I was exchanging some crab scions with Lucky and just heard from him today that he’s been very busy with weather and work, so I don’t think he’s had much time to come by the forum in the last week or so.
Yup, I made contact also. I’m forgiven.
I have no idea the variety. I grafted it from a very old, large tree in town that my wife loved the fruit from. Of course I had to start some clones of that tree to save it from extinction and get the wife more fruit. The old tree is nearly dead.
Last winter I ordered some Dolgo and Siberian Red crabapple seeds. After cold stratifying them it was almost spring when I germinated them indoors in mesh flats. I quickly transplanted them into rootmaker 18s. They grew like weeds in these root pruning containers. I transplanted them to 1 gal and then 3 gal containers during the first growing season. I planted them in the field last fall. They ranged from 4’ to 6’ tall when I planted them. The Siberian Red seemed to grow a bit faster than the Dolgo.
Why? I’m planting them for wildlife. This fall, my wife and I visited Virginia Vintage Apple orchard. It is also a cider works. I noticed they were growing crabapples. I asked and they said they mainly use them in cider.
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Be awesome Michael if you could at some convenient (for you) point post a pic of that big old tree. I love BIG and OLD apple trees. Sounds goofy, I know, but I do, and always have…even as a child I think. Have you ever made an attempt to identify the variety? I’m no expert for sure (far, far from it), but I do know a few things that can help with identification, but you probably know also. I posted a photo some time ago on here of what I think is probably the oldest living and producing tree around here that I’m aware of. There are a few others that could possibly be older, but aren’t quite as large. Those other trees also do not produce the crazy amounts of big apples either. I’m gonna finally get up the courage this year to approach this daunting domicile and ask for wood. I may not live through it lol.
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Some bird brought a crab apple into my yard. It is right next to the base of a large Mountain ash tree, I have cut it down a few times, but it wrapped itself on the fence. Impossible to kill, it keeps growing back. So I let it grow out and made blackberry crab apple jam, It came out great!. I’ll think i’ll try and air layer a stem to get a decent rooted cuttings, or if you guys know another way to propagate it. i don’t have any apple trees to graft unto.
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Yhere won’t be much to see other than a large trunk down low and a lot of dead wood up top perhaps this Spring I’ll get a pic and post it along with some of it’s clones I planted in the orchard. BTW, one other reason I wanted to clone the tree is that it appears to have immunity to CAR. that’s a very desirable characteristic here. Good luck with your wood search.
Why grow a crab? Because you planted an apple tree where there are no pollenizers close enough to get fruit off of the apple tree like I did. I planted the apple and just hoped, wrong. Bring in the Prairie Fire crab!
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There are not many people like me. I grow crab-apples because I like the taste.
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Yeah not bad! I like them!
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What a cool thread. I’ve been increasingly interested in “crabs”. I tasted wickson and chestnut and realized the potential. I’ve been making intentional crosses with apples for a few years and would really like to pursue crabs more. There are some qualities and flavors in them that are truly excellent. One is the almost waxy texture some of them have that is really pleasant and intriguing. High sugar! I love it when chestnut and wickson go all translucent and sugary. Then there is flavor. How do you describe that flavor thing that Wickson has that is almost savory. I can’t explain it, but I like it! Interestingly, Alber Etter’s apple named Vixen by greenmantle nursery has the same quality but it is quite a bit larger, more like a small full sized apple if that isn’t a total contradiction. I"m interested both in working those qualities into large lines and in breeding very edible small crabs. Also the potential for juicing is enormous! All that flavor and sugar.
So far the ones I’ve fruited that I really like are centennial, trailman, wickson, chestnut, maypole (red fleshed) and an unknown one with small red fruits with crispy orange flesh that look and taste like cherries. That last one is a little crabby, but very edible. It came from a friend who got it from an old experimental orchard somewhere in North Carolina. I’d really like to collect more out of hand eating crabs as soon as possible, so I can trial them out for breeding potential. If someone would be willing to share their collection with me, please contact me here or through my website, skillcult.com Glad to trade whatever I’ve got etc…
There is an orchard here in California that has taken the plunge on growing Crimson Gold, a small etter apple similiar in som ways to wickson, but a little bigger. Apparently they are successful. They show up for sale in stores here in California in little bags. I think once people taste something like that, they will gravitate toward those little apples.
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Hey Steven, good to see you here; I know you have a lot to contribute!
Skillcult-I agree on Maypole. It surprised me by how good it was. I had it at an old house and I want to grow it here too. Thanks for reminding me.
John S
PDX OR
Yes, it is pretty intriguing. Definitely a little crabby, but I would liken it to eating a pomegranate, which is tannic and edgy. I have another pretty crabby apple I like munching on that grows in clusters like cherries and has a little bit of cherry almond type flavor. I think if I had piles of either around along with other standard apples I’d still eat a lot of them.
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Yes, I love pomegranates too. I think kids usually like stuff that is sweet only. I wonder if as adults we have some kind of an unconscious detector that sometimes tells us that things like beer, wine, cider, artichokes, salads, pomegranates, asparagus, and yes, crabapples are full of antioxidants, because most adults prefer to eat a wide variety and mix of flavors, not just sweet.
John S
PDX OR
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Makes good sense to me John.
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I tried something interesting with some of the trees described above. I grafted some Arkansas Black and Black Twig apple scions to them. The crabs were well leafed out. I did not remove the vegetation from the crabs because I wanted them to live even if the grafts failed. I simply cut the central leader and W&T grafted a dormant apple scion to them. Most of the grafts failed. I’m guessing that since they were just planted last fall grown from seeds last spring, the root systems did not have enough energy to both leaf out and drive the crabapple foliage as well as push a graft.
However, one did succeed. After the graft leafed out, I removed most of the lower limbs and leaves from the tree to force more energy into the graft. I left one crabapple limb to serve as a central leader incase the graft died. I was concerned it was getting too much energy because it was taller than the graft, so I weighed it down with a section of rope. I will eventually remove it once the graft hardens this fall. Here are a couple pictures:
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Is it possible to go from seed to fruit in less than 18 months? Evidently yes. Last spring I started a bunch of crabapples from seed. I got both Siberian Red and Dolgo seeds. They all grew like weeds and were transplanted from 18s to 1 gal RB2s to 3 gal RB2s in one season. Last fall I planted them in the field.
This picture was taken on June 6, 2015:
I planted the tree in the field on October 2, 2015 (The cage is 5’ tall for reference):
I was checking some trees and doing some T-budding today. When I checked this tree, here is what I found:
I’m shocked. Maybe this early fruiting won’t last, but I find it amazing. Out of 14 trees I grew and planted like this (Siberian Red and Dolgo combined) only one is doing this so far.
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Wickson’ s I added this year are growing like crazy. They had several feet of growth. Does anyone know at what point they produce apples? Seems like they might be very fast to produce!
I have two Wicksons on Geneva 222 in their third leaf. They produced heavily this year, I thinned and still had about 35 from one tree. Also watch for fireblight…
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