I only buy bare-root trees. I don’t want to pay for yards of soil, and whatever pathogens might be in it, to be shipped. And i don’t want to buy trees so tiny they actually fit in a pot.
I have purchased bagged&burlapped shrubs, and smaller potted plants, from local sources. But if something is being shipped i expect it to be bare-root.
I would chip-bud graft from KdS late this summer, just for insurance. That kind of graft sounds more daunting than it proved to be for me.
I’ve had poor luck with chip grafts, though. Few of my attempts have worked. Whereas most of my twig grafts have taken.
I know this is an older post, but figured I’d throw this on here.
My wife and I both love Keepsake, but geez…the damn tree just doesn’t bloom much (grafted to b118 5/2013). I’m going to use a sharp spade to do some rootpruning this year, and maybe beat the trunk with a baseball bat. If I can’t get the tree to produce a bushel of apples at some point it’s really doing me no good.
I’ve got it (Keepsake) on B-118. After 4 years it’s a whip under 5’ tall. It’s in-ground unlike many of my trees. Planted it about 7 feet from a M7 Granny Smith that’s 32 years old and has never given me a dozen decent apples…if it will grow…I’ll get rid of the Granny.
Sounds like you’re saying I’ll be trading an unproductive tree for an unproductive tree?
Well, I can’t say what will or won’t do well at your location. I can say my Keepsake tree hasn’t been productive for me up to this point. Maybe it’s one of those varieties that has to be 15 years old or more to really produce much? I did topwork a couple wild crabs to Keepsake this year, maybe those trees will be more productive.
I’d sure like to be a productive tree because the fruit is really enjoyable.
Since it’s a ‘child’ of Frostbite and Northern Spy, and parent of Honeycrisp…
good taste should be expected.
I did the opposite, I grafted over a wild crab to Keepsake. Was grafted in 2016 (?) and had its first bloom this spring.
Ashmeads Frost tender? Probably referring to the fruit, but maybe That would explain why I don’t have any left in my nursery. Z4 Rocky Mtn Front. Usually Not adequate snow cover in winter here like in some places and I guess its been cold in the last 3 or 4 years too testing new record colds (-40F) for the area.
I have yet to get an apple due to wind and hail and late spring weather. But Things are looking good for Liberty, Dolgo, and Yellow Transparent this year. So many varieties I hope actually make it out of the nursery…
I’m underwhelmed with how slow honeycrisp is . Dabinett and blue pearmain grow nice. St Lawrence is not doing great. Black Oxford gone the way of Ashmeads… Too many trees in the nursery.
@Ginda ,have you considered some inarch to support it?
As I read Stu’s comment, I thought he said he grafted crabs over to Keepsake?
I may have to wait it out since it’s the only graft that took, and it hasn’t given me extra scionwood.
I do have one limb of Honeycrisp on Frankentree#1, it has cedar apple rust and hasn’t bloomed. I did make an extra graft copy of the latest from the U of Minnesota (Triumph).
Yes, I think I misread his comment. Checking my inventory list, it looks like I have 6 Keepsake on G.222 in the nursery bed. I’ll plant at least 3 of them in the orchard.
For northern growers desiring a sweet apple, I’d think Keepsake a good one.
But perhaps not if it’s stingy with cropping.
I’ve got a number of wild apple/crabapple seedlings to be grafted in the coming years. Maybe if I graft them all to Keepsake I can get a couple bushels of fruit 
In 2021 I top-worked a 10 year old G 30 to Keepsake. Hope to see some blossoms in 2023 as I trained all the scaffolds to horizontal or just above. This combo here- G 30/Keepsake- has a weeping habit that surprised me, like a limbertwig.
G30 results in a tree how tall? 10’-12’?
I have a couple varieties on M7, but that’s the smallest semi-dwarf rootstock I have. I’ve toyed with getting a coupule B9’s to try and get earlier/better production of Keepsake but haven’t done so as of yet.
G-30 is better classed as semi-standard, rather than semi-dwarf, from my reading. I keep all my trees pruned to 8-ish feet so have no first hand experience with unrestrained G30. I’d guess 16 to 18 feet, at least in good soil.
That’s my expectation, Stu. At 4 years, I don’t have any taller than 6 feet. I did graft 4 more this spring, 5 but one graft didn’t take.
The graft is fairly low. But if i were to do that, what kind of apple would be likely to be compatible with both Crimson crisp and G41?
I guess I don’t know about incompatibility issues. I’ve seen pictures of little tripods. Maybe you could use the seedling crabs you said you have around. Or some of the same rootstock next spring?
Frost tender bloom, in my limited experience. It fit the experiences several springs running. When the last frost happened before full opening of Ashmead’s flowers, many more apples set. If during or just after, one or none set.