JWR:
A few things to take into account when thinking of apple trees. I planted three trees about five years ago and they are still far from being fruit bearing. I figure they have about five years more before they are capable of bearing fruit. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use them, but its defiantly a plan ahead thing.
Another thing to take into account is that they require a bit of yearly maintenance to keep them bearing decent sized fruit. An un-pruned tree bears a fruit that is about three fingers wide. A properly pruned tree bears fruit that is closer to the size of what you see in a store. It can take a few hours to trim a single tree with a trimmer. But with hand trimmers it takes about half a day per tree. This is something that only needs to be done once a year, normally in the yearly spring.
Bugs are also a major issue that apple trees will run into the trees need to be sprayed once a year. In a SHTF situation your not going to have bug spray handy but there is an easy natural way to take care of problems like this. Buy a few pods of Praying Mantis eggs. The Praying Mantis will eat the bugs that give you problems and not harm the plants you are trying to protect. Because you are controlling them by nature; on the years that the bug populations are an issue then more of your predators will take care of the problem, and on the years where you are light on pests then you’ll be lighter on the predators. As a nice by product you’ll also have less of other insect pests as well.
Apple trees will produce a nice amount of fruit for the last half of summer and the first half of fall. During the Winter and spring you’ll need to have canned any excess from the year before. Also Apples shouldn’t be your only source of food. You need vitamins and minerals for more than one source. While your researching the trees that you want also research things like Black berries and other fruit sources that will allow you to have a variety of food. You can easily make sure that you have a variety of food that will return without the need for replanting on a yearly basis. With the example of black berries you can easily make a couple of short fence rows that goes through the tree rows and plant the black berries to grow on them.
Cross pollination between tree types can be your blessing or curse. If you research different trees and find that the fruit of one apple tree that will grow powerfully in your area; but you in your quest for the perfect Apple your find that this Apple is way to sweet for your taste. Then you stumble on another that you find is to sour for your taste. You can plant these 2 trees within your planting range. (apple trees are suppose to be planted within around 15-25 feet of each other, or at least mine are.) So your trees will cross pollinate and give you a resulting fruit that is a combination of the original trees. This is also where your curse comes in. If your neighbor likes sour fruit and you like sweet fruit then you might end up with a combination because some of his trees are close to some of your trees.
Some plants to look at:
- Apple trees
- Blueberry
- Blackberry
- Raspberry
- Hazelnut
- Almonds
- Cashew
- Cherry
- Pear
- Fig Trees
- Pomegranate
Also as an advantage of keeping things like this going is that you’ll attract small wildlife such as rabbits and Squirrels. Which is another nice food source. – W.P.
JWR Replies: One downside to having a lot of fruit trees and berry vines is for those of us that live in bear country. Bears can be very destructive. They often knock down fences and tear limbs off of fruit trees. In many states it is illegal to shoot a bear in defense of your crops and trees, unless you have a current bear tag and it luckily coincides with bear season. But thankfully most states sanction the killing of bears when a human life is in immediate danger.