Hi everyone. I’m Jess and new to the forum. I’ve been foraging and starting seeds for a few years now. Anyone able to identify this crab apple? I found them on 3 different trees along a busy road and they were quite mature. I’m assuming they are cultivars. They have a nice sweetness to them.
I collected them late August here in Zone 7 and there were a lot of rotten ones on the ground so they probably ripen late July/early August.
I have 15 saplings from them I started and I would be curious if someone had a suggested name.
Thanks
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Most people will tell you they are most likely seedlings, but who knows for sure. It is encouraging that there are 3 that seem the same.
My best guess would be golden hornet, but these don’t seem as bright yellow as those do. I think it was popular in use as a pollenizer in orchards, so perhaps you are seeing the remains of an orchard.
If you really like them I would try to collect scion from the best of the three trees and use that to graft onto your seedlings or regular apple rootstocks, just so you can be sure to keep a clonal copy since your seedlings could vary considerably.
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On the roadside? My bet is Malus sylvestris aka European Crab.They are pretty common in various improvement projects. You are lucky; they are not always just sweet.
Welcome to the forum btw!
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These are both great ideas. I guess they could be placed by improvement projects, as Darren noted. Interesting thing is they are not all that close to each other. I checked Google maps and the furthest is almost 1 mile away. Perhaps these 3 are all that are left because I found the other two driving the road. Two are next to bus stops.
Another possibility that Zendog mentions is I’m wondering if they are remnants from farms. The reason this piqued my interest is not that far from them is a 600acre Hospital/Medical center with a lot of grass areas that was farms as late as the 70s. I used to work there and I remember finding random apple trees. One was in the median and had small, not crab sized but really nice red apples. This was 10yrs ago and that tree is dead now and before I got into growing.The other ones so found looked like Granny Smiths but they had no sourness or sweetness and were meh. Those were removed by a parking lot expansion.
I had labeled them as white crabs initially. I have also started what I guess are some Dolgo crabs I saw growing near a development as well as som wild crabs I assume are sweet crabs.
Cheers
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