I just met him yesterday and I cannot remember precisely: He said he sells cold-hardy trees only on three different seedling rootstocks. One is the Kerr crab, one the Baccata crab (Zone 2) and the other one I cannot remember, other than it begins with a “Ches…” (?) and is also from Siberia. In researching the Malus Baccata, I see it has “compatibility issues,” suckering problems, and it is also “susceptible to diseases that impact its longevity.”
When I told him my Budagovski and Antonovka rootstocks were from Russia, he had little to say about them, other than something to the effect they would probably be okay.
To answer your question, though, I believe he buys his trees from another grower (or two) located here, in Montana, and does not actually graft and propagate them himself, other than on occasion to reproduce/recover/restore a rare variety he wants.
Saint Lawrence Nurseries specializes in cold hardy fruit. Their descriptions are pretty good and I’ve had decent luck with what I’ve gotten from them. Importantly, they use cold hardy rootstock. I’d check them out!
Dolgo, if I remember correctly, acts as an acid bomb in cider. For eating… I don’t know, but I’d avoid it for cider. I think it shows respectable disease resistance too…bonus!
I didn’t notice aronia or elderberries above. Both grow well for me (4b-5a). Both are considered superfruits, but aren’t necessarily something someone with a dainty palate would munch on right off the bush. Make something out of them…mmmmmm.
Someone mentioned currants… definitely get them if you can. Black currants are a bit tannic for many right off the bush. Red are much better, but still very tart. Red currants make jelly that is to die for. I’ve never tried white currants. Related… I’d run away from gooseberries… not a lot of flavor and covered in thorns. If i’m dealing with thorns, i’ll Get raspberries/blackberries. …just my preference.
I hear a lot of County Extension services offer a grafting class in the spring each year, and that is where I learned to graft. For only $15 (per person), my wife and I were able to attend the half day class–and also bring home two grafted rootstocks each! So for $30, we got three apple trees and one pear, all cold-hardy varieties suitable for our location. All four trees took and grew well–almost five feet–until the deer got them and pruned them back a couple times and the grasshoppers devoured what was left. The pear did survive, somehow, and this year I transplanted it into the fenced growing bed with my other starts to try and regrow it.
When you begin grafting, I would recommend buying a pair of cut and puncture resistant gloves. Most everyone who grafts trees can tell you of the time when they cut themselves in a serious manner requiring lengthy and painful healing process. Here’s a link to a comfortable and reasonably priced glove that I purchased ($16.34 includes shipping), that works well for me, though I’d recommend buying a size larger than what you normally wear.
Im just south of Sioux Falls so I’ll let you know some of my experinces. First as far as herbicide drift, thats a pretty serious issue around here im coming to find. My brother lost all of his trees last year to it, peaches and apple trees that were 4th leaf. Farmer paid for the trees, like $200 for the six of them. Im sorry but that doesnt come even a little close to the cost of resetting the clock on growing them. I was a little more fortunate this year, i had drift 150ft in on my property a few weeks ago, but it only killed a few trees as the weeds protected most of mine, they are still taller than most and took most of it. It ended up being the co-op that sprayed and assured me it wont happen again. So you might want to check with your farmer as i understand alot hire it done now, youll want to talk to whoever does do it so theyll keep you in mind. As far as the pawpaws go mine are second leaf and doing great, i went with seedlings as its my understanding graft failure is common this far north. Raspberries are my favorite fruit i would say but i stopped growing them. After one good year every piece ended up with maggots from swd and would fall off before having any flavor even if you could get past that. I sprayed everything recommended online for it and had zero luck. Couple things to think about.
Anybody in ag country may find it worthwhile signing up on Driftwatch. https://driftwatch.org/
My guess is that individual farmers may not pay a whole lot of attention to Driftwatch properties (I could be wrong), but I’d think co-ops and custom applicators would.
Dolgo is way too tart for my palate. I have a friend who just loves them though, and adds some to his cider mainly for color. I’m sure Kerr would do the same things. Kerr is Dolgo x Haralson.
