Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Mid winter dig

11 degrees this morning with wind gusts over 30 mph. No bugs!
Weather improved throughout the day. Got lucky, heavy snow just north of us.
Should wind up about 1/3 acre...

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I forget. Are you doing it yourself?

I get by with a little help from my friends...
My pond building budget is pretty sparse. But... The fish and the wildlife haven't complained. If they're happy, I'm happy!
This pond has been done in stages over the last year and a half or so. Very happy to be getting it done now so it can start coming to life. It'll be another year getting the forage base and structure in place before it's stocked. This one will be my bass/gill pond. It'll be warmer than the others. One for brookies, a yellow perch/rainbow pond and this one. But.... There MAY be another spot or two.....

Looks like an excellent location for a pond! Great views while floating about on a raft.

That's part of the plan! It is a beautiful spot. You can hear an occasional truck drive by on the road. But you can't see any sign of humanity from these ponds. The older I get... The better I like that. Wish I had better "before" pics of this spot, but it was so thick and brush choked, you couldn't take any.

Went back and looked... Found one decent before pic...

Looks like a great view. That track ho have a heater?

Tracy

Heat, a/c, stereo... Got to keep these kids happy and bailing clay!

Got a lot done today. Should finish by mid morning tomorrow then head up to expand the orchards.
View from the dam. Water level will be to the bases of the two trees. My car is in the background for scale.


Also expanded the RBT/YP pond...

Wrapped up the ponds by noon today then went up to expand the orchards. The pond in the background is the one that was extended. The one in the foreground will fill to just below the two trees in the middle. The pond wraps about 240 degrees around them. Lots of work left to do... But I'm glad to have this part behind me!

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Orchards ?? What grows there other than NYC ?

I always herd it is nice in upstate NY, I have considered making that trip. Can u see a southern boy, in a vet, top down with fishing pole flapping in the wind. if you ever see that, it might just be me

Tracy

NYC? Been in New York almost 53 years... But I've never been there. Most of New York is normal people. I've met some downstaters. Probably explains my aversion to NYC... If you ever make the trip please let me know, I'd be happy to steer you in the right direction!
The orchard we worked today is just behind my little brook trout pond, in the background here...

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Hollywood, I was just messen with u about NYC growing there, was talking about the population growing. Not like Ted Cruz, I think he was talking of the liberal government in NYC. So what grows in your orchard ? And when you see that vet with the top down and the fishing rod flapping in the wind, if you here ZZ Top playing on the radio, it will most likely be me, Wait !! it might be Led Zeplin on the radio

Tracy

Ted Cruz was spot on. I'm the New Yorker he apologized to, though it was unnecessary. It's the libs that walk around looking for an excuse to be offended, not us. I'll be behind Trump if he lasts. ANYTHING but Hillary! I've got about 50 apple trees in the orchard now and a dozen or so Dunstan chestnut trees. Adding more chestnut, pears, plum this spring. I'll have room for plenty more, just not sure what yet. Grape arbors will do well here. Pond is filling nicely, up a foot in three days. Probably a couple weeks to full...

Please, Gentlemen, no politics on the forum.

DL, we're cool No problem Hollywood, Thanks for the invitation to steer me in the right direction, in that part of the country. Seems like we have a lot in common, we pond builders

Tracy

ZZ Top or Led Zep.... Figured you couldn't be ALL bad!
Ha!

Hollywood, I am trying my dangdest to ascertain where you are located, but falling a tad short. If I would venture a guess it would be at the south end of one of the finger lakes, probably Canandaigua based on the long straight hill, possibly Italy valley or down near Naples. Am I close? A lot looks like that in the Finger Lakes region.

A warming climate has made orchard growing in this region fairly viable, except for last winter when I lost my nectarines due to the extreme cold. God I loved those trees! Beautiful flowers, amazing fruit!

I miss Miller's Nursery, I spent many a spring picking out apples and pear varieties, though not to the scale you have. Even with 8 producing trees, I have more fruit than I can deal with. I still have a few left to reach maturity.

I am still deciding if I want to make the investment and plant a full orchard of dwarf apples between the house and pond, but right now we are using it for a community garden through our church.

