Want antonovka seed to grow my own rootstock. The Google source screwed me. For $ 40 twenty seeds is not being hugged and kissed.
I’ve gotten Antonovka seeds from F.W. Schumacher in the past. They are pretty cheap and reliable.
I’ve wanted to try some Antonovka also, but I’m always dubious of online sources of Antonovka seed, especially the ebay sources. How do you really know they are Antonovka? Furthermore, wouldn’t good Antonovka seed have to come from sources that are not open pollinated? The only place that could really occur naturally would be somewhere like their native Siberia I think.
Antonovka at maturity makes a hard green apple. I’d worry a lot less about true-ness to type, and more about viable seed from Ebay retailers.
Based on my thumb-fingered technology, freezing apple seed is a bust.
Which leads back my disgruntled take of Sheffields nursery. I ordered an ounce of seed and got a retail pack. When I pissed up a world class storm I got a second measley retail pack. I do not feel hugged or kissed.
I ordered A seedlings from St Lawrence, cause I have grafts to do not later than 2016.
I’ve gotten the rootstocks from Lawyer nursery for under $1 per tree. Here is a link http://www.lawyernursery.com/productinfo.aspx?productSpecies=Malus%20’Antanovka’.&categoryid=39
If you guys are willing to wait until next autumn I can ask my sister to send me Antonovka’s seeds. We have Antonovka in my old garden in Russia. I do not know if this year will be an apple year, since most of our apples are biannuals. But Antonovka is so common variety in Russia that it is sold on any market. The seeds will be cross pollinated with the other apples, which are hardy enough for Russian climate.
Antmary…I was actually thinking of you when this topic came up. I’m willing to wait till whenever and would love to grow out a few.
Is postage from Russia expensive? How long does it typically take?
I bookmarked Lawyers-nursery, I’m not sure if I’m big enough to climb up in their saddle, but I like the bundle of 100’s.
Antmary, email me. I’ll send on some money against a fall-to-come. I also feed a seed and nursery give away. This is just the ticket for Robin Marbles “need4seed”.
(http://need4seed.freeforums.net/)
oh dot adapt at gmail dot com
Now I fell back into fiddling with trees arsey varsey. I was up to my running-boards making bonsai. An’ Robin Marble fell into my computer mad as a wet hen, and crippled as heck.
If you’ve never met a disability activist. You can’t really oil their squeeky wheel, you can only enjoy the run.
I’ll contact my sister and ask her if she is willing to find seeds for me. She is going to send me strawberry seeds anyway. The shipping cost will depend on the weight of the package, so how many seeds do you want? I update this topic when I’ll talk with her. I wonder, why do you want Antonovka rootstock? It will give you full size tree, which will start production late (5th to 8th year). On the good side it will be winter hardy (not an issue for the most parts of US) and long lived. It will be more tolerant of heavy clay soils, drought, weeds, etc. But spraying, thinning, and pruning will be a pain, so eventually the tree becomes biannual.
The reasons we would want Antonovka would be all the reasons you mentioned Antmary. Also as a person interested in growing from seed, I covet the idea of a potentially superior rootstock that is created in some way other than clonal replication.
It is a widely regarded stock by guys like Bunker at Fedco.
I personally would only need say 10 seeds. With that I should be able to grow out to graft maturity at least 3 or 4 trees and I would really only need 1 or 2 trees for experimentation.
When the time comes I too can send money for the postage.
There used to be a guy on GW who lived up in the Canadian frozen tundra who was always seeking more hardy apple rootstock and Antonovka was the only thing anyone could think of that might be capable of survival. I think he got temps down to like -70F if I remember correctly.
Okay, I’ll update when I receive a response from my sister. I know that in Ural mountains and in Siberia there are even hardier varieties then Antonovka. They are mostly interspecific hybrids with crabapples.
As for postage I would prefer to get 3-4 varieties of plum or apple scion wood next year if its possible.
As we speak about Antonovka, here is description. Heirloom, well-known in 19th century, productive, resistant to fungal diseases, apples have specific fragrance and tart taste. I liked to eat fresh apples but you cannot eat too many of them. Very good cooking apple: jams, pies, wines. Keeps 2-3 months, gets mealy at the end and really boring. It is said to perform better in colder climates. In hot climate it becomes a summer apple and doesn’t keep at all. Here is the picture:
Antonovka’s claim to fame for me was it was Saint Lawrence Nurseries preffered rootstock. and they claimed their tree would survive on Antonovka rootstock better than anything else.
At the time I was living in Essex )northeast kingdom) county VT. and their trees survived when others did not.
i had success in the lakes and monadnock region of NH with them.
My projects here, I am more in search for a standard rootstock.
Using crabs is a little bit of a crap shoot as to how dwarf your trees will become. But I know of hardscrabble gardeners who are willing to roll the dice.