My name is Dietrich Thurston and I live in the Northwest corner of Benton County, Arkansas. My folks live on a piece of property that has been in our family since the 1950’s, when my dad was a teenager. Of the apple trees growing on the property, when the home was purchased by my grandfather, one remains… but it is in sad shape. I am thinking about grafting it to a suitable rootstock but I have never done this and do not know what cultivar I am dealing with. The apples mature by July, are greenish yellow with red hues towards the top, are small (compared to a gmo Walmart apple) and are bitter/sweet with a “starchy” texture. I believe this tree produced apples for the nearby hiwasse cannery- when it was in operation. My questions are many but would most appreciate being connected with someone that knows how/what to do. Thanks
I recommend that you research the variety Yellow Transparent. If this variety is a match for your apple, you’re in luck, because you can likely find a large Yellow Transparent tree relatively cheap at the big box stores in the spring. This could save you years in growing time.
Otherwise, in northeast Arkansas, I prefer the tried-and-true M111 rootstock.
And please consider adding Arkansas Black to your orchard. It’s a treasured apple tree for me.
Welcome to the group, Dietrich. I’m by no means an expert, but I might have some thoughts you could use. By the way I grew up in Carroll County, AR, so I’m familiar with the neighborhood.
First thoughts: Go out now and try to find some growth on your old tree that grew last year - preferably a nice long stick towards the top of the tree- and put it a zip lock bag in the fridge.
Decide what rootstock you want. I think in terms of semi dwarf trees because I want something I don’t have to wait for forever, and I don’t like getting very high up on ladders. I want a tree I can keep to about 12 feet in height. You might check with local nurseries to see what’s available, but check our “For Sale” section here and consider some of the posters on this site who run nurseries and know what they’re talking about. For example, I just ordered four rootstocks (2 each EMLA 7 and EMLA 106) from 39th Parallel, in Lawrence, KS. We’re going to graft from a friend’s old Wealthy apple tree. I see your neighbor @Podunk recommends M111.
And you can go from there. When you’re ready to graft and so on ask away, and best of luck.
Also to practice grafting you can just take any two branches from any tree and practice different grafts with them to get a firm footing and some confidence before you graft your own rootstock etc good luck and welcome
My dad swears that these (two) trees are “Arkansas black” cultivar. However I am hesitant to endorse this. The mature fruit is the size of the organic bag apples we can buy at Walmart. The color is not a match either. While most of them do have a bold red pigment…it is blotchy and intermixed with a sharp greenish-yellow pigment. The red tends to be closer to the top (stem side) of the fruit and fades towards the bottom (flower side). Q: are there official names for these two described locations on the fruit? I will try the M111 until I gain more knowledge about this process. I could post pictures but I don’t know what value they would be this time of year. Thank you for the info!
One more note: I appreciate everyone for sharing this information and providing me with a few suggestions. I am a “weekend warrior” when it comes to emails and social media so just letting you all know that I may not respond to posts in a timely manner.
Hmmm…Terry Winter is yellow skin blushed red with darker blotches. Medium-large. But it is tough to go by pictures as apples can really color up. Terry Winter can get very red. The old USDA prints show it as you describe.
It’s like modern day Tarbutton. It will not redden up. But it will get richly broken red stripes
Check out Horne Creek Orchard and Big Horse Creek. They have oodles of apples that migrated through there.
The bitter part throws me off. Sounds like a cider apple or maybe and apple picked too late.
Welcome to the forum! A great first graft might be a whip or whip and tongue graft
Bud 118 or mm111 would likely do good for you to plant an entire 50 - 100 tree orchard again. Here is a large wholesaler.
You can always send wood to @39thparallel and have him custom graft the bench grafts for you or grow the trees out for you for a year or order a few rootstocks from him to practice grafting with or order a bunch of different orchard trees to grow in your new orchard. Apples are his area of expertise and not mine. His trees are inexpensive. He is a good friend of mine.
These are the entire apple trees ranging in price from $13.50 - $23 . They would ship out this spring if they are in stock.
