Anyone grow columnar apples?

That’s good to hear. I think my Scarlet may be on M111, it’s heavy with Burr Knots at the base. I’ll let them bear a moderate crop this year if they set one and follow up with a light Summer pruning for shape and a little more TLC to try and boost mine up to eventual goal of a max 9 feet. I haven’t fertilized them at all, native soil only and dressed with woodchips, the trees are healthy and I wanted a few years without fertilizer to see how they acted. Just recently put some aged horse manure and homemade compost down around them, and the buds are just beginning to swell. I like the tight bottle-brush shape you’ve pruned your tree to, that would suit my site just fine!

The apple Dudley is also known as North Star.

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While reading “Apples for the 21st Century” by Warren Manhart - a second time around for me - I once again was impressed by the information given about Kandil Sinap. It “grows like a Lombardy poplar.”

There are also tantalizing gaps in the information. No mention of diseases or insect problems. Is it that good to grow?
Since I just got word the HOS Propagation Fair for Portland, Oregon has been cancelled, I dare ask: Anyone with Kandil Sinap scions?

Kandil Sinap looks like it has cylindrical fruit not a columnar growing tree.

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I was going to plant these in DC but after 3 years I decided to just keep them in NJ.

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This is my 8 year old Scarlet Sentinel. Deer kept eating the lower branches so I cut them off. I think it’s on too vigorous rootstock. I think it’s on M111. Why would a nursery do that? It needs more dwarfing effect. I think the excess vigor makes it hard to maintain the single cordon shape, so I gave up on this one. It’s a little weird and too tall, but quite productive, annual crop of quite good, no disease apples. I don’t think they look all that scarlet, but maybe they do if grown elsewhere.

These are the apples from the Scarlet Sentinel. I harvested them about a week or two ago. Nice big, clean apples with good flavor. I actually like North Pole and Golden Sentinel better, but these are good, productive, and easy in my situation.

Edit: By the way, I don’t know if Scarlett Sentinel was ever patented in the US. It came off patent in Canada in March 2020. So I think it’s OK to graft. I grafted a scion from this tree onto Bud-9. It will take a while to see what it does. One parent of Scarlet Sentinel is McIntosh Wijcik X Delicious. The other parent is “Discovery” I don’t know if that Delicious is the same as the Red Delicious. Discovery is an English dessert apple, one parent being Worcester Pearmain and the other not known but possibly Beauty of Bath. So it seems to have some good flavor genetics.

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These are from my 20 year old NorthPole apple. I didn’t have a chance to manage it closely this year and missed about 2/3 of the crop by being too late. This is an older variety compared to Scarlet Sentinel. My tree is on an unknown rootstock. I maintain it as a single cordon, but it’s still large, about 15 feet tall maybe, with the spurs being about a foot to 18 inches long, like a giant bottle brush. I also have this on M27 which stays about 6 or 7 feet tall and produces about 10 or 15 apples a year. On that rootstock, it needs a stake so it doesn’t fall over. NorthPole is my favorite columnar for flavor and texture. It makes great pies and apple sauce.

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I just noticed your request for Kandil Sinap scion wood. I have it, and could collect some for you this winter if you still want it.

I think the apples are beautiful, but I don’t care much for the taste of mine. They’re rather bland. I have Golden Russet on the same tree which I much prefer.

I did taste them at the HOS All About Fruit show one year and they made a favorable enough impression, along with the appearance, that I decided to grow it. They must have tasted better than mine. I let them over-set without proper thinning and haven’t kept up on pruning so they get somewhat shaded. The Golden Russet still taste great with similar treatment though.

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Murky - bless you for the offer. I got Kandil Sinap scion last spring and put it to Geneva 890. They both took. Neither has much growth this season.

As for Mere Pippin, the unusual cold snap of late October last year killed the entire whip. (Also 4 inches of a Maiden Blush whip and 14 inches of Twenty Ounce were killed.) By the time I knew the extent of the damage, it was too late to get another scion from Skillcult.
That was probably just as well, since we had another, even more severe cold snap a week ago. I am hoping the graftlings survive it.

Maybe I can try Mere again in 2021. If I do, I’ll put something like a Bell jar over the graftling(s) in fall each freezing night until it becomes fully dormant.

From what I understand vigorous root stock is used to combat the dwarfing caused by the short internodes.

