Mine are still not as colored as I would expect at this point. The one that I was watching (because of its lower location and no sock) was getting there but I’ll never get to try it. Deer thought it was pretty darned good though.
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Have been looking forward to a crop of Chestnut apples for years, but it is a very sparse bearer here. I’m about ready to chop it down or graft it over to something that actually gives me some fruit.
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So… busch83… that looks like some serious fencing, but still a whole lot of deer… was that supposed to be exclusionary fencing that they’ve managed to defeat?
@Lucky_P it mostly works. In this case the wind blew the gate open which may as well of rung the dinner bell. They did a good deal of damage this round. I’m going to add a closure spring sometime this week so if the latch does come loose or say the kids leave it unlatched as kids do, it will at least hold it shut.
Thankfully they stay low so there is still fruit on the tree. Most of the damage was in the form of pulling the leaves off of yearling trees and they snapped the Knobbed Russet graft that I had going. I have a backup higher up in another tree.
@JesseinMaine that front one picked up some great color. This one was bagged in a foot sock on the north side of the tree. Not bad overall. The skin texture may turn some off but I’m a fan. I’m not getting any nuttiness out of the two I’ve tried so far.
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This is the last one I’m posting for the year. This is a very enjoyable little apple. I’m still not getting a nuttiness but I do get a underlying cherry tone to the flavor. Great variety for my microclimate. Hopefully it only improves with age as I enrich the soil around the tree.
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I’m not really fond of the nutty flavor and wish they didn’t even do it. They get it here as they start to lose the brightness of the flavor and get very ripe. I also have gotten the cherry flavor last couple of years and will definitely be making crosses with other cherry flavored apples, like cherry cox, cherry crush and sweet 16. Something great has to eventually come from that pursuit!
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Hi Steven. Do you have Eden?
I had the big eden apple, but I don’t have Etter’s Eden. Do you? how is it?
Finished picking mine this season, we got a few bushels and will be saving the nicest for fresh eats, and the rest will go for cider and butter
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I do. It’s awesome. I like it better than wickson although it’s very similar. Eden ripens at least a month earlier than wickson here. I’m in zone 6a Michigan. Let me know this winter if you want to trade something.
Currently eden is my favorite apple. It has that wickson flavor with more notes of lychee.
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@JesseS hey man i see this post started forever ago but I’m wondering what rootstock your chestnut tree is on in those first pics? Also, how big is the tree now?
It’s on antonovka, they have stayed relatively small however, maybe 12-14’. They have a somewhat weeping habit. I also prune to keep them within reach when I’m on my ladder
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How does chestnut do with fireblight? I have a stick to graft, but somehow missed that it does not have any resistance. I don’t think I’ve read any reports yet here, but haven’t gone through this whole thread.
I have had hits on other trees near it but no sign of it on the Chestnut. I would have guessed good resistance to everything but rusts. Even there it wont cause the harm that fb does.
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Mine hasn’t had problems of any kind, yet. Like you I’ve not read of anyone combining FB with chestnut in a sentence.
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Great. Thank you both.
It has been bad here in western NC. I have verified it is the true Chestnut after fruiting. The strain of blight that we have here really hits some commonly touted resistant varieties such as Clarks crab, honeycrisp, Harrow sweet, and clarks small yellow. Other varieties sail right through it without blinking: Yates, ruby rush, gold Rush, Bartlett, Ayers, moonglow. Im not saying don’t try it, I just wouldn’t plant an entire orchard with it without a backup plan.
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If you want a backup plan, Centennial is a tasty crab in the same ripening window, maybe a bit earlier. It has been very disease resistant and about 80% of the flavor of chestnut.
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Mine got no blight but defoliated from what looks like Apple Leaf Blotch fungus, worst tree in my orchard for this, so plan on spraying it with Immunox at petal fall and see how that works but may also need a second spray in July.
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I had 3 Chestnut Crab trees set to bloom last spring and something happened that toasted all the blooms. I have wondered if it was blossom blast, a frost, or something else, but I can’t say for sure what did it. They were the only trees in the orchard that did this. Even the fruit buds looked like they were dead, I’ll see this spring if the trees have to form all new fruit buds.
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