be a great camera location.The white flesh and soft texture make me think it may be McIntosh. I'd bet they'd scrape under those low hanging branches as well.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Great tip. I will hang a camera there. One of the mixed blessings of having so many apple trees and a moderate number of deer is that the deer have lots of options. They don't have to concentrate around specific trees. I need to pay attention to see which ones they like the best. Thanks for the comment and input.

@HarvestOutdoors

11 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke I like that one, in particular, because it seemed like it was a larger, stand alone, tree in the open. On years when apples are heavy, you'll find some trees dropping fruit in July to alleviate stress. Even though you don't hang cameras then, these are also great summer inventory spots.

Crabapples were about the only kind that will grow and produce fruit here in the subtropic zone I live in. They make great jelly, as do mayhaws.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Thanks William. I have no idea what any of these are. A very wide variety. I will learn as much as I can here though. Very interesting topic.

I love the soft mast but it’s gone so early in the season, have to plant varieties that drop later and later to keep it going

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

That is a great point Steve. I will do more research and figure out the best way to do that. Might even include grafting some of the branches from the late dropping trees into the ones that drop early so each of the biggest trees produces both early and late. Have a great day.

we have lots of wild pear trees here in the flint hills of kansas

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Robert, wild pears are really good too. My farm in southern Iowa had those and the deer really hit them hard when they were falling. Good luck.

Invest in a small auger that fits into a cordless drill to plant those small trees and apples

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, that would be really fast. But as shallow as we are going to plant these (probably just a couple of inches since there is no root) we can do it really quick with with a spade. We do have to plant another 1,000 shrubs/trees (wild plum, chokecherry, ninebark) next spring and I will definitely use your approach then as we have to go deep enough to plant the root. Have a great day.

Check out Shihata's apple Orchard on the other side of the river from you on hwy 35 just north of Prairie Du Chein, WI. They make a killing every fall. The owner is a cool bowhunter too. 🍎

@paulbernitt4280

11 ай бұрын

I'm sure the owner would give you some apple growing tips.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I will definitely look them up. I think wild grown apples would be a really cool thing to sell too. If we ever get that far. Dream Big! Have a great day and thanks for the comment.

I’m trying this also. Planted 15 and put up flags so I know if they grow come spring

@bill-winke

8 ай бұрын

Will be interesting to see if they come up. I planted about 50 to 60 "hills" this past summer. I can't wait to check them this summer. If they are coming up, I will spray each spot with clethodim to kill the grass and give them a better chance to survive.

Topworking/grafting would make an interesting video, converting some of these to a known variety

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I did a video on this with Iowa forester Jesse Randall a few years ago. I will bring up that footage and create another episode on grafting. It is a pretty cool, but not overly difficult process.

I have access to an unused, overgrown cattle pasture that is also full of apple trees. That overgrown pasture holds some big deer every year, now that the cattle are no longer in it. Very neat spots.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Agree. Will be interesting to see how the deer relate to this area since this is the first year in decades with no cows in that area.

By far the most bang for your buck is fruit and nut trees. Most guys would end up divorced if they actually kept track of how much money they spent on food plots. Some nurseries advertise their drop times and will help you build an order that can either concentrate deer during a certain window or create a season long draw. Chestnuts are highly underrated, and dont forget about hickory and walnut for squirrels and small game hunting hot spots. Soft mast like shrubs provide browse and a key food source for quail, turkey and grouse headed into winter. State amd federal grant programs are available to offset costs in some areas, it's worth looking onto what hoops you would have to jump through to qualify for those programs.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Dan, all good information. I think people would be shocked how much money got dumped into those federal programs by the current administration. We are figuring out ways to pull some of it out on our farm, but adding the fruit tree and chestnut restoration would seem a very popular plan for these programs. I am going to get as many chestnut trees going on the farm as I can this coming year too. Have a great day.

Looks like you have another diamond in the rough Bill! What's your strategy if you had to guess, thin out trees and pull the green ones out when reds are nearby or is it tbd? Pruned some apple trees last winter for a friend and they exploded this year!

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I think it is TBD at this point. I will plant a few more from seed to see if that works and then just see what nature does for a couple of years. My concern is that those "apple bushes" won't actually turn into trees. Many of the small apple trees were munched down by the cows to the point where they are now just bushes - growing out instead of up. I may have to aggressively prune some of those little ones to get them to produce a central leader. Will be interesting to see if that is possible given that a single leader would be pretty easy for a deer to eat. I don't want to cage or tube these if I can help it, so there is much to learn here. I will definitely release and start to prune the more mature ones. I don't think I will cut down any apple trees. We will see.

@alexpinnow6509

10 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke appreciate the reply Bill! Sounds like a good problem to have, and once you figure out a strategy you can scale up with the interns!!

good spot to hang a trail camera Bill

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

For sure Jason. Looking forward to seeing how the deer use the apples now that the cows are gone.

