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.
Zestarās downside will be its lack of disease resistance, esp. fireblight and scab. And its patent doesnāt expire until late next year.
Please let us know your impressions of Harrison and Brownās Apple when they ripen. Iād be interested to hear if one or the other is more of a āSharp,ā and their respective flavor characteristics.
I will let you know next fall. No apples on those so farā¦ I would expect some on the Brownās Apple next year since it is on Bud.9. No idea on the Harrison since it is on M7.
Thanks for the video. Iāve 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?! Iāve got four trees on that RS. But, it does sound like the Geneva RSās sound somewhat promising. Iāll keep G935 in mind if we get any new trees, and avoid M7ās.
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 wouldnāt 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. Iām 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 donāt know for sure which applies to my situation. Some articles say that certain RSās have a good or bad replant disease tolerance. Does that criteria even matter to me? Weāre growing these trees in a location thatās never had apple trees before.
So, the only way to know for sure is how they perform on my land, and itās obviously too early to tell for now. I can say that I have maybe half a dozen trees that are 5-6ā tall now, because of a vigorous new central leader. But some of these trees donāt have a lot of new side branches. But, itās 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 donāt 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.
In the NC St video, they had high praises for the G935 rootstock trees. I did some research on the various Geneva rootstocks. On most of the articles Iāve seen on this RS, they say itās a pretty good producer, is resistant to FB and collar rot, tolerant of apple replant disease but isnāt resistant to wooly apple aphid. It seems like quite a few of different RSās from different programs have this suspectability.
Question: is a WAA a real reason of concern? Iāve read that these critters are just about in every state, so thereās no escaping them. I think that I may have seen some on one of my newly planted treeās branches. It looked like a white waxy gummy substance on some of the small branches, which I removed. Iāve read they can cause damage to branches, but the real issue is what they do to a treeās roots. Is WAA more of a concern to younger trees? What are some of yāallās experience with this pest?
The main reason Iām asking is that Iām planning on adding some new trees next year, and the varieties Iām wanting are available mostly on G935.
I would not hesitate to plant trees on G935 just based on the lack of WAA resistance unless you have a big WAA problem around your existing trees. I see a few WAA around the root suckers on some of my trees, but they donāt seem to do much damage.
Which nursery has lot of variety available on G935?
Yes, itās Cummins. They have quite a few G935 trees, some are #1 grade, which they classify as feathered, and then #2 grade which are 11/16" caliper sized. They mentioned that #1 trees can be very big, but not always bigger than #2ās.
Didnāt you say it would be better to get a feathered tree, than just a branchless whip of the same caliper?
As I mentioned earlier, I thought I had maybe seen some WAA on one or two trees, one was a M7 and another a G30. It was a sticky waxy material, and I didnāt know what it was until I read about it. I havenāt inspected down at ground level yet. A lot of my trees have some weeds that need to be removed and then some mulch added. Iāll examine that area when I do the weeding.
But, to be honest most of my other rootstocks have WAA suspectability. So, looks like weāll see how those turn out. When I was buying my trees last winter, I was looking for RSās that had good fireblight resistance, and didnāt care about WAA, root suckers or burr-knots. I know I didnāt want any M9 or M26 trees because of FB issues around here.
Was there something you wanted to say Drew? I see you deleted your post before I could read it. Or were you just repeating @hambone 's response?
You posted a pic of some of your trees, and you had Dabinette on G222 that seemed to be struggling getting any growth. I have a Golden Russet on that rootstock, and itās the least vigorous tree out of all of mine. I thought it may have been because it was a 7/16" caliper, but I have a 7/16" Grimes Golden on G16, and itās put on quite a bit of growth. I know 2 trees arenāt a good sample, but it is odd in that both of our G222 trees arenāt growing real vigorously.
Also, I meant to ask if any of those trees in the pic are staked.
My king david on g222 is my least vigorous tree. Less vigorous than my g41 trees, which I did not expect. The g222 was a bigger feathered tree when planted compared with the g41s, but it has not grown nearly as well.
Well, thatās three G222 trees from forum members that havenāt done well. Interesting.
Have you ever harvested any King Davidās from that tree yet? I see you have Goldrush and Liberty, so how have they done growth and productivity wise? I have a GR on G890 and Liberty on G202, and my King David is on M7.
I just planted all my trees this spring, so no fruit yet. The KD is about 6ā tall and has many branches. The GR is doing OK, not a lot of vertical growth or branches, but that may have been due to a deer attack before I caged all my trees. The Liberty has been pretty vigorous, quite a few branches, and maybe 5ā tall. We seemed to have got some significant CAR this year, but the Liberty had the most healthy looking leaves.
I ate a few apples off the king david and they were poor quality in my opinion. They were pretty tart and not much else but had great texture. I picked them at peak flavor too because the two I left on the tree for another week got borderline over-ripe. This is a second leaf tree so hopefully they will improve in the future. I wouldnāt say the tree has not done well, because it has put on some new growth for sure, but has put on a lot less new wood than my g41 trees and I thought g222 was an m27 size tree. It does seem to have less dense foliage than the g41s too.
We have similar apple varieties. Mine are all 2nd leaf and I have six trees. I probably ate a couple dozen apples of my trees so far and have another half dozen total hanging on ark black, goldrush, and liberty. Goldrush and liberty have done well growth wise. GR is on g30 and it about 12-15 ft tall. Liberty is g41 and 9-10 ft tall. I had to notch both of them last spring to get good branching. GR has four apples and liberty two. My 2nd leaf williams pride on g890 had over a dozen apples and is a really nice looking tree and my most vigorous one. It is getting really spurred up for next year.
I have some trees that have been reluctant to push out many lower branches. What is notching exactly? Is it making a small incision in the main trunk to induce new branch growth? Does the new branch start above or below the cut, and is this something thatās done in the spring before the tree comes out of dormancy? Thanks.
I cut out a strip of bark about 2 mm wide above a bud on the main trunk in early spring a few weeks before bud break in year 2. I cut about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way around the tree. Iād say 75% of the ones I cut grew a branch and almost none of the ones I didnāt cut did the same. Be careful with fireblight. A couple of these new branches got FB and it got into the trunk right away (or it started there at the cut, not sure). Almost girdled two trees but they overcame it and are fine now. All of the branching really slowed down the leader growth in yr 2, which is good because it was too much vertical growth in year 1. Not sure if geneva roots promote less branching or if that is typical for apples in general.
Thanks for the replies. I saw a post from earlier this year about you almost losing a tree (Priscilla?) to fireblight after doing some notching. I will definitely keep that in mind. We had a very wet spring, and some of the old trees that were already here got a bad case of FB. Although there is a risk of getting some disease from notching, it does sound like an intriguing idea.
Iām not an expert on fireblight, but from what I saw on some of my whips that bloomed, it looked like even a few got a bit of FB on some of the buds. They look OK now, but it would seem that we are in a prime area for this- warm, humid springs and summers with quite a bit of rain. Iām sure youāre in the same boat, with even more heat + humidity.
No apples on those so farā¦ I would expect some on the Brownās Apple next year since it is on Bud.9. No idea on the Harrison since it is on M7.