When we decided to plant our orchard, we dwelled for quite a while on what type of orchard system we were going to use. It was decided we were going to use a tall spindle system.
The idea is to grow tall skinny trees that are densely planted to maximize the yield of an area and minimize the amount of time for trees to start producing (with some production beginning in as little as 3 years). We are planting our trees out 3 foot between trees and 14 feet between rows, allowing for us to plant a maximum of 1451 trees in the 1.4 acres we have designated for our orchard.
To plant these trees this closely together with as much fruit as we are trying to get, the trees require a trellis system to help keep them from breaking at the graft union. These trellis’ will be made using some of the timber we are removing in order to clear the land for the orchard.
The first step is to choose the right log for the posts. When picking a log I look for one that is fairly straight, about 13 feet long, and have a diameter of around 5-6 inches. These dimensions are rough, and were picked because my post hole digger is 3 feet long and 8 inches wide. which allows for some room for me to compact the soil around the post once installed.
Once the logs have been cut to length the next step is to remove the bark, prior to charring the tree. This is easily done with a drawknife or machete.
*Note that it is much easier to remove bark off of logs cut down in the spring as the flowing sap allows the outer layer to be peeled off.
*Getting the logs of of the ground and elevating one end with some 2*4s is a real back saver.
Once the bark has been stripped from the logs, the next step is to char them. The idea behind this is to help protect the post as it will be buried directly into the ground.
While the idea of burning a log seems simple in principle there have been a few iterations in the process as to how we do this. The first attempt was using a burn barrel that was made out of an old washing machine tub. While it burns brush great the height of it made it difficult to move the log around to get a proper char on the entire post.
We ended up hauling the logs over to out firepit in order to char them. This allowed the logs to be set much lower, and set on 2 unsplit firewood rounds to be rolled back and forth to have much better control of the charring process.
Once the posts have been charred they are good to be set.
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