This is the current status of my Clark’s Crab grafted spring of 2023 onto an established tree.
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Amazing!
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Tasted one yet? If so, how does it compare to Pipsqueak?
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Looks to green yet on the shaded side. Found a drop the other day and it was not ready, green background color as well.
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mine got frosted this morning. ill give it a few days and try 1.
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Loads of ornamental crabs growing wild/escaped in MI too.
Many of the wild crabs in MN look to have some Red Splendor crab heritage to my eye.
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Maiden Blush has a flattened shape, no matter how big the apple. It ripens early, but that isn’t a problem genetically. The parental mix can eliminate or over rule that characteristic.
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I ordered a couple more sticks from 39th Parallel for next spring. I’ll tack those on a few different rootstocks and see what happens.
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With cooler nights coming the sugars will start going up fast on those little apples. Some years when i picked them the snow was hitting my face and the bite of the real cold weather was in the air. This year everything for the most part is early. @Auburn has been enjoying a few as he said as he is a lot earlier. The only problem Bill had was a bit of rot and not enough of them yet. Your welcome Bill some people get to caught up with making money. I partake in the small pleasures of life. I enjoy a good apple, a cup of coffee, a roof over my head, a warm blanket, great friends and family, a well made steak or burger. These people trying to patent God’s creations have a greed ptoblem.
Rot is a minor weather related problem typically. @steveb4 i think your still a little early. The cold seems to not bother these apples. They will flip from green to yellow as they ripen. @roth2000 are not there yet based on the photos. They are going to get there soon. When you eat one and immediately want another then you will know. They are well balance between sweet and sour. Everything a small apple should be and what we wish store bought apples were. I highly recommend doing more breeding with these apples. The genetic strain is not fully dominant yet but i’m betting 50% or more of these seedlings will be very much like their mother. An even better apple is very possible with these genetics. I’ve done my part with these apples. We are getting good reports from Kansas and elsewhere that indicate Gods hands are on these apples from the day i put them in the dirt. They produce very early after planting them, store very well, produce heavy, taste good, have some disease resistance etc. . In most orchards they are hands down producing as much as 3-5 years faster than the other apples in the same orchard in the same soil. They store several months longer than most apples. The opinion of the Japanese beetles is in also rating them as the best tasting apple in most orchards. In my area they only rate honeycrisp as sweeter. A little trick most people are not aware of is when you grow apples from seeds the insects and animals tell you which apple is your best long before you get to taste it. @39thparallel really has me wondering what genetics this apple will have. I strongly suspect it will shock us all if it has any known relatives. We know it must have at some point been related to some domestic apple. I can’t imagine what apple that will be. @smsmith im excited to see you grow more of them. @NuttingBumpus do you have photos of those? @belowtheterrace they came from the forests there in wild apple country. I paid a local to send me some good feral apple seeds and seedlings at the time to use for my seedling apple project. Kansas isn’t known for its apple’s and i decided to make my own varities instead. @nhaskins i’m seeing lots of great results with these like that. @Mtncj graft as many as you like i didn’t patent or trade mark them i just want to share my fortune of having grown them with the world. God has his hand on this apple i think. @dannytoro1 @Dollie @dannytoro1 @JohannsGarden @ukie @Robert @MDL17576 more reports of these from all over the country will be coming in soon as they ripen. My only request of all of you is to grow them and enjoy them. I give the world all the gifts i can afford to while i’m here to do it. God has been good to me. My acres are watered with the sweat, tears, and blood of those who came before me. I could have divided the land and made millions but once that is done it cant be undone. I decided making apples is better than making millions.
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I found 3 Clarks Crabs in my fridge yesterday and intended to eat 1. All 3 are gone now. It is a good tasting apple.
