Clark’s crab and Trailman crab sounds like a breeding match made in heaven
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I am thinking Coble’s Wilder and Clark’s. Both prolific, vigorous, Cluster bearers. Clark’s flavor and Coble’s larger size and juiciness.
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Remember the wonderful thing about the apples and pears i breed is i give them away. Whoever grafts clarks crabapple has money in the rootstock, their time, mail, packaging, materials to keep roots wet , electricity, location etc. .i do the fun part which is growing the new varities. Once you have scions or trees you can graft them, trade them, breed them etc. and have a 1000% better apple than a trademarked crab in my opinion. The clarks crab apple will speak for itself. If you look at the above list of positives i have no other apple that meets them all. The longer you grow it the more you will see. Im not suggesting anyone try to grow an apple 100% spray free but if there is one you can its clarks crabapple. Apples need more spray than anything else i know of. I did grow it spray free several years.
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i intentionally skipped spraying mine to see how it does. so far they are all blemish free and no bite marks on the leaves. still has 21 apples on it and its barely 5ft tall. it probably was a good thing the crows and chipmunks thinned it for me. 
50 apples would have been way too hard on this little tree.
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Weird thing. I noticed in researching around; Russian and East European Apple varieties have a bigger tendency to prolific cluster fruiting then we see in Western Apples. Is that a feature of being closer to their wild apple ancestors genetically?
Russian Vityaz{Knights} Apple:
These apples go 200-250 grams each! Strong branches indeed.
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As we’re into September now…I think it’s fairly safe to say I’ve failed to kill the Clark’s Crab I grafted in February. There were few other survivors.
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They are very tolerant apples. No special care is needed.
That is fascinating i think you are onto something there. Weak wild apples dont survive.
Im excited to see the results!
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Not quite as extreme, but my ‘Winter Banana’ has been setting fruit densely along some branches like that too.
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I found a promising apple-crab or lunchbox apple the other day. It’s obviously a wildling- three trunks, all bearing same fruit, growing from a ditch. The fruit was like a dolgo crossed with a macoun, and had the nice fine grained texture and snap of a macoun, with abit of the sharpness and complexity of a dolgo. Fruit was about 2” or less, wide and flat like a mac, and grew in clusters. The skin starts off white, almost translucent, ripens bright red. The calyx end is quite distinct. My kids downed about 10 of em before I knew it. Ill be grafting this one for sure. Working on a name.
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Nice and clean right off the tree!
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In a word, “zippy”! Theyre not as strong as dolgo, but very much like halfway between a macoun and a dolgo. They are pleasant out of hand, but bold in flavor. There’s a bit of a tannic finish, not overpowering, but noticeable. The texture is fabulous. So crunchy and fine. And juicy as all get out.
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That sounds like a potential hard cider apple. Sounds interesting for breeding potentially also.
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I think so. I didn’t check brix or anything, but its high, for sure. I think itd make a great single variety cider. This one definitely gets a name
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Well, its one of those years for apples here. We had NO apples, save a few due to a hard May frost last year, and barely anything the year before, so the trees are primed and the bugs and disease are knocked back quite a bit. Beautiful fruit on every roadside. Hopefully make some cider this fall. Its an early year too: all apples seem to be coming weeks ahead of a typical season.
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I have to say, after all the hype I’ve read about Clark’s crapapple, if its not just about the best apple I’ve ever tasted I’ll be a little disappointed, lol
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Im waiting to get your opinion when you taste it! I get addicted to them and soon others will see what i mean.
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Can’t wait to get this from 39th Parallel to plant in a couple locations around Topeka
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I plan on taking some scions this winter…
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