Last year was so wretched my tree is getting carried away this year! I’m going to have to thin like crazy, of course, but I’m tickled. There’s one or two of them I won’t let bear because they’re pretty young, but I’m glad to see they’re willing and eager.
I plan to remove the Supreme. I just added Wealthy and will try to get Pomme Gris next year.
The list: Supreme, Karmijn de Sonnaville, Rubinette, Winesap, Haralson, Jonagold, Prairie Spy, Macoun, Pixie Crunch (possibly Fuji), Cameo, Hawkeye, Calville Blanc, Kidd’s Orange Red and Cox’s Orange Pippin. I may have fruit on a couple of older grafts to lost their scions. And of course the basic tree, which is a Liberty.
Pear looks to have a few too- Winter Nelis, Flemish Beauty, Bosc, Dana’s Hovey, Golden Spice, Warden Seckel, Harrow Delight, maybe White Doyenne and maybe Frost. I made no additions to the pear this year- running out of room, I’m afraid.
Looks like you won’t have to worry about pollinators!
We have some similar tastes. I also have Liberty, Rubinette, a Cox type (Queen Cox), Jonagold, Hawkeye, although not all on the same tree. Some day I should write down all the names.
Happy thinning! I finished thinning my Gravensteins, Rubinettes, Goldrush, Akane, Airlie Red Flesh, Northpole, but have a lot more to go. Some bloomed like crazy, for the first time,
That is exciting! I have yet to experience any fruit from any of my multi grafts, which is fine - they’re too young still. That is a nice variety of apples you chose.
It is exciting, and fun, and gives me the opportunity apples I’ve never seen elsewhere, which is really neat. And, in a good year, I get a good stock of good apples to carry me into spring.
Now I have to go out and strip blooms completely on the Macoun. All the Macoun grafts are too small to be allowed to bear. In fact, Macoun just hasn’t taken very well on the tree, but we love the apple and keep trying. It’s hard to take them off when you want them so much!
Me too, plus I think I’m destroying what could become perfectly good apples! But then, I think I have to think about next year, plus doing so is helping the tree make better apples.
This is a good reason not to let the tree grow too tall. zi had trouble reaching some of the blosdoms. Need to do some pruning to lower the top branches, and/or tie down the higher branches into a horizontal position.
How necessary is it to remove blossoms on a new graft. I put 22 grafts on my Frankentree, I think a good half of them made it but 2 or 3 are very precious and flowered for me.
So here’s a question: how do you know when a new graft (on multi graft tree) can support the weight of an apple? Would this answer differ depending on rootstock or main variety used? My multis are mostly on B9 although I have been increasing rootstock sizes as I move closer in time to the acreage in the country.
My apple tree is actually fairly good-sized; it was sold to us as a “semi-dwarf” and we’ve kept it to about 12 feet high and 12 feet wide, more or less. So what I say might not apply to your trees. But I look for a branch to be at least 1/2 inch and preferably more, and it’s nice if they get enough length to them that you can feel like they’re well established. But I’ve had branches break when they were over an inch, so obviously it also depends on the fruit load you’re letting them carry. (I’ve also had wimply little branches just bend right over and ripen an apple or two that way.)O
The curious thing I’m experiencing with a couple of my grafts, notably Macoun, is that they spurred up very quickly and act like mature growth but they’re runts. They still want to set fruit though, and I think that would ruin them.
Mark,
I have good news and bad news. The good news is I have 17 apples varieties that have flowers this year. The bad news is that 14 of those 17 varieties have only one or two clusters of blooms
I get some of that too! But for me the good news is that my #1 producer is my basic Liberty onto which all my other apples are grafted. And it is a generous variety. But I might get no more than two Haralson, a dozen State Fair or Cameo, and so on.
What I’m worried about is next year, because if I don’t manage the crop well this year I’ll be in trouble next year.
Don’t you just hate thinning away most of a variety, i.e., you have two clusters and you thin them down to two blooms?
This is an off year for my mature Honey Crisp, Gold Rush, Fuji and Golden Russet. HC, Golden Russet and Fuji has a couple of clusters and Gold Rush has one. Even William’s Pride is down considerably.
I probably thin them down to 1-2 fruit.
I look forward to the new varieties (to me) this year esp. Baker’s Delight and Crunch A Bunch.
Red Reese, Washington Gravenstein, and Enterprise have a small amount of fruit. I have several others that haven’t bloomed yet so I will have to wait a year or two on those.
People have a lot of different ways. I take a piece of aluminum flashing (light enough to cut with good scissors) and use a stamp kit to impress the variety and the date on it. Then I nail it to the tree with a small bright box nail. They flutter a bit in the wind - maybe that scares birds a little.
I have a M26 CandyCrisp that simply isn’t setting fruit so, I’m thinking this will be my candidate come next spring for my very first Frank-in Apple Tree.
so, I’m thinking this will be my candidate come next spring for my very first Frank-in Apple Tree.