I’ve built my garden and orchard for grandkid grazing. Nothing better than hanging out with them and eating fruits & veggies. My dream is one of them wants to keep it all going in the future. That’s a ways off, but just like our kids, they grow up fast.
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Looking at my Bud10 Clarks Crab today and marveled at the young stems. Very thin and wiry. Nothing like that on P.2.
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I’d like to plant/grow/graft some of @clarkinks’s crabapples in 6b/5b. Where should I start? I’m new to grafting and have never grown an apple tree from seed.
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But a graft tree from 39th parallel (of he still has Clark’s in stock, he does custom grafting)
You can buy apple rootstock dirt cheap and graft from your Clark’s crab next year. Apples are pretty much the most forgiving grafts
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@Phlogopite is right: if you want to try grafting Clark’s, get your hands on a larger/higher vigor rootstock. Those are Antonovka, MM111, Budagovsky118. M7, Geneva890. I recommend higher vigor stock because Clark’s is so productive, it spends most of its energy making fruit and the tree remains stunted.
39th Parallel sells Clark’s scions. That is how I started it in '24, using whip and tongue grafts onto B118. Both grafts took and bloomed in '24. I stripped any applets that year. I allowed one fruit on one this time. (You can see my photo and note on it if you scroll up this thread a couple entries.)
As to seeds, we cannot get the same tree by planting its seeds, because the pollen parent is nearly always a different variety or wild thing, its pollen transported by insects. (There are ‘self fertile’ varieties, but we cannot tell if a given seed began life self-fertilized by looking at it, so the odds work against getting the same thing.)
Google 39th Parallel. Have fun.
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P.2 the Semi-dwarf seems to being just fine with CC. Nice thick trunk for sure. Bud 10 oddly seems to be making cc rather wiry looking. Not sure why. Both have been grown together with identical care.
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@Petey , I can’t believe our forum members would recommend that you learn to graft without a fair warning. . . wink, wink It’s fun and addicting. By the 2nd year into it you might be obsessed, and trying to graft everything you can get your hands on.
In all seriousness, it’s fun and like @Phlogopite and @NuttingBumpus said, apples are a good starting point.
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Yeap, very sharp knives and clippers, wiping well between cuts and some grafting tape or wrap.
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In terms of plant morphology, your cultivar is a good match for Malus ioensis, which is partially native to your region.
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I wanted to give everyone a reminder i developed Clarks Crabapple to propagate. It is not patented or trademarked. Feel free to graft it , grow it from seed, clone it , cross it, grow it for other people , sell it, give it away etc… i developed it for people like us to enjoy for free or cheap. Many on this forum feel the same way as me. It is a fantastic apple in terms of flavor and production. When i give the world a gift i wanted it to be something worth giving.
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@clarkinks
If you haven’t already, I recommend writing to USDA Geneva PGRU to see if they are interested in receiving scions.
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I have a small graft of it here. I’m not sure I can hack it yet, but if you wanted to grow a rootstock in ground for now I could cut you a scion for sure next spring.
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Thanks! And thanks all for everyone encouraging me to graft. @weatherandtrees here gave me a crash course last fall so I hope to try myself this spring. In the meantime, will look for some vigorous apple rootstock well suited to the climate and soil I plan to plant it at.
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Will anyone have any scions available for Clarks sibling already have Clarks crab going
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I planted seeds from ‘Clark’s Crab’ × ‘Pendragon’ and am letting them cold stratify naturally outdoors. I was surprised to see that some are already germinating in the cold! Unfortunately, the first couple sprouts got decapitated by birds, but I’ve put a cover over them to protect the rest.
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Interested in scion of Clark’s crabapple.
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39th parallel has scions
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You’re saying that Clark’s Crab tastes like Pink Lady!? I love Pink Lady! That’s great news!
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@Phlogopite Take this man’s word as Bible.
Great comment! Thank you.
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Would @39thparallel my friend give my apple my name if it wasn’t good? It is by many peoples standards the best they grow for many reasons. It is delicious and abundant. It stores very well , it is small enough you dont have to eat a one pound apple. Kids love it! It bears fruit very early, it has some disease resistance. It is a strong early producer of delicious apples! It produces very late in the season when you need apples for the winter. Every location people have tried it the feedback I have received is they love it. The more people giving away scions , and starting variants from seeds the better. I did not patent it or trademark it. Giving all of you this apple is one of my gifts to this community of fruit growers. The only problem is there is never enough scions, trees, seeds or hours in the day.
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