Ten feet on a G11? That sounds tall for a rootstock like that. Did you stake or trellis them?
I have three trees on G16 that were planted this spring. I haven’t given them any support, but they’re obviously not producing, and only about 5 feet tall now. I would imagine I’ll have to stake them in a couple years, though.
They are a good foot and a half to two feet taller than the eaves of my house so they have to be close if not fully ten feet. Yes they are staked with heavy electric conduit pipe and attached with plastic coated wire in multiple spots. The trunk is pretty thin as are the major branches. I think G16 does need staking, I think.
Thanks Drew. So, you’re saying that these trees have been in the ground two years, and they’re already 10 feet tall?
Have you ever harvested any fruit off them? If they are just two years old, maybe not.
BTW, I also have a Pristine, on M7, and a Gold Rush, on G890. The Pristine hasn’t put out a lot branches, but seems to be OK, and the GR has been a bit more vigorous.
Of the three trees I have on G16, there are two Grimes Golden, and one Novaspy. Both the GG’s have sprouted leaves and little branches nicely, but the Novaspy, not as much. I’m sure I’ll have to stake them next year.
Speaking of blooming, I had maybe four or five of my 14 apples bloom just a month after putting them in the ground! And these were all (except a 6’ container tree) bare root whips.
Oh no, these two trees are five years old now. They grew out pretty quick though. I harvested some pristine three years ago and they were exellent. By the time the GR ripened the squirrells had gotten them all. The last two years the pristine didnt bloom at all due to lack of chill I presume so the GR isnt producing because it lacks a pollinator as There are no other apples that I’m aware of near me.
Good to know G11 does well in the south. From what I have seen B9 are not as vigorous in the south as in a cooler climate. I guess that makes sense since they were developed in a very cold climate.
I have Pristine and Goldrush too. Goldrush grows more quickly than many variety I have. They are tall but without a lot of spread. Both bloom and fruit heavily and must be thinned hard to keep from breaking branches.
Here is a picture of my trees in their 2nd and 3rd leaf - variety along with rootstock. I have picked the Zestar and the Liberty has about 25 apples on it. Those two and the Suncrisp bloomed this year, but the Suncrisp only had one cluster and aborted the fruit. The Kidd’s OR would be bigger, but I murdered the central leader this spring trying to spread a side branch out.
I am not sure what is going on with that Dabinett/G.222 combo. Though it shipped with only two roots on it from Cummins… and is planted in the lowest spot in the planting. It is probably too wet.
The fence is 4’ fence. So that gives a relatively useful scale.
Thanks Drew, for the pic, it gives a nice perspective. Don’t think I’ve heard about a Harrison or Brown’s Apple. I was maybe considering adding a KOR and a Suncrisp next year. We have a Liberty on G202, it seems to be doing well. Is this your first year harvesting any apples? Those M7 trees seem to be pretty vigorous.
I thought you had peaches, I guess they’re in another location?
Seems like squirrels are a real bane of apple growers, or fruit growers in general. We don’t seem to have a lot in our setting, even though we are up against the treeline. Guess we’ll see their effects soon enough when the trees start coming into production.
Harrison is an American cider apple variety. Brown’s Apple and Dabinett are English cider varieties. I have another Harrison/M.7 and Harry Masters Jersey/G202 in another corner of the yard to round out my cider collection.
This is my first year for fruit of any sort.
Yeah the M7 are too vigorous and all the info says they are poor producers… I won’t plant any more of those.
My peaches and plums are on the other side of the yard.
It seems I remember hearing years ago that in some spots even northern growers were having a hard time getting vigor and proper fruit size out of b9 but I cant remember were I heard that. I am really hoping that Pristine will bloom again this year so I can get my apples back. I need to probably graft in another pollinator this winter for GR as it seems to bloom like crazy every year.
So, I wanted to ask you how your Zestar’s turned out. We sampled some at the orchard last week, and both me and Mrs Dood thought they were almost as good as the Honeycrisp we tried. We brought home about 8 of them.
