Looking great! I put in 8 tall spindle trees this year, two of them being pristine. Were your trees well feathered when you planted them? Mine were pretty much whips, so I was not sure if I would get any apples off of them next season. They have put on great growth from about 4’ tall when planted to just over 6’ tall at this point. They’ve also grown numerous small branches that are 4-6" long.
My Pristine were from Cummins and were 2 year old trees on G11. #1 or #0 grade. They were heavy caliper and they got to around 9.5 feet. I installed drip around August 1.
I planted 79 trees on this trellis and this year, second leaf, most are to the 8’ wire and about 20/79 are over the 10’ wire. I’m currently trying to tie down thier branches.
I’m finding they want that central leader to stretch and along that stem they will set fruit even if it looks barren.
Mine got a little dense on the bottom branches as the deer keep biting off the tips and making heading cuts, making more branches. Not desirable to keep the trees calm. I’ m trying to thin them out to a weak branch if possible. I need to put up an electric wire.
About 70% have apples on them, and some enough I have had to thin them back to 10 apples. Maybe 8 varieties.
Zestar, Sweet Sixteen, Lamb Abbey Pearmain, NY 35, Pink Lady Barnsley, seem thave the most apples. It will be nice to sample most of the varieties in the second leaf. This trellis has 38 varieties on a 220’ trellis.
It’s been a fun experience, but a lot of work. I may have gotten carried away. 
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That sounds incredible! I planted four different varieties (Pristine, Triumph, Rubyrush, and Goldrush) with plans to add 8 more trees next year.
I think my trees were mostly grade 2 from Cummins which are two year old trees without much in the way of branching (I think). I also had deer come through this year and as the trees started pushing new growth I am seeing the effects of their “heading cuts”.
It sounds like your trees are growing faster than mine. I did install drip irrigation as the base of them and mulched them good to keep it moist. I did not fertilize heavily, just a couple applications of one of those bagged “organic fruit tree fertilizers”.
I am hopeful to get an apple or two off of my trees next year, but I don’t want to stunt their growth before they hit that 10’ mark.
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We got through June and my little Park’s Pippin has not dropped a single fruitlet. I will have to thin it out. Some are already bulking up. But I need to thin so I can stake up some support.
I have a graft of pink princess/pink old lady on honeycrisp. It’s growing well but has yet to throw blooms. Hopefully neither of us are far from trying the fruit.
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Yes i hope so. My Pink Princess tree have many apples and even VIP and Red on Red apples grafted this year.
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I don’t know how long the grafts between pears and apples will last but I enjoy testing them.
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Williams Pride on B9 which is probably not the best rootstock for this tree. . This tree wants to grow branches at wide angles. The fruit will injury rot if it makes contact with anything whether it be next year’s spurs, leaves, limbs, other apples. I haven’t grown this one on a semi dwarf, but I suspect if the fruit were to hang on a horizontal limb, there would be less contact and fewer issues.
The flesh is chewy, not crunchy. Medium density, not soft at all. The flavor is satisfactory. The first one I tried tasted like Comfort or Econo lodge lobby apple juice. This one more like Holiday Inn Express apple juice.
This one was a dropper.
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winter banana is trucking along
I’m curious how these will be. i put it in as a “park extra grafts here” tree and expected nothing from it directly.
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I accidentally knocked down a perfectly good Glockenapfel and took a photo of it next to a coddling moth damaged Hudson’s Golden Gem. You can see their shape is the same. They both mature into large bells. The Glock will be a much brighter yellow, with a blush on some of the fruits. The Hudson will mature into a yellow ochre with a lot of russet.
First year fruiting on a Cinnamon Spice. They’re kind of squat and ribbed like pumpkins.
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Williams Pride, southern conditions.
Extraordinarily hot and dry Spring, early bloom
Still dry. June was quite warm.
Alt, 960’ near the Yadkin/Wilkes/Surry lines in NW NC.
First few were not ripen enough, found one that hit the sweet spot, now it’s all water core as seen below. I had the same issue with lingering apples on my old Williams Favorite.
The best apple tasted a little more brisk than motel apple juice. There appeared to be streaks of surprisingly sweet cane sugar flavored flesh just under the skin. The skin isn’t offensive and has no flavor to speak of. Decent, but only a slightly better than average early eater.
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the codling have gotten to my trailman. ugh.
off to read up on spray schedules for next year, this year i did dormant oil and copper early on then left everything. a mistake
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I had about a dozen apples on each of my 4 yr old Goldrush, Summer Banana and Pomme Grise. Went on vacation and did not spay fungicides for 17 days: 8 of my Goldrush got fruit rot. One Summer Banana and none of the Pomme Grise were affected. I see now why people call Goldrush a rotter. I think one can grow Goldrush here, but has to spray rigorously especially in July, our hottest and most humid month.
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Starkspur GDs are attaining decent size.
Summer Banana fruit have grown quite a bit in the last coupe weeks. This one has an odd shape. They normally have some shoulders. 50 percent have normally bottoms while many are lobed like a pepper on the bottom. Red spots form when they’re dead ripe.
This one needs a couple weeks.
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Nice size on those Starkspur GD.
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