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about the name: maybe it’s different in canada, but in the us, the cultivar name used in the patent should not be the same as the trademarked name, and in fact, the trademarked name isn’t supposed to be used for a single apple but instead a marketing category which might initially contain just the single apple but could later have others, like sports. so the usual thing when propagating one of these is to look up the patent’s cultivar name and use that. more and more it’s just a number or some silly unpronounceable thing, but it’s still something. I can’t find a separate name for scarlet sentinel so maybe it is different in canada after all.

here’s a canadian youtuber who gives an overview of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9VWtoyJIl4

and the article he references

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Regarding the names for these apples. Their names are not consistently listed with trademark status which means that whoever owns the trademark (if anyone) hasn’t been enforcing it. That basically makes them no longer under trademark (if they ever were). Anyways, in the US the trademark names can’t also be the common name for the plant so unless there were pre-existing KNOWN (and in use) names for these apples then that also would negate any trademark status.

The only trademarks on these ‘Wijcik’ type apples that would be valid would be series names like “Urban Apples” or “Balerina Apples”. From a practical stand point those names aren’t worth using anyways. I would much rather collectively refer to apples with the ‘Wijcik’ growth form as “Candelabra Apples” (no trademark) because it actually describes their true growth form which is in fact NOT a single straight trunk.

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My Temperate Orchard Conservatory decapitated Irish spire scion was a success.

Still to small to share cuttings but many of the others could be trimmed if anyone wants a scion very limited however.
Tasty Red, Golden Treat, blushing delight, tangy green
Older Golden Sentinel, North pole, Scarlet Sentinel, Irish spire(not this year) and Maypole,

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I think I’m done with scarlet sentinel. it’s grown too slowly and last year the apples had severe bitter pit despite the same cultural practices as other apples that thrived. if I had a spot in my yard that would benefit from a columnar habit I’d keep it but I don’t. I’m grafting it over to redlove odysso and hopefully growth will accelerate

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I have a small urban lot. The length runs a few degrees north of west to east.At each end of the lot is a building. Because of that, there are buried utilities that run about every 6-6 feet through the entirety of the back yard. Because of that and other hardscaping like sidewalks, etc, I am unable to do much with fruit trees or anything else with substantial roots. …otherwise I’d have put in fruit trees first. In hardscaped areas, I supplement with LOADS of containers. I would like to try columnar apples in containers and was wondering if anyone had feedback. I realize there are hot/cold issues with containers but container fruits would give me more options onsite. I’m in Kentucky - Zone 6b (near border of 6a), Heat Zone 7, Urban habitat (and heat island effect in full).

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my scarlet sentinel was in a #25 container and was pretty happy (still is, but grafted over now other than one branch). I have four other apple trees in #25s also happy. where I live it doesn’t get hot enough that the black pots bake in the sun but that might be a concern for you. other than that, use a high quality potting soil (buy it by the yard to save money), use controlled-release fertilizer like osmocote plus, and hook them up to automatic daily irrigation with bark mulch on top. two of the four were at full production last year and had ~20 pounds of apples each and will have 20-25 pounds this year

I think in your buried utility spots you may still be ok, most fruit tree roots aren’t invasive other than mulberry/fig. for example if you look at how terrible the root system is on a dwarf apple rootstock you’d be shocked, I can’t find the picture I’m thinking of but some of them are virtually just a ball of fine root hairs with no anchor roots at all, extending only a few feet

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By “#25” do you mean a 25 gallon pot? 25 inches?

On the buried utilities…not only could roots be an issue but the structures are 132 years old. They could conceivably need to be dug up and replaced. The electric is far too shallow. Anyway, I’m trying to avoid difficulties later should something occur.

I landed upon columnar apples thinking I might get some fruit production where I currently have none. I do have gooseberries, potted blueberries and potted raspberries, figs, and potted kiwis (which in 6 years have not fruited though I have seen flowers the last two years). The blueberries and raspberries are from the Brazelberry group that were bred to be suitable for pots. Unfortunately, most of the areas I can put pots are in full sun and I think they have suffered. I have been preparing a bed for them and am about to move them to a more protected space. That will free up some pots as well.

I have been experimenting for bout a year with witch hazels in two pots. They seem to be ok thus far even though they are in a bit of a brutal location for heat and sun.

#25 means “25 gallon class”, the industry has moved away from calling them 25 gallon because there weren’t good standards and many of the existing pots had true sizes that were a little smaller. I think NIST cracked down or something. mine are about 22 inches across the top, true volume about 23 gallons I think

yeah you might need sun shades if you think the pots are cooking from the sun hitting them. not a problem here at least with a pot this big and bark mulch on top and daily water

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I saw blushing delight columnar at home depot for about 30 dollars. Debating whether I should pull the trigger for a fun tree. I already have 3 apples but none have produced anything yet,maybe can get this one to produce sooner. I’m sure I can find a spot in the garden given they are columnar.

Is blushing delight a tasty variety? I’ve seen such mixed feelings on these trees thought I would ask here before buying.