SWD is thick in La Crosse area too…i’ve dealt with it for years now. The fall raspberries are the worst but even now…my black raspberries are just turning black and i’m going to spray everything (it has been raining the last few days) with an erythritol/water mix…little pricey but i hope it works…i figure you need to mix about a half of a bag to a gallon of water…research looks promising though. I got rid of sour cherries, elderberries, mulberries because of SWD. I’m letting my fall raspberries grow back in hopes i can spray them with this or something that stops SWD.
Just an FYI if you are buying apple trees from a mail order place you need to pick an appropriate rootstock for south dakota. M7 does not perform well there. I used to sell fruit trees to nurseries in the dakotas 30 years ago. I recall selling to Sodak Nursery near Clear Lake, SD. Lots of good nursery/independent garden centers at that time that knew what cold hard fruits to offer for that area. I hope that situation still exists today.
Short growing season, super cold winters so you need to be sure you pick apple rootstocks that will survive. Not sure if SDSU puts out any lists of good apple rootstock choices but please look into that first before ordering apple trees from a mail order company.
I recall many plums did well there like Waneta, Pipestone, Underwood ect. For apples Haralson was good. Also Wodarz (from ND), Hazen (also from ND), Beacon, NW Greening, ect. Lots of newer apple varieties out that I cannot comment on as things have changed in the 30 years since I was selling in the area. I presume any of the apples that do well in the canadian prairie provinces will also do good for your area too.
Cherries? I would stick with Evans for your area. Just mentioning that as far hardier than Montmorency. I had a client in Sleepy Eye, MN that had hardiness issues with Montmorency so I I would go with Evans to be safe.
So I did use this site for my bees already, but the driftwatch says for commercial specialty crops. Wonder if i would be fine using it even though im not commercial.
I appreciate the input. Luckily, i’ll be going through Norms, a local nursery here.that has a good reputation, and he seems to carry most of the varieties i’m looking at. I’ve looked at the SDSU extension list, and it appears they offer some recommendations for fruit and root stocks
Similar record lows here (similar years) and similar zone (5b/6a)…dry and windy here which doesn’t help. SD, MN and others are at a totally different level of harshness. The last winter I lived in SD, I thought the alternating layers of snow, freezing rain, snow, freezing rain… piled on top of each other reminded me of soil layers. I guess those glaciers have receded by now
I hear that the same variety of apple may have different characteristics when grown in different climates/zones, so maybe the acid in Dolgo may not be so much in some parts of the country. My daughter loves her Dolgo crabs for the jelly and also says they can be eaten out of hand.
Most importantly, for the cider I enjoy drinking English style cider which is made with crab apples with medium to high tannin content. They are usually dry to medium-sweet and full-bodied. They tend to have a long mouth finish because of the high astringency (acidity) due to high tannin levels.
To your point, however, I hear the Kerr has the same qualities basically as Dolgo, though it is a bigger, “lunch-sized” crab, and better eaten out of hand. And I hear Kerr too makes a fine cider. I will find that out this fall when I fellow I met said he will give me some to make cider. Perhaps the Kerr would be the better choice given the larger sized fruit could make more cider, eh? I have seen first-class ciders made from both Dolgo and Kerr.
I’m in Colorado theoretically in zone 5, but you never know here. We primarily grow apples, but are trying a lot of the berries.
I highly recommend Dolgo as well. We have two on the windward side of our orchard. Very cold hardy. Large crab apples that taste delicious.
Someone mentioned Hansen and you should look into some of his varieties. We just just planted Hansen bush cherries this year and they are doing great.
The University of Minnesota spent many years developing cold hard apples and I would recommend looking into their varieties as well.
We are also experimenting with honeyberries and so far they are doing well
I have two Trader mulberries with fruit this year. They both survived -38 two winters ago. They do get a bit of tip dieback each winter, but they just keep on growing.
I enjoy drinking English style cider which is made with crab apples with medium to high tannin content. They are usually dry to medium-sweet and full-bodied. They tend to have a long mouth finish because of the high astringency (acidity) due to high tannin levels.
Perhaps the Kerr would be the better choice given the larger sized fruit could make more cider, eh? I have seen first-class ciders made from both Dolgo and Kerr.