Disease resistance for Nickajack Apple trees?

General Fruit Growing
1

Anyone with Nickajack Apple personal experience:

Please describe relative disease resistance?

Scab?
Fire-blight?
Mildew?
Rust?
Other?

Has anyone successfully grown Nickajack Apple in hardiness zone 4b?

2

I know it’s grown in Michigan but I don’t know zone. I grew it in 7B, now 8A and didn’t have any major disease problems with it altho it can get some CAR. My notes say moderately resistant to fire blight. We don’t have scab here. Mildly sweet unless you pick it just right then has a nice sweetness. Has a huge number of fruit spurs; need to thin to prevent biennial.

3

Thank you!

While the taste is interesting and I might eat a few, my primary motivation is to feed wildlife, mostly deer.

I’m trying to build a database of late dropping and disease resistant cultivars. Nickajack looks likely.

4

Are you also looking at Yates? Pretty bulletproof; not sure how far North it grows. Deer hunter websites have some great info on game orchards, can’t think of name right now.

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5

Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, I am very well of the Yates Apple-crab, and agree with your assessment. It is very high on my recommendation list.

Thus far I have identified over 120 cultivars that meet my selection criteria (disease resistance and later dropping).

There is a lack of important information on some of the more obscure potential candidates like Nickajack Apple. I’m trying to fill in the information gaps.

6

FYI:

Yates Applecrab:
Hardiness zones 4-8.
Harvest early in the fourth period.
Drops in Oct, Nov, and well into Dec in zone 6b.
Excellent resistance to scab, fire-blight, mildew.
Good resistance to rust.

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