I came across a video where the creator says that an applecrab is a hybrid between an apple and a crab apple. (For reference: https://youtu.be/7rYE3Wjh1Bg)
I wonder what you all think about this. Is this a different fruit?
Itâs a fairly common moniker. Many of the applecrabs/edible crabapples/lunchbox apples - whatever you choose to call them, are the result of chance or purposeful crosses of crabapples (fruit size <2" diameter) with larger apple varieties.
Couple of examples: âCentennialâ is Dolgo x Wealthy, âKerrâ is Dolgo x Haralson
7 Likes
This is just marketing hype. Apples themselves are the result of hybridization between various wild crabapple species throughout human history. Crossing apples and crabapples does not produce a ânewâ category. It simply produces more âapplesâ if theyâre on the larger size, and more âcrabapplesâ if theyâre on the smaller size.
5 Likes
I just consider them very small apples like Yates for example. Years ago their were not near as many large crabs. Now days there are many.
I left a comment on the video and the poster had the audacity to respond that Malus domestica (which is actually a hybrid complex rather than a true species) is a very homogenous group as justification for using the term âapplecrabâ to distinguish these smaller ones instead of just calling them crabapples like theyâve always been called. Iâm honestly a bit taken aback. Their response did read very well and I could see it easily convincing some people. I would hope that most people on this forum grasp how incredibly variable domestic apples are though. Anything but homogenous.
I probably shouldnât pick this as the hill that I will die on, but I canât help myself sometimes.
9 Likes
That is why I posed the question here 
It seems like the video creator was very passionate about his position on the matter in his comments and I thought that maybe he wasnât alone and I donât know either way for sure. My understanding of domestic apples is they were once wild but heavily selected for traits over many MANY years and the DNA is so blended their is just a âdomesticâ bucket they are all thrown in if it isnât fully a wild species.
I acknowledge that language evolves over time and there is a chance that âapplecrabâ could catch on and become a commonly accepted term (beyond simply a marketing term). However, I was pondering in my head and asking myself why I care so much about defending the meaning of words when language changes over time. I had a little âahaâ moment in which I realized that defending definitions isnât about preventing the evolution of language, but rather a way to temper it so that words donât evolve so quickly as to make communication break down (as if there arenât already enough communication challenges as it is now). That made me feel justified in pushing back, but ultimately the masses will have to decide what words they want to adopt and accept.
2 Likes
3 Likes
A lot of Etter Apples have crab heritage. Does that make those big apples; âApplecrabsâ???..lol
2 Likes
Applecrabs sound like a devastating apple pest that live in Eurasia that we have to keep out of the new world
6 Likes
Parasitic crab: âThis apple is too big. This apple is too small. THIS apple is juuuust right. Eat it up, fellas!â
4 Likes
I hope apple people open that nursery link that Michael provided, those apple-crabâs are too good for deer, they sounded great.
Thanks, Michael
I looked at the link. A lot of the âapplecrabsâ listed there are commonly known crabapples, supplemented with what I think is a number of their own selections. It is as I was saying, just a marketing term. Ironically, they actually put âcrabappleâ in the title of some of them.
4 Likes
Yes, Iâve heard and used the term âapplecrabâ for extra-large sweetish crabapples for years.
My point was lots of excellent looking/sounding small apples not commonly seen on the nursery market; similar to âdeer pearsâ.
Lotâs of these reminded me of âClarks Crabappleâ. I would like to have planted some of them 50 years ago. 
5 Likes
Like I said. Great small apples superb for kids and lunch boxes abound. Yates, Little Benny, Geeveston Fanny, Crimson Gold{Etter} and John Standish are great examples. All fit in that âA bit bigger then a crabappleâ box with excellent flavor, Etterâs Vixen as well.
3 Likes
Iâm pretty sure I clicked on the link forthis thread with furroughed brow.
I am actually a writer, maybe not a very good one, and certainly not a prolific one, but âlanguage evolvesâ as someoneâs argument usually irks me because it is most often someone too lazy to learn the rules they insist on breaking, and it ignores the process by which language functionally evolves. In this case, and I didnât watch the video, it feels like the person didnât really know what he was talking about, so I still have the âyouâre not the person who should be evolving this segment of the languageâ feeling.
I was hoping that there was a solid delineation of what constitutes an apple crab along genetic lines. Iâm fine with a marketing term to loosely define a segment of edible crabapples or smallish apples, but I was still hoping it would have a basis in the horticulture world, not the economic one.
I was a cultural anthropologist in college and really donât like the reminders that a lot of cultural evolution was this sort of random. We tend to polish off this sort of stuff when we tell the story, so watching it unfold in real time provides a level of discomfort, even if we get to enjoy munching down on the process. 
Now, whereâs that sample table again?
2 Likes
Itâs not a scientific designation and it is prone to be full of misconceptions, just like how people think all crab apples are inedible, or how if you plant a seed from an store bought apple you get a crab apple.
Iâm easy; 2+ inches apple, sub 2 inches crab. Borderline ones go with what the average for the species are. Then there are those that if I let the tree carry too many they will grow to be crab apples (by size) but if I cull heavily it will produce regular apples (by size).
Franklin Cider apple being pushed by Stark Bros. By size they are crab apples but there isnât even a suggestion that they are that small, when you label something a crab it just doesnât sell as well as a âregularâ apple. The applecrab category? The cynical me just thinks that it is a well deployed marketing gimmick for what anybody would call a small apple. But a really small apple? (aka a crab apple)? well Rockit sell those and once again not a word about crab apples, these are miniature apples!
3 Likes
Not only is Rockit a miniature sized apple, itâs the âWorldâs First Miniature Apple.â Of course if you create a new nomenclature then your apple will be the first of it. 
I do kinda like Rockit apples though. I like them enough that I saved about 50 seeds to try this year. Do you suppose Iâll end up with a Rockit miniature apple crossed with a Manchurian crab apple? lol
1 Like
It is quite true. Being labelled âsmallâ has been the death of many apple from popular cultivation. Just ask any âHallâ apple tree that once dominated the south with itâs fine flavor and keeping ability.
2 Likes
To quote bro: âIn short, Malus domestica has reached a unique degree of genetic homeostasis.â This dude has obviously never planted a seed from an apple. Applecrab is now one of my trigger words, it really tweaks my nerd genes⌠good marketing term though.
6 Likes