All my M111’s fruited in about 4 years ± one year. I hear people saying the same thing you say that the M111’s are so slow to produce fruit. I am happy with the M111’s I have.
Sounds like he just tasted one right off the tree and did not give it the right time to ripen in the fridge ( storage). OK, thanks for your clarification.
I believe that Northern Spy is notorious for slow bearing, whatever the rootstock.
I’m finding I like the results on B-10 better than B-9. Seems to be as precocious, and gets bigger, faster.
I still have 6 trees acquired in 2015, 16 and 17 that have not fruited yet…all on M-111.
Only one has bloomed, and it’s a red fleshed apple. (None are Northern Spies.)
(I should have my head examined for ordering a half dozen trees this fall on M111 from Century Farm Orchards…I may not live long enough to see them fruit!) (Unless I graft a scion to a tree already bearing).
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If you want bigger.
hmmm, thanks for sharing your experience! this is making me lean toward the dwarf rootstocks…
M-111 sounds a lot more vigorous than the more moderate semi-dwarf. Those classifications are broad and not super meaningful. Each clonal rootstock has its own characteristics, and those 3 classifications are just gross groupings.
If the smallest dwarfing rootstock produces a 5’ tree after 10 years, and a Standard seedling produces a 25 foot tree, semi-dwarf covers the range from 9-21.
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The M-111 I have all had fruit on them in about 4 years or so.
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@BlueBerry I think those were almost my exact words when I ordered 3 from Dave last year on MM111. The irony escaped me at the time. You and I both will be pleased if we get to see fruit from those trees.
It also has occurred to me the state of the orchard if I am unable to do any prunng in the future. Then again, it might be more fruitful with my hands off if it. Time will tell.
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Another topic on GF
Too vigorous, too much work and sometimes the pruning can lead to fire blight
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I’m happy for you. Only the variety Niedzwetzkyana did it under 5 years for me…except I think a scion added to another tree on M111 that still hasn’t bloomed, the little scion had one apple in year 4.
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Just curious, were those varieties mostly apples out of grocery stores or mostly apples straight out orchards?
I once ate Jonagold apples from Kroger’s that I thought were among the best tasting grocery store apples that I had ever eaten. A few weeks later I ate Jonagold apples from an Asian market store that were terrible tasting.
Fuji apples are good out of the grocery stores, but much better out of my orchard. One should never base their taste preference of apples out of grocery stores.
With that said, I eaten excellent tasting apples out of old country stores.
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I’m about 70/30 for grocery vs local/orchard apples. My earliest apple memories are of visiting trees with my mother to gather apples to make apple butter and apple pies. I sampled trees that were given local names meaning nobody knew the actual variety. We had yellow transparent (identified later when I knew finally saw them in a catalog), Red June (A very good early small red apple similar to Fameuse, and Horse Apple which I found out later is a named variety but not the same as the apples we picked up. In commercial orchards, I sampled Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, and eventually Fuji.
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Does anyone have any information or experience with Brown Russet aka Royal Russet/Leathcoat? I am wondering if its slightly less sharp/tart off the tree vs Golden Russet
Also does anyone have any experience with Burnt Ridge Nursery? They seem to sell a lot of great heirloom varieties on dwarf M26 rootstock
edit: yikes, I just read the whole thread about the credit card data breach issue with Burnt Ridge. I always use paypal anyway for transactions on small websites and I get 5% cash back with my card on purchases through paypal anyway…seems people have good experience with the quality of the trees sold though.
Blueberries, currants, jujubes…and some other stuff…always as good or better than expected from Burnt Ridge. Haven’t ordered in a couple years…I suppose because I’ve collected most of the fruits they have that I want. Maybe a couple more jujubes.
Speaking of dessert heirlooms…varmints stole my Cornish Aromatic this afternoon.
Sad.
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Burnt Ridge Also sells scion wood.
I don’t know how they manage their low prices. They are generally the best value if you want what they carry.
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ok final list is Queen Cox, Rubinette, Karmijn de Sonnaville, White Pearmain, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Egremont Russet, Golden Russet, GoldRush. All are dwarf except White Pearmain. Quite an expansion from my original plan, whoops!
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This site will do that to you. I predict this is just a start.
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Disappointed the squirrels (I guess) got my Cornish Aromatic…maybe next year.
Actually, I may have a dozen or more heirlooms produce next year for me for the first time…at least I see bloom buds.
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