Too early for curcs here. I wait til the Juneish fruit drop.
Summer Banana set about 10 apples, I picked a few off. So far, it’s doing relatively well in northern Florida. Very twiggy, blooms and leaves out first and consistently on the tips of the twigs, long shoots leave out later, from bottom to top, with rat blooms.
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blue pearmain graft trying too hard. i may let it keep one. it’s a year old.
more fruit on most trees and grafts.
braeburn, and holstein graft.
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Great apple variety choices. All three are ones I am considering top grafting on one of my apple trees.
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Yes, the SB is very twiggy. I had a couple full size trees for spell, cut them down due to some disease and apple mess and planted a new full-size tree at the behest of my wife. It’s about 12 years old on its own roots. It pushes up twice as many root suckers as a M111. I simply cut whole branches to give a little air. I’m trying one on a G41 hoping it will produce larger apples. It may take a couple years for it to produce anything but small apples. It’s a tough tree and the apples taste great for an early apple. They make great Dutch apple pies, sauce.
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How did you get a Summer Banana on its own roots? Does SB root from a Scion easily? Mine is on MM111, but I probably buried the union, had some burr knots on the root stock, that I burried.
I’m assuming folks back between WWII and the mid 70s were mostly planting full size trees and buried the graft union. My wife’s now deceased Aunt gave two root suckers to my MIL back in 1977. My MIL always referred to it as a Summer Banana, and it fits David Vernon’s description down to the exact detail which includes half the fruit being round and the other half semi conical with lobed bottoms.
I cannot confirm whether it roots from the scion easily, but given its toughness and eagerness to grow, my assumption would be yes.
Sidenote, the parcel of land where the SB is located was hit hard with errant herbicide that harmed every tree on the property this past Spring. Dogwood, Crepe M, pear, lilac my Winesap and Stayman. The Stayman is near death. The Summer Banana was right against the sprayed field and has fully recovered. Very impressive.
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Would it be a wise decision to allow my apple trees to produce fruit this year? I purchased granny smith, honeycrisp, and gala apple trees earlier this year and they’re all starting to come out of dormancy. Each of them are around four feet tall and I’m not sure whether they’ll even attempt to produce anything this year, but with all I’ve read about first year production leading to biennial fruiting and everything, I figured I’d ask the experts just in case.
Thanks!
If there were no blossoms by now, there will be no fruit. If they do get any , it is best to pick it off the first year. My trees have generally taken about five years to produce, with a few taking as long as ten. Have patience.
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Thought I would archive a few images of 2026 fruit set. All the M26 went in ground from pots in October 2024 from Yorkshire Apples.
The M9 Karmijn was a bare root this year but from the warm and sunny Kentish climate at Keepers nursery.
They are a bit shaded from the south side and stuff in pots against my south facing back wall at home was much earlier to flower and set fruit.
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Here’s the Honeycrisp now, the Gala pushed leaves out but they immediately turned brown and died, i’m not sure whether or not it’ll make it but I also got a Granny Smith so hopefully it does better.
Here’s the Granny Smith, got a branch pushed out because it’s too vertical at the moment-
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I can’t say that I’ve had a great apple year but this limb of Bastian Orange grafted to a pear has done pretty good. Picked 43 small apples this morning.
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I read somewhere that apples and pears are not compatible- I guess that is not right then?
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Thats not true. I have pears on apple trees.
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It’s variable
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Luis,
Many years ago, I grafted two apple varieties, (can’t remember which now), one on a Euro pear and the other on an Asian pear. The grafts took. One variety (on a Euro pear) more vigorously than the other.
The apples flowered and fruited but the apples did not develop to their full size. After a few of years of waiting, I got tired of it and removed both grafts.
Can you post pics of your apples fully ripened on a pear tree and vise versa?
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