But, now after they’ve sit in the fridge for a week, I’m giving the edge to the Zestar. Crunchy, and a good balance of sweet and tart. We liked them enough to maybe add a Z tree next year.
The Jonathan’s we picked up were very good as well, but still a bit too tart. Maybe they need to sit a bit longer? If I can resist them, I’ll let them sit a week and see what happens.
Subdood - My Zestar were OK to good. The OK ones needed more time on the tree (my fault). There were a couple very good ones though that had a sweet/tart flavor profile plus some Sweet Sixteen-like berry/cherry undertones. I still have two of the biggest Zestar left in the fridge. Those have been in there 3 weeks and are still holding up, I think.
I like Zestar because they are consistent apples. I think Honeycrisp can vary really strongly year-to-year and site-to-site. Last year HC was a real dud at the local u-pick. I have had Zestar for 4 years in a row now from growers at three locations in IA (one being my yard) and one in WI and they have been consistent from all sites and years.
Zestar’s downside will be its lack of disease resistance, esp. fireblight and scab. And its patent doesn’t expire until late next year.
Please let us know your impressions of Harrison and Brown’s Apple when they ripen. I’d be interested to hear if one or the other is more of a “Sharp,” and their respective flavor characteristics.
Here is an interesting video that looks at a lot of rootstock trials in NC. Geneva rootstocks do well, especially G935 which produces a larger tree.
I will let you know next fall. 
No apples on those so far… I would expect some on the Brown’s Apple next year since it is on Bud.9. No idea on the Harrison since it is on M7.
Thanks for the video. I’ve got quite a few of the rootstocks listed on the video, G16, G210, G30 and M7. Kind of concerned about them saying M7 trees not coming into meaningful production in 5 years?! I’ve got four trees on that RS. But, it does sound like the Geneva RS’s sound somewhat promising. I’ll keep G935 in mind if we get any new trees, and avoid M7’s.
Some of those M26 and M9 trees just got fried by fireblight. I wonder why anyone would still consider planting those RS. I guess back in the day, they were about the only dwarfing RS that was available, and you would just hope you wouldn’t get a fireblight outbreak. But, now with the Geneva versions you have a better chance.
Looks like you have a lot of RS growing that you can evaluate. Please let everyone know how they perform in your climate.
I have seen lots of charts that describe various RS, but that is the only video I have even seen that actually demonstrates their size and shape in an orchard of lots of trees. Its a lot more helpful for me to actually see the trees in a video rather than just read about them. I would really like to see them in person, but the research farm is on the other side of the state about 4 hours away. I noticed the B9 trees in the video are a lot larger than my B9. I’m going to increase the fertilizer next year and see if I can accelerate the growth of my trees. Once the trees start to produce fruit their growth really slows down.
I was trying to figure out when those trees were planted on the NC-140 website but had no luck. After seeing them I am thinking that I wish I had planted much smaller rootstock in my backyard orchard.
Yeah, I get some conflicting info on the rootstocks, so I don’t know for sure which applies to my situation. Some articles say that certain RS’s have a good or bad replant disease tolerance. Does that criteria even matter to me? We’re growing these trees in a location that’s never had apple trees before.
So, the only way to know for sure is how they perform on my land, and it’s obviously too early to tell for now. I can say that I have maybe half a dozen trees that are 5-6’ tall now, because of a vigorous new central leader. But some of these trees don’t have a lot of new side branches. But, it’s still only been 5 months. I do know the Japanese beetles shredded a lot of leaves, and a lot of my trees got CAR pretty bad as well.
I was not able to get much from the site either. Many of the links I saw pointed to publications in professional journals which required a subscription fee. I did notice Dr. Mike said the first orchard in the video where he was sitting on the ladder was 9 years old.
Also noticed he said B9 vigor is highly impacted by the amount of the rootstock shank that is left out of the ground when planting. I would have planted my trees a little deeper if I would have known that, but at the present time, I don’t see any relationship between how far off the ground the graft union is located and the height of my trees. I did notice the tendency of the graft union to settle a little lower after planting my first group of trees, so I planted the others a little higher which may have been a mistake.