I purchased my fruit trees from either Miller or Starke Brothers. I'm sorry to see Miller go by the wayside too. I hear that they sold to Stark Brothers.

lIquidsquid, you're correct- southern finger lakes region. Nectarines sound intriguing..perhaps I'll try a few. Hard to invest too heavily knowing any winter could be like last. It's funny, this year everyone acts like we're in the clear because it's been so mild. On 1/16/15 I wrote in my notes "cold weather and a bit of snow in the forecast for the next couple weeks- taking a break working the place. It's been so easy on the wildlife this year, this is coming so late in the season it shouldn't affect them much"
I couldn't have been more wrong! The weather came in about the same time this winter...sure hope the severity and length of it don't approach last year! Got these projects done in the nick of time.
Esshup, on the recommendation of a friend that owns a 20,000 tree orchard, I went with Adams County nursery. My trees went in last April and are doing beautifully. I bought 5' tall 6"x6" concrete mesh in 150' rolls and cut ten 15' long sections from each roll. The 15' circle around each tree has kept the deer off. Too small an area to jump in, but big enough to allow unbrowsed growth of the trees. The cost was about $11 per tree, but without this there would be no trees. This orchard is located right in the middle of a hardwood forest. Should be some pretty good bow hunting down the road.

Deer have become a nuisance around here too. When I was a teen many years ago, a garden could be grown in the open. Now, every desirable planting has to be fenced, even yard flowers and shrubs. It's expensive and a hassle having too many deer. The hunting pressure has dropped in my opinion. I used to hunt them, but tired of venison. There are fresh deer tracks all-around my pond every morning. We need a couple of years of six month deer season, no limits.

Hollywood,
It is what I did with the fencing also, it works well! Just don't do what I did:

At a point the limbs of the trees are shaped to go over the top of the fencing, and you have trimmed the branches to an umbrella shape for strength (I am not doing the narrow row-form, but circles) you can them replace the larger circle of fence with one just large enough for the trunk plus a few inches. This will allow mowing under the trees without tangles in the fencing.

Don't quit while changing fencing mid-stream in the fall and leave even a single tree exposed for a minute. The deer wait in the bushes to come running out and rub their antlers all over them in revenge for years of denial. Two of my trees got nailed because I ran out of daylight and planned to finish them the next morning. Imagine my anger when I am eating breakfast to the sight of bark peeled off both exposed trees after just one stinking night. I think they hear my rebel yell in Tennessee.

The dwarf and semi-dwarf "free" varieties are massive producers, to the point you have to thin the fruit. I did not when I should have and almost lost a tree to the weight. I had to steak the darned thing up since it apparently did not have an even distribution of roots to support the weight. I've got a picture here someplace...

Must be nice being able to plant fruit tree varieties without being concerned about chilling hours.

Last February I put in six peach and six nectarine and those that had good root systems seemed to just jump out of the ground, now being seven to eight feet tall. Yesterday, I noticed that the buds are swelling and it's entirely possible that I didn't get the 200 to 400 chilling hours that the trees need.

Sure hope you guys do better.

Upstate NY ... We never even think about chilling hours!
I'd give up some fruit for less chilling hours in a heartbeat. Actually am just north of where peaches do well. Just a bit too cold for too long. I'm researching which can handle it. I guess they do some varieties in Canada, so should be able to source some. I have 240 Chinese chestnut germinating now to go in the ground as seedlings in May. Did 150 last spring. That along with the pear and plum trees and my walleye season is already shot. Will try peaches perhaps next spring. Need to retire!

Hollywood, thanks. I just e-mailed Adams County for a couple of their catalogs. A client wants to plant around 100 trees and this will help him decide on what to plant. I need to replace a few trees in my small orchard, and it will make for some interesting reading for me as well.

Thanks for the tips on fencing the trees. A client spaded in close to 100 4" dbh Oaks and Maples around his ponds and the bucks tore them up this Fall/Winter. We had the white plastic tree protectors around them last year, but removed them for the summer and they never were put back on.....

He's planning on putting in an orchard and it is surrounded by hardwoods. We had thought about a solar electric fence, but I will tell him about the wire cages too. The wire cages seem to be the ticket for the trees that were transplanted around the ponds.

I'm all ears for any other tips anyone can offer.