joeyoso, I never thought about the stone as adding nutrients but it makes good sense. That just adds another good reason to use it. Here are my initial reasons for using it: I like how it looks It prevents weeds It deters voles from tunneling near the trunk and roots It evenly dissipates water when poured from the 5-gallon buckets and now... It leaches nutrients into the soil. thanks! Michael357, I think if I could do it over again, I would have planted all the bud 9 trees using a trellis system. I am kind of stubborn, and I often have to learn things on my own but... I had some really good advice during my early planning stages from some very experienced local orchardists here. Most of which was to forget the semi-dwarfs, which I was really keen on, and to plant all dwarfs using espalier. I chose to listen only in part, and I liked more the idea of having most of the dwarfs spaced further apart and individually staked. After watching the trees on the trellis grow that first season (2008) I realized I should have taken the advice. They are so cool and much easier on the trellis. Its not too late, though. I could and very well may, turn that entire row of nine bud-9 trees spaced 9 feet apart and individually staked, to a long 3-post trellis system and plant more bud-9 trees in between, thus turning the nine-tree row into a 18-tree trellis wonderland. The wifey likes the trellis better too. And one day late last year we were out walking around the trees and she said "...and why didn't you grow them all on the trellis?" and I just kind of went, "uh..." As for the 4x6 posts reaching up to 8' tall.. We only wanted the boards to go up to 5' tall due to making it look better since its right by the road. My rope just arrived last night. I bought 600'! So I am going to string two rows of rope, one at 6.5' tall and one at 7.5' tall. So above the top boards will be two rows of manila rope all the way around. Hopefully this will deter the deer from trying to jump in when I have apples. There is also the financial aspect. If I had allowed the fence builder to add the boards all the way up to 8', it would have cost another grand, whereas, 600' of natural manila rope costs $100 drop shipped.

Janna: It would be helpful to know the types of fruit trees included in your 15, and, if possible, the rootstock types and even the source of your trees. Your soil type (i.e. sandy, clay) and your actual location in NJ might also help us assist you. Your idea of what constitutes high winds might be considered normal by many of us. Here in Northern Virginia, we regularly get gusts of over 50 mph in early spring and during thunderstorms. You may live close to the ocean, or some other place that is worse. I would not assume that all of your trees will require staking of some type. Some might, others might not. And it is possible that none of them will. Apple trees on dwarfing rootstocks require some support anywhere they are planted, as has been noted above, but semi-dwarf trees normally do not, nor do most stone fruit trees like peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. These trees normally grow strong roots that are quite capable of dealing with winds, unless you soil is very soft and sandy. When you first plant young trees, they are small and present little wind resistance. Wind can become a problem only if the tops begin to get ahead of the roots, but with fruit trees you would be pruning anyway to shape the trees and build fruitful scaffolds, so this would reduce wind resistance. It is almost never a good idea to allow fruit trees to become very tall for several reasons, including your ability to thin, pick, and spray the fruit should that be required. And it probably will be if you want to grow edible fruit in NJ. The best support post I know of is the forged steel T-post, not the lighter stamped steel posts. The forged posts are more expensive, but last forever and do not bend when driven. Anchoring the tree trunk to the post can be done with a variety of materials, and is a judgment best made in the field. There is no one way that everyone uses, although some type of strap that avoids cutting into the tree is obviously better than wires. I am not a user of any rock materials as mulch, since my trees do not suffer from voles or gophers. I mulch around the trees with uncomposted stable manure, which consists of about 80% sawmill wood chips. I would also use shredded leaves or municipal shredded wood waste if that was what is available. Use of organic mulches leads to continuous improvement of soil around the trees, and encourages earthworms which both fertilize and aerate the soil. Mulches placed on the surface do not rob nitrogen from the soil; on the contrary, they result in a net gain of nitrogen as they break down, as well as dramatic improvements in the tilth and fertility of the soil. It has taken over 25 years, but I now have nearly a foot of fine black earth in wide rings around nearly all the fruit trees, and they seem to like it. I have never had to use chemical fertilizers or other nitrogen sources around the trees, other than a little incidental 10-10-10 they receive when I pass by with the lawn spreader in fall. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Cages are the best. I think the trick is to be strict and trim the tree/fruits when necessary. Its hard and you feel like you are sacrificing your entire harvest, but its really just a few fruits or branches and it saves you big in the long run. I've had to trim back those plants several times so that there is plenty of air flow between those two cages.... so far, its rewarded me with what you've seen in those pictures. ;)

More times than not, but that isn't to say 'always', when I ask a question of an employee at a nursery, greenhouse, or plant store, I get an answer so off the wall I instantly recognize it would be futile to respond with anything but a thank you and a hasty retreat. That sort of encounter is a bit like calling a fireman because you're stuck on a burning roof and when he arrives he tosses you one end of the rope he's holding and tells you to jump. You just KNOW you're pretty much on your own. Repotting includes bare rooting, root pruning, and a change of soil, so it's much more extensive than potting up. Potting up is a half measure that ensures your plant will forever be limited by the root congestion inherent in plantings only potted up, while repotting ensures the planting will be free of those limitations until the approximate point in time when the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact. As your plants grow, you can avoid the need to repot often by potting up before they reach that stage of congestion where the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, but at some point you'll need to start repotting (or dividing if more appropriate) if you want your plantings to be free of limitations due to root congestion. Soils run the gamut from unusable/poor to superlative/almost perfect. If there is a useful point of delineation that determines good from bad soils, it would almost necessarily be soils you can water to beyond the point of saturation (so you can flush the soil of accumulating salts at will) w/o the plant paying a tax levied by prolonged periods of saturation. That arrangement can sap a huge fraction of your plants' genetic potential. If only for the fact they will fight the grower tooth and nail for control of a planting's vitality, they should be avoided at nearly any cost. Media that provide appropriate structure and long term structural integrity, which are key elements of a good container medium, make your growing experience soo much more rewarding; still, they are not easy to find on the shelf. I used to recommend any of 3 formulas of Fafard brand media, all of which were based on chunky material (pine bark), but Fafard was acquired by Sunshine and the bark they are using is quite fine and quite advanced in stage of breakdown due to composting. It's unlikely you'll find a medium on the shelf that is as good as you can make for half the price, if you can find a source of pine bark that is appropriate in size from the bag, or can readily be screened to an appropriate size w/o significant loss of volume. I've always been lucky enough to be able to find appropriate. Witness the products at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock from 3 different packagers. All are or are very close to ideal for use in container media: I use a 5:1:1 ratio of 5 pine bark (ratio varies slightly with the size gradient of the bark) to 1 peat to 1 perlite + dolomite garden lime. It produces a superb medium that works for you instead of against you. You can also make an extremely productive medium from mostly inert ingredients. Who would think that you could grow well in a medium that provides almost nothing in the way of nutrition? Lots of little rocks and a bit of pine bark, all of which are screened to a size range that ensures the medium holds no excess water. In Frisco, you should be able to find fir bark prescreened to 1/8-1/4" easily. Ewing Irrigation has Turface MVP (tan particles), and you can use Manna Pro Poultry Grit in place of the white particles. That's what I grow all my trees in (around 250-275 in pots at last count. Al