We need to change smsmith’s id to Will Hafta as in Will Hafta wait to find out. steveb4 hasn’t tasted them yet. Just has descriptions provided by the owner.
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Fair enough. When someone tells me an apple/crabapple is a good eater I ask them what that means. I’ve got a buddy who thinks Dolgo is great for fresh eating. I think they’re terrible. That’s why I ask some follow up questions. I don’t want to waste my time grafting/growing a crab/apple that tastes like battery acid (to me).
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Many red flesh are very dry. There are a few that are very good. This year when i’m at @39thparallel orchard i need to document those really good red fleshed apples because he has some. Last time we were only focused on making cider. You can see we pressed many into cider 2022 cider at 39thparallel orchard
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I’m okay with drier apples as long as they aren’t also quite tannic, sour, and bitter.
“Really good” is like “good fresh eater”…they’re all in the eye of the beholder. What’s really good? What’s a good fresh eater?
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she said it does have some acidic/ tannin element to it but she finds its good fresh eating but she was raised on this farm with this tree so maybe its more of a sentimental thing for her. ill try them then post back on what i find…
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we need to get your apple to @skillcult . bet he could improve on it by crossing with his best selections. if this crab is as good as she says it is ill get a few to send to him as well.
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While too much tannin can make a fruit too astringent to eat, many commercial breeders have erred on the side of releasing varieties which in my opinion are too lacking in tannin. Tannin isn’t bad. It just needs to be in balance.
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i agree. i like a acidic apple as long as it has the right amount of sweetness and flavor.
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@steveb4, the “farm apple” is getting so much traction that it might be time to create a new thread around it!
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done! under Rosignol farm crabapple.
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A nice bit of acidity is good too, but that’s usually still present in many “modern” apples. It’s usually just the tannin content that’s too diminished. Tannic apples brown faster when cut so that may be part of the selection process against them regardless of flavor balance.
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Clark’s Crab needs its own song, maybe a country song.
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Have to add a guitar, train, prison, a good woman, and alcohol to get a good country song. Let’s see, I was strumming my guitar the day I got out of prison, Dreaming about that first taste of Clark’s Crab hard cider, They dropped me at the train station… Hard to find a good woman.
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Not a bad start. We’ll get Jason Isbell to fill it out, and Sturgill Simpson to perform it.
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You forgot to reference a beat up truck.
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And that it’s raining.
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When you get drunk first, you forget a lot of things. Unfortunately the rain should come before the cider. Depending on where we are on the journey, the truck getting beat up may be in the second verse.
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It’s looking like this growth ^^^ was simply scion stored energy. The drought and heat kicked in shortly after I grafted this year. We’ve had less than .2" rain since early May. Many of my grafts that were looking promising no longer do.
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@clarkinks and anyone else who has grown the Clark’s Crabapple for a while, would you be so kind as to suggest the most vigorous rootstock that you can for grafting purposes? I would like to go ahead and get those established in order to top work once I acquire scion. I understand that it can runt out rootstock, so I would be wanting a non-dwarf. I am in 7b, in North Georgia.
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Whichever rootstock you choose, for the largest possible ‘Clark’s Crab’ apple tree it may be a good idea to plant and let your rootstock grow a couple years before grafting ‘Clark’s Crab’ onto it so that it will be ready to push fast growth. Personally I like the idea of the tree runting out a bit because it’s a crabapple. I don’t mind huge trees for regular apples because it’s easy enough to use a pole picker for harvest, but with crabapples it’s easier to harvest when everything can be reached from the ground or a short ladder.
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