I’m getting my first fruit from Clark’s crab this year. It’s not perfectly ripe yet for me but the flavor is good and it’s a beautiful little apple.
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Happy to share, I hadn’t ever included a photo before. Now that I look back through the thread these are more red than some other photos, but that’s what I have on the label. Maybe it varies in color or maybe I have it labeled wrong, but it’s a fine apple. Lots more to come as my orchard grows up.
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From Canada to the US any tree purchased from a nursery is allowed into the country.
39th Parallel sells trees.
If there are the same rules, from us to Canada just cross with the trees and a receipt.
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There’s a video of an interesting apple tree by Zemlyak on YouTube, he’s got a tree grafted from a friend’s grandfather’s tree, it looks like a Crabapple too. And just as productive as these, but smaller apples like Clark’s probably.
I really like this guy, you can turn on the automatically generated subtitles, they’re usually okay.
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In all my experimenting with grafting, one word is ultimately my best advice: Parafilm.
It doubles your chance of survival even if I did everything right, half of them died if the whole scion was not wrapped in Parafilm. And I don’t know why, but cellophane makes them rot and Parafilm doesn’t.
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I’m pretty sure that’s not the way it works. You need to have it inspected and certified disease free before any fruit tree can be imported into the country.
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Do not try that unless you are a Jackson treaty subject.
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Very good taste. I picked the last one about 2 weeks ago. Looking forward to next year. Overall they appear to be disease resistant with no sprays. Had a few with a little rot but not many. It is surprising how good it tastes. Thanks for sharing without a patent.
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Ill have to wait a few more years. It struggled a bit the year I grafted it (badly timed insect damage) but did better this year. Planning to get it planted out to its permanent spot in the ground this fall.
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got some flyspeck but no other damage. tree is till tiny as are the apples. about golf ball size. some a little bigger. im waiting for a frost to hit before trying them. still very firm yet. ill post picks here when mi pick them.
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My 2nd year graft is still alive, but put on only a couple inches of new growth. I’m considering either
a. a crappy graft from the get go
or
b. rootstock incompatibility
It’s grafted to a wild apple from the University of ID, so the genetic makeup is completely unknown.
I’m thinking I’ll order another stick or two from 39th Parallel and give the variety a few more chances on some other roots.
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Thinking that might be normal. I grafted it onto two different established trees this year and neither of them grew much more than an inch or two. The older trees posted on the forum all look like fairly small trees. Good thing I grafted above deer range or they would be in trouble.
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From the 39th Parallel description, I think golf ball size is the norm.
“Produces heavy late season crops of golf ball sized sweet tart candy like fruit.”
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I may put a tree tube on mine next year and see if that accelerates growth. Right now I’ve got it in a 4’ hardware cloth cylinder. Good protection from critters, but it does nothing to increase growth rate.
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In my experience many of the apples were double the size of a golf ball. I think @39thparallel tends to under-promise and over-deliver. Most of the apples are at least golf ball sized. Weather, pollinating insects, and location are big factors in the apples performance. When the apples are ripe i have never once been dissapointed with the flavor. The cold nights and hot days really make a difference in flavor of fruit in general in my experience.
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The older the rootstock, type of rootstock, etc. Make a huge difference in growth of apples. @39thparallel gets feet of growth on these apples every year , every time in his nursery. I think the differences are that wild apple rootstock performance is variable. He is using certified rootstock that performs extremely well. Since the rootstock is young and virus free it tends to push faster growth. @smsmith is right random rootstock can give poor performance or incredible performance depending on compadability , age, weather etc. . I see this with my pears all the time. Some wild callery push hard fast growth in my pears and others are 6 feet tall after 5 years. This crabapple tends to be a natural dwarf as well.
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