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That is a great report Bill. I strongly suspect the same type of reports will be coming in from all over the country soon. I strongly suspect that people outside the USA will soon make an effort to get their hands on the Clark’s crabapple. I’m hopeful @Richard can grow them in California. That will be a true test of how the apple does without a real winter. My goal is to give the world a gift. @39thparallel keeps adding more of these trees all the time. The local orchards very quickly realized the apple i grew like anything i grow is adapted to the hostile environment where i live. That is why many people like @krismoriah grow my families blackberries. I wont mislead you i adapted even those berries to my environment. The problem is with growing anything i touch is i have a unique gift to read plants and the environment well. I see certain characteristics early on and breed towards a goal. @krismoriah knows those health berries were strong when my grandpa gifted them to me. I spent years making them stronger and adapted them to my climate. The result is a blackberry not easily controlled. Think of a berry plant covered in sweet berries that is thorny,adapts to clay soil, and can reach twenty feet tall. They will grow in an area extracting all the nutrients from the clay they can. They remain evergreen all winter and keep growing. They drop their leaves close to spring. They bloom very late resulting in a crop every year. That is a hard berry to beat. The wildlife where they grow increases by hundreds of percent. These apples need years more of breeding done with them but they have the genetics to be just like those blackberries. It takes longer to get there with apples. It is one thing to say something but it is another to show it Blackberries by the gallons . @krismoriah likely has starts by now if anyone is looking for some he would be your guy to contact about berries. He is really putting in some work to grow berries right now. @39thparallel and i both always have some projects going so expect to see more stuff coming from me down the road. Mike has plans of his own on many unique fruits but i wont give all that away yet. I will do that stuff as long as i’m able to. This is where all my time and resources are going right now The next big project 2023 - 2024 .Many people know me for my apple or pear work but the truth is there is nothing including citrus i have not grown. Yes i kept trifoliate oranges alive outdoors for 3 years. Yes i tried to grow pomegranite and figs outside. I used to be involved with more traditional crops , bees, attle, pigs, chickens etc. Yes i garden and i have proof i used to do more of it Clarkinks older fruit and vegetable growing Projects in Kansas . All that said i’m thankful to God everyday for the things he gives me. Please remember that rather than to be thankful to @39thparallel for growing these apple trees and cutting scions or to me for growing them initially and developing the variety or one of your friends on here for cutting scions off their trees to send you. God is always the one to thank for the food in our bellies , air in our lungs, comfortable place we have to lay our head to rest. We are all blessed with abundant friends like i consider all of you. We all try to take good care of each other in this very limited time we have in this world. Until its our last days i wish the best for all of you. May the Clarks crabapples flow like a river into your house. They are a true blessing to all of us.
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Had to do a double take in Lowes this morning. Some very fine looking Blackberry and Blueberry plants even though the season for them is practically over.
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@clarkinks: Maiden Blush is just one of many that are typically wider than tall. This is the only photo I have of them last year, which suggests their squatty bodies. Since MB is so adaptable - and available since circa 1776 - many pioneers took it with them. (It is not very sweet, but productive, low chill-hour & still hardy to zone 4, and pretty early.) Therefore I thought it just one possibility.
So far I am glad I grafted it several years ago.
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Thanks for posting those i was not familiar with them. I cant wait to find out more about their genetics since im curious where feral apples come from in general.
You find a lot of old Maiden’s Blush here. Widely sold in the hot South. A tart early picked apple for baking and sauce. But in the Heat? Can get very sweet when fully ripened. An apple picked over 3-4 weeks in September and lasting to the start of December. And then it loses it’s flavor.
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Try cutting back a useless tree and grafting it on something 1.5"+ and watch it shoot up like crazy.
I was not able to get any Clark’s Crab last spring and had a buck-rubbed apple tree, and I decided not to try to save it since it was unknown and never fruited, so I cut it back and grafted it with winter banana which has a lot of reports of being slow, but I got 4 feet of growth in one season off of a 2 1/2 inch trunk.
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Fall is also a good time to plant, the roots will establish before winter and then they should take off in spring.
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An orchard in michigan with rare apples? Relatives of Clark’s crabapple?
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@noogy Thanks for the cool read - i like the concept of “only the strong survive” - that’s how I’m growing apples at my place. No sprays, fertilizer, or even water. I’ve planted about 50 varieties, I’ll be happy if 3 make it…that’s enough to feed my family
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