Clark's Crabapple

Seedlings or grafts Clark. I believe you might edit your post to reflect scions unless seedlings are consistent and being grown. I just noticed, is all.

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@Barkslip

Dax ,

They are cuttings of my seedling grafted on mm111. Thanks

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I read wrong. My apologies.

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Hey Clark is your friend Mike using some kind of spray regiment on these beauties?

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If i planted that here it would be called Clark’s Critter Magnet. :grinning:

I bet that tree is beautiful in bloom…and probably an excellent pollinator.

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@Jujube

I’m sure he is using some spray. We will let @39thparallel answer what he sprays with when he gets some time. I grew it spray free here with good results but there was damage. You can see what that looks like here New Apple Seedling Varieties . Likely sprayed them a couple of times in the photos below. These were apples from the original seedling years ago.


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I’m doing a conventional spray program. That said I may have missed critical cover sprays during CAR inoculation period and there is a big row of cedar about 100 ft away. The variety seems to have decent overall disease resistance.

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I’d love to get some scions. These look great

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Those are gorgeous Clark. I love “storage” type apples for food security reasons.

If anyone is selling scion for this variety this winter please let us know here. I’m sure plenty of us would be interested in purchasing some.

Also, I suspect this one may be one of those rare self fertile types as that could explain its consistently heavy yields.

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I don’t suppose there is any way to get this one in Canada. It looks great.

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Probably if someone sent this to be added to the USDA collection it then could be requested from them for import to Canada.

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Does anyone have any observations to report on what the natural vigor of this clone is? I would suspect the heavy bearing would have a natural size controlling effect, but don’t want to assume. Does this seem to be one that would naturally fall into the dwarf, semi-dwarf or standard size category?

I ordered scion to graft, but if it naturally grows with either a semi-dwarf or dwarf habit I’ll plan to just bury the graft unions and get them onto their own roots for longevity (too many risks to apple trees here so I prefer those that can sucker and regrow true to type if original trunk is damaged).

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@JohannsGarden

It will try to turn anything into a dwarf since it bears so heavy.

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Perfect. I might try to establish it own root then. Thanks!

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@JohannsGarden

On its own roots it got to 12 feet max size on the original tree. Most branches didn’t get over 9 feet in height. It could be pruned to be very small. The original tree was fairly small width. Just like the ones @39thparallel all about 10 -12 feet high and around 12’ max width but typically 8’.

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That sounds like a great size for my location. Large enough to not be destroyed by deer (of course protection would still be needed when young), but small enough for easy harvest and management! Thanks for making sure this one got passed around Clark!

Do you by chance know what caused the original tree to die? Did it just exhaust itself?

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@JohannsGarden

It was on its own roots since it was a seedling in a less than ideal spot. The idea of taking backup grafts nearly always pays off. The roots on rootstocks are much stronger and more resistant to disease. Mike i think has these on mm111 which is a good rootstock in this area. They will stay smaller on 111. Ema 111 fights disease much better than seedlings.

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Another tree that gets ridiculously loaded like that is Kerr crab apple. It is also a fairly compact tree. For whatever reason the juice comes our ruby red and tastes more like cranberry than apple.

My daughter doesn’t like apple cider but loves this one. She has been drinking from the gallon or so i pressed slowly to make it last and is already lamenting that it will soon be gone. I like to eat them fresh but i was told by her that these are strictly for juicing.

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Another thing worth mentioning is when stored and grown right the Clarks crabapple stores for months. I can enjoy the apples until spring like i just did this one today. This is important to have an apple you can still be eating in march if stored in a pantry room. This is very useful because everyone knows the price and scarcity of good foods right now. If you cold storage store this apple it might keeps months longer. It keeps longer than any apple i have ever grown other than arkansas black.



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