A ‘maiden‘ or ‘whip‘ refers to a first-year tree. These are the types of trees I sell.
Whip, refers directly to the fact that first-year trees usually don’t have any lateral branches. They look like the end of a whip sticking straight out of the ground.
In fact, depending on what tree form you’re going for and your particular situation, usually, you don’t want any lateral branches of a first year tree.
Scaffold branches (the main branches you want the fruit on), typically don’t start until about 24″ high–if you want to mow under your tree or plan to let farm animals graze under the mature tree, you might not start your scaffolds until 36″ or 42″. Buying a young fruit tree with a bunch of lateral branches growing below 24″, means you’re likely just going to prune them all off anyway…
When lateral branches begin growing–where you don’t want them–it’s best to remove them, so the tree can focus on growing branches where you want them OR putting all its energy into its root system.
As I’ve said elsewhere on the site, it’s important to understand the value of planting a young maiden or whip fruit tree.
- They establish themselves far faster with less transplant shock.
- The adapt to your specific environment faster, including the soil type and outside environment.
- You can start training them the way you want to train them from the start, without making any harsher limb cuts potentially opening the tree up to disease and pests.
Remember, a properly planted whip apple tree is going to grow about 2-3 feet a year on average.
A properly planted larger box store tree, may not grow at all for a year (or more) while it tries to establish itself in your soil.
I just ran out and took this picture. (Broom for scale since I couldn’t find my yardstick.)
The middle whip is a pretty typical maiden apple tree, being about 3′ tall.
The most vigorous types might be as much as 5 or 6 feet tall.
The apple on the right, is about 2′ tall.
A slower growing tree does NOT mean it’s unhealthy. It can be a variety prone to slower growth (of which there are many). It can be a tree putting more energy in its roots. Or like a person, where we come in all shapes and sizes, it can just be a shorty. It can also be a tree that just started with a smaller root mass.
While whip fruit trees don’t look like much, it’s amazing how fast they take off when planted properly. And how fast they transform before your eyes in a new home.
All that said, I generally try not to sell trees that are smaller than 3′ tall.
While it can be a perfectly fine, healthy tree, it’s kind of like getting the runt of the litter. And while runts of the litters can turn out to be the best dog of the litter, why not just choose a tree that’s showing stronger more aggressive vitality or ‘confidence’ for lack of a better word?
OH, I ALMOST FORGOT, the apples haven’t leafed out yet. The cooler, longer winter this year has kept all the apples pretty quiet. They are just starting to wake up now… except for the Chestnut Crabs, which already have blooms and are laughing at all the other apple trees.
OK,
To the left in this pic is a fairly typical Peach Tree.
Peach trees are generally more vigorous than apples, not so much in height (though they certainly can be), but in lateral branch development. Peaches just want to push!
Unlike the apples, the peach is fully leafed out–but in all fairness–that’s because the peaches have been in a greenhouse. Unlike the pictured apples.
So, you may notice the peach tree also has 4 small lateral branches. In tree growing, this condition is called ‘feathered.’
Apples sometimes push hard with lateral branches and feather out early. Honeycrisp off the top of my mind, for example.
But again, because apples are a little less vigorous than peaches, it’s a bit more important to direct branch development where you want it earlier.
In contrast, to peaches, it kind of doesn’t matter what you prune back, because next season it’ll have fifty replacement branches.
I don’t ship any trees, so outside of my immediate area, it doesn’t really matter to me where you buy your trees from. But I want to see people successful with their fruit trees no matter where y’all live. So let me leave you with this reminder.
If you read my article on rootbound trees, you’ll know that any tree grown in a pot becomes rootbound to some degree.
The fact of the matter is, you CAN NOT grow a fruit tree in a pot for multiple years–reaching a greater height with significantly sized feathering–without a lot of care and attention to the tree.
When you go to a box store and see big 8 foot trees with a bunch of inch and half lateral branches, it looks impressive. But I guarantee you nobody is really caring for the root system of that tree.
And unless you go through a lot of effort to fix the problems it has… a tree like that is gonna look great for a year or two, then run into serious, serious trouble.
What you think is cutting time off your fruit growing experience, can very well be adding much more time than you realize.
Never underestimate the value of starting with a whip tree.
And if you do decide to buy an older tree… for the love of God, grab it from a local nursery… from somebody who really cares about each and every tree they sell.