The following pictures are of what I think is a Craven crabapple that I grafted onto a mature limb in 2015. The scions was provided to me by a local collector and as of now he has been correct on my other varieties. I would welcome any input from others about this apple. If anyone can verify this variety it would be appreciated. The apple has a good balance between sweet/tart and is very good in my estimation. I have tasted many crabapples and I would rate this one at the top of my preferences. It is the first crabapple I have ever had that I was not tempted to add a sprinkle of salt . It was easy eating right from the tree. Your thoughts are welcome. Bill
You might do some digging on the GRIN website. They typically have photos similar to what you posted. You used to be able to search by common name, but I am not sure that is a option anymore.
I just looked it up and found a post on it on the permies.com website forum. I tried to copy but need a lesson with my Android pad. Glad you found a good one. I find it all worthwhile when the apples ripen to perfection.
TurkeyCreekTrees,
I did not find it on ARS grin so I suspect it’s very rare. That picture Bill took is the only one I could find of this variety. I suspect if it hasn’t been already it should be sent to the Grin site so the tree is not lost to time like so many have been.
I currently have about eight different varieties of crabapples grafted onto limbs and the ones I like will get more space. For the ones interested I hope next season I can offer scion wood to our forum members.
Craven Crab is, in my understanding, a very regional selection. First saw it mentioned by James Lawson, in his nursery catalog, indicating that he’d been given it by Mr. Craven - hence the name.
I’d thought Mr. Lawson was long-gone, but saw, within the last year or so, photo evidence of some NAFEX members visiting him there at Ball Ground, GA… so he may still be among the living.
I purchased scions of Craven Crab from Joyce Neighbors just before she passed her collection of old Southern apples off to the SeedSavers organization… but the tree that resulted from grafting those scions produces a fairly large red apple that ripens in June here in KY. I’m pretty sure that it’s NOT Craven…
The person I got my Craven from also told me he got the scions from Joyce Neighbors several years ago. I don’t really know if either yours or the one one I have is accurately identified. The one I have is not very big but it is good tasting crab and appears from a short time to be disease resistant.
I suspect yours is true to name - though I don’t recall that Mr. Lawson actually described it - size or color-wise - in his catalog… it just sounded good to me!.
I have no doubt that mine is NOT Craven. It’s big, red, early… tastes OK, but not great.
WDE.
This is my last Craven crab. Taste varies from one person to the other but this is to date the best crabapple I have ever had. I will be checking it over tomorrow to see how much scion wood I have so it can be added in strategic places in my orchard.
This is an old post about Craven and the question as to whether it is correctly labeled. Apparently the correct apple is red. I still don’t know if it is correct but I actually have my one and only for this year that hung on and is turning. Again I’m only hopeful that is Craven and will probably never know for sure. I’m going to see if it will darken more with time.
