I’d be very interested in seeing close up pictures of the graft unions to look at what is happening there. It’s got to be a nutrient flow issue since this variety very much CAN grow very vigorously when it’s got good sap flow.
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In that middle picture they look just like tejocote, but I’m sure they 1000% more flavorful
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I’ve got scions on order. Count me in.
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What will you use for rootstock?
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The keeping quality is excellent. They are the best storage apple you will find. Rain wont bother them or ice or snow. There were many years my face was stinging from the cold as i picked them. Our weather has changed and now it is warmer longer. Our winters are more intense when they come. The apples keep months once picked. Literally you can eat them until warm weather rolls around again if they are kept in cold storage. Once you eat one they are addictive. My problem is eating them to fast!
They are well balanced with an excellent true apple flavor. I caution everyone the tree tends to be to productive. If it makes more apples than leaves that can impact flavor and size on any fruit as you know. The thing unique is the flavor is very good even with a very heavy load of apples.
Apples are finicky and not like grafting other trees as most people think. If you cut a pear down to the main trunk and graft it you will get rapid growth. If you cut a mulberry down to the main trunk and graft it you will get rapid growth. If you cut an apple down to the main trunk and graft it you can kill the tree. This is my fault for not discussing this sooner. @smsmith knows it depends on the age and variety of an apple tree. Apples become very old very quickly. The standards seldom live more than 40 years and the dwarfs only half that time. They can live hundreds of years. Any apple that is grafted should be put on a healthy new vigourous rootstock. Clarks crabapple is a natural dwarf in that it produces apples heavily more than extra wood. All apples have some grafting issues. If you graft Clarks crabapple graft it on the tips of branches and leave the existing branch structure of the apple. Apples like to be invigorated with minimal pruning but never cut back. @alan is a good guy to follow when it comes to pruning apples.
Is likely growing them on mm111 because of its versatility in multiple soils. My soil is terrible at growing apples and the preferred rootstock here is 111. He also likes b118. My soil has a heavy clay composition and b118 does not work as well as mm111. I developed Clarks crabapple originally because apples are very hard to grow in my soil. Like the infamous healthberry of my grandfathers. Blackberries by the gallons
Many people look at my blackberries or Clarks crabapple or pears and think i can grow fruit well. The truth is slightly different. It is very hard to grow anything in Kansas well and often times i had to develop techniques and hardy varities to make it work for me over the years.
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I used to graft them on B118 because it can help size up lower vigor crab varieties like Dolgo. Clark’s Crab turns out to be relatively high vigor and seems to do a little better on M111. I have some on Bud 9 i meant to plant out in our orchards but sent them to @tonyOmahaz5
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I’ve got M7, MM111, and BUD9 on order. What would you use?
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I bought mine from 39th Parallel as a grafted sapling.
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Mine is on m111 also.
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My scion was an unexpected gift and M7 was all I had left so I have 3 on M7. I think I would choose M.111 now that I’ve had it in the ground since 2020. They were, however, yanked from the nursery bed and planted out in the orchard in their 2nd year. They’re just starting to size up, I haven’t allowed them to fruit yet, probably this year.
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I plan on starting mine on M111 and then will place some on P.18 later as I am only getting 1/8th caliper size this year. I might do one on P.2/P.22 just to test maximum precociousness…lol
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This is beside the point, but generalizations about California’s climate always make me smile. We have every possible climate here, encompassing the full range of cold to hot, wet to dry. And you flat-out can’t grow fruit at the top of Mt. Whitney or the bottom of Death Valley! 
I live in a part of the state where it’s just possible to keep the hardiest fruit trees alive, and the latest-blooming varieties have some chance of producing in a given year. This great group gives me lots of ideas that are applicable here, so please don’t think I’m dissing anyone when I show up grinning like this! My sister lives in the Santa Clara Valley where stone fruits reign supreme, and I 100% agree that it’s hard to find better-tasting fruit than what she grows in her little yard or what I buy at top-notch fruit stands such as Andy’s Orchard when I visit.
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Then - having come down from over 14,000’ to 5600’ - you definitely know something about our local climate extremes! Say hi if you visit Benton Hot Springs again (there are only about 10 people in town).
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I second this, people claim CA is dry, but at our place in Del Norte County, we’re supposed to get over 100 inches annually. 65+ on super drought years.
I will however admit to never hearing about “spray apples” before joining this forum, much less a claim to fame of finding an elusive no-spray variety. Possibly growing up on an organic gravenstein apple farm has just made me more tolerant of wormy ones.
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I’ve grown Apples in several southern CA metro locations (south of the San Bernardino - LA transverse range). I spray my apple trees once, maybe twice per year when I see aphids gathering. At present I use Evergreen EC which is permitted for use in grocery stores. That’s it.
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And here, we’re high and dry with 5 to 7 inches precip annually - mostly falling as snow. If we get more than that, it’s flash floods. Speaking of California: Wishing the best to anyone here who’s affected by the terrible fires.
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