Generic "Old-Orchard" Recovery Plan

This template could apply to many enterprises.

Inventory

A:) Inventory assets

    1. Productive trees

    2. Trees nearing retirement

    3. Identify "open spaces' where trees died and need replacements

    4. Identify "volunteer" trees that are within rows and can be grafted to productive cultivars

B:) Inventory liabilities

    1. Non-fruiting trees (encroachment) shading otherwise productive fruit trees

    2. Brush that is interfering with the care of otherwise productive trees

        a. Most bothersome: Multiflora Rose, Autumn Olive, Poison Ivy

        b. Less bothersome: Mulberries, Ash, Hackberry

    3. Vines climbing and choking trees

C:) Protect existing productive assets

    1. Fertilizer (Nitrogen, limestone, other). Fertilizer is fast, easy, inexpensive.

    2. Cut taller trees that are shading potentially productive fruit trees. Treat stump with herbicide.

    3. Use herbicide to suppress undergrowth beneath rows of trees. Hit grass May 1 with glyphosate and non-grasses with 2,4-D + Triclopyr July1.

    4. Attack brush/vines starting with most obnoxious species/most disruptive places. Use whatever means necessary.

    5. As time permits, graft volunteers to better clones, even if it is a type of fruit      that you don't value highly or are not in total alignment with the plan. Example, Mulberries.

D:) Make a Plan

    Replanting like-after-like is asking for problems. The previous tree died for a reason and the soil is likely to be loaded with pathogens.

    Unfortunately, most orchard crops belong to the family Rosaceae. Replacing a dead apple-tree with a pear is unlikely to be satisfactory because they are so closely related*.

    Unconventional (for Michigan) crops like Mulberries, Figs, Hazelnuts, Persimmons, Pawpaws, Jujube, Cornelian Cherry (dogwood), Autumn Olive (selected cultivars), Seaberry, Gooseberries/currants, Chinquapin, Kiwi, Grapes, Aronia (Rosaceae but tolerant of most soil-borne pathogens), Blueberries, Che, Tea, Elderberries, medicinal herbs are non-Rosaceae options.

*There are rootstocks for apples that have been selected to be resistant to apple-replant-syndrome. To-date, other fruit rootstock have not been identified although some strains of Pyrus calleryana and P. betulifolia might have some resistance.

E:) Judiciously start pruning old trees

    1. Trees carry too much wood high in the tree

    2. Most fruit trees, if well watered and in reasonably fertile soil, can sustain the removal of more than 50% of the "wood" in the canopy every-oother-year.

    3. Top-out half the trees at a convenient height (less 3') the first year. Repeat with the other half of the trees the second year.

    4. Remove dead limbs and prune trees in third year so that the canopy is open enough to throw a basketball through the canopy 2-of-3 throws.

    5. If a tree appears to be too senile to survive the recovery plan, remove it as soon as it is identified. Replant with something else. Eating your losses early is the most profitable path.

F:) Have an "orchard floor" plan

    1. Default is mowed sod with bare soil (herbicide) beneath the trees where it is difficult to mow.

    2. Non-sod possibilities that withstand deer include mint, lemon-balm,  garlic, onions/chives, turnips/mustard. Wood-chips are also a possibility.

    3. Remember, if you cannot harvest the fruit, there is little point in having an orchard. Also, if somebody twists an ankle, it is not cost effective to have an orchard. Consider the mechanics of getting pickers-in and fruit-out.

G:) Have a plan for the imperfect fruit

    1. Juice/wine/vinegar

    2. Animal feed

    3. Attract game animals