Under each tree will be small trees starting. You can transplant those.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Yes, good point. I will take a look for them. Have a great day and thanks for the input and support.

Do you have a trail cams on any of the trails to the apple trees? You may have more deer than you think on your farm and they may not leave that area at all. You might be missing out on some big bucks with a sweet tooth.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I need to do something like that, but we literally have apple trees spread out along nearly a mile (or more) of woods edge. I am sure the deer just come out all over the place. Literally hundreds of mature trees and maybe thousands of immature ones in that band of old pasture. Will be interesting to see what I learn this year and what this place looks like in ten years. Have a great day.

With as many apple trees you have. Do you think it will be a late season draw as well?

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I sure hope so. I will learn so much because that area was full of cows last year through most of the fall. Will be really interesting to see how the deer relate to all these apples. I am sure in the past the cows ate many of them as soon as they fell - I know they did.

Awesome video, only you can make an episode about apples interesting lol

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Thanks Brian. That was a fun one to create. I really had a blast going around and checking the various trees.

Bill you should graft different types of crab apples to your young trees. That way they can ripen and drop at different times rather than all the same apples dropping at once.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

That is really good advice. I will definitely start looking into that option. Have a great day.

I live in SE MN and would love to plant one of those young wild apple trees in the middle of my food plot. You have any you could spare Bill? 😁

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I have hundreds I could spare! I don't know much about them, such as how quickly they produce, etc. You may be well ahead to buy a cultivated tree from the nursery that is an established variety that you know will produce good fruit very quickly. Definitely an asset to any food plot. Good luck.

Bill, I have 22 apple and 2 pear trees here on my 1 acre in CT. I belong to a facebook site called backyard apple growers. Any question you could possibly think of can be answered by the members of that site. I've been using apples instead of commercial products to inventory deer on my place and both of my sons properties for years.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Mike, that sounds great. I appreciate it. I want to maximize all these trees. There could literally be 1,000 or more of them here if you count everything that is a foot tall and up. Have a great day.

I’m curious to know what kind they are

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I would have to have an apple expert here to look at them. The wild apples seem to produce a wide variety of types when they grow from seed.

Can you transplant some of the smaller ones ?

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I think I will pick a bunch, cut them into quarters to expose the seeds better and then plant them shallow into the ground, about an inch to two inches deep.

so your just going to dig holes and plop whole apples in them and see if they grow? How deep are you planning on planting them? I just literally stumbled across 8 apple trees on the farm I hunt. Put a camera on the 2 main ones and have had hundreds of pictuers a night on that camera ever since

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Matt, I think I will quarter the apples or cut them in half. Haven't decided which. I want to expose the seeds a bit more. Then plant them about two inches down, roughly. I will do some more research, but that is the basic plan for this year. My plan may evolve over time.

Those cows have inoculated all those little trees through their GI cycle. They did the same thing with persimmons on our property

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

It will be interesting to see how many more little trees sprout up now. I am sure there are some dormant seeds in the ground ready to sprout from last year's cow pies! Have a great day.

If it from the cows y is there just wild apple trees. I'm hoping to purchase apple trees next year to plant.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I am pretty sure these are all just wild trees. I may get branches from preferred eating apple trees and graft into these trees to get some apples that we would like to eat. Would be way quicker than planting new trees. Also good luck with your planting. In my experience they are hard to establish without lots of care but once growing they are very hardy. Good luck.

Those look like Fuji apples!

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Could well be. I have learned that you can get a wide variety of final product from wild apples. Their root stock can be just about anything. All I know is that it was a really tasty apple!

Did I just watch Bill drive around and taste apples for fifteen minutes? Yes. Yes, I did.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

You must really be bored! Thanks for the support.

I want some of those apple seeds. Please tell me if you would be willing to share some. I have been planting apple trees on my new property for deer.

@rnr4204

11 ай бұрын

Apples don’t grow true from seed(anatovka apples are an exception). Just go buy some apples at the store and use those. Apples are really easy to grow from seed.

Cut the apples in half when planting. Just a thought

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, that is what I was thinking too. Half or quarter. Thanks for the input and have a great day.

What a great problem to have. 😊

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, it will be really cool to see where this leads. Have a great day.

“No good no more” 😂

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

Some of them were really soft and you knew immediately that they weren't worth swallowing!

Aside from the exorbitant amount of money, I’d volunteer as a wine and apple taster! Trying to DREAM BIG!!

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

I think this will turn into something. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with all these trees. I bet 10 years from now that old open pasture on the top will all be holding apple trees. Will really be something to see - something to be proud of as a legacy. Have a great day.

@jacksontrumper5012

11 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke thanks for the videos Bill, my family looks forward to each upload.

Looks like some bittersweet growing in them?

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Man, there could be anything. I know for sure there is a lot of multifloral rose growing around most of the apple trees in the old pasture. I need to figure out the best way to kill/remove the MFR without affecting the young apple trees.

@seanbalch7563

11 ай бұрын

Basil bark treatment seems like the option for you Bill. Super excited to see this journey.

This is what I've been doing last few years. Just a heads up the buck gurdle the shit out of the trees you free up. They seem to perfer the ones with 3" diameter. The real Johnny apple seed created orchards for rich land owners.

@bill-winke

3 ай бұрын

Maybe I will be slow to free all of them up. Lots of multi-floral rose around most of them, but maybe that is why the trees are still there!

@jackpollard969

3 ай бұрын

Absolutely. Also if you can leave it till the rose trains the limbs to be pointed bellow 90°from the trunk of the tree, they will start to produce fruit instead of trying to grow taller. I've uncovered a few that look like perfectly maintained dwarf apple trees.

You clear that brush away from those small trees the deer will destroy em lol and you could easily graft many varieties to those small trees and they will grow bill it's easy and fun as hell the old timers aren't around to show many people how but in no time on KZread with a knife and wood glue you will be set graft em and cage em winesap or some other late varieties that hold into Dec would make that place awesome lol give it a go it's neat and you have plenty of root stock there make em what ya want

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

You are exactly right Frank. That is what I need to do. I need to graft in some late holding apples. I was there a couple days ago and the apples are falling heavy on some trees. Deer are hammering them. Would be great to see that happen all season long. I have done some grafting, but not into existing trees, only into rootstock. I will give it a go. Have a great day.

Bill would you be interested in selling me some of those seeds from those huge trees? I cannot find anything other than draft here in the southeast.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I would be interested, eventually. First I need to figure out how to manage this whole thing at the scale I have here. Way more trees than I first thought. Probably more than 1,000 if you count all the little ones. I need to wrap my arms around this whole thing and come up with a plan that will address the long-term potential and scope of work to achieve it. Give me a bit of time.

@TheHawkdriver55

10 ай бұрын

@@bill-winke I am in the same boat here just on a much much much smaller scale. We sold our place last year and it was farm land surrounded by mostly farm land. We had managed the deer habitat there for 15 years and really turned that place around. we purchased property in the mountains and the terrain and the deer are completely different here. They breed later and you can just about forget trying to pattern them. It is an adventure starting all over again. Best of luck with the new farm. We really enjoy watching the updates.

Maybe they are some crab apples on your farm ? Male trees are like male persimmon trees, they don’t grow fruit normally.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I bet you are right. It is interesting to see the wide variety of apple colors, sizes and textures. I guess that is what happens when apples reproduce in the wild. They produce all kinds of different types of fruit. I have a lot to learn about this.

I’m sure that’s how all those trees got there, eaten and pooped out by birds or other animals. Creating more and more trees. You have all that open ground, so it’s promoting itself!

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Steve, key is to keep the deer numbers low enough that they don't eat the trees when they are young. I am probably not going to tube a thousand little apple trees right now. Would be easier (and more fun) to try to kill 20 does! Have a great day.

@stevedenoyer5956

11 ай бұрын

oh yeah, time and expense of that would be way too high. @@bill-winke

If you put a whole apple in a hole several seeds might sprout .A single seed would be better .

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Good idea, but I think for the sake of time, I am considering cutting them in half and putting half (or 1/4) of an apple in each hole. I would rather come back through in a couple years and clip off a second tree than take the time to separate the seeds out of the apples this fall. I have plenty of apples, but not enough time each fall! Have a great day.

Prune those trees to health mix in your white oaks and you’ll have a gold mine.

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Yes, that is what I am thinking now. I think being the apple whisperer may become Jordan's long-term job there. I will need someone to manage this effort (AKA: do the work) if we are going to make the most out of this many wild trees. Have a great day.

the deer will tell you what trees they like, when you find the good trees fertilize them. deer will not eat some of them some they just don't like. fertilizer will help the good ones. apple trees are a lot like oak trees some taste better than others.

@bill-winke

10 ай бұрын

I think they will eat them all. That is what I am seeing so far. There are almost zero apples on the ground under any of these trees that have started dropping. I don't have a ton of deer so I am sure that soon enough there were will lots of apples on the ground that the deer just can't get to. Will be interesting to see this play out.

Apples, do deer eat them in passing. Never really see them hanging around the trees. We had a chef in a deer camp earlier 90’d and he said apple pie taste better with bitter apples I never turned one away. The brown on the hanging apples is a fungus of some sort. Another camp, seem the deer ate the fermented apples. Late season, sometimes Late Nov. upstate NY Pretty cool

@bill-winke

11 ай бұрын

Robert, I think they do eat them in passing. In my experience, with apple trees along the edge of our yard in southern Iowa and now next to my office in our new area, the deer make the apple trees part of their rounds in the morning and/or evening. They pass through, eat a few and then keep going. I hunted an apple orchard in ID one time many years ago. There must have been 30 to 40 trees all bearing apples in September. The deer flocked to those trees every evening before heading out to the ag fields (alfalfa) nearby. The apple trees were definitely a major draw on that property.