Was able to take a look at some of the trees on the property I mentioned earlier. I posted in another thread that there were hundreds of seedling apple trees . I think I under estimated by a lot! The property is an 80 I think (maybe a little bigger) and in many places it is hard to tell what apple goes with what tree they are growing so thick. Haven’t been able to look at the whole property yet but in some ways it is a disappointment as most of the trees are not disease immune as most wild ones tend to be. Lots of scab and many of the trees are naturally dwarf or semi dwarf. However the range of apples is unlimited ( none the same) Tried looking for the most disease resistant ones and did find several decent apples . The hard part will be locating those trees come late winter even with being marked. Here is a couple pics
This one did have a lot of scab in places but is the best tasting . Sweet and juicy but not real crisp ( but not soft and mealy either)
The last three I posted are all good eaters off the tree. The last one I would say is more a sweet/tart apple but not very tart. It is also the most crisp one and does not brown when cut . The other two are more on the sweeter side. With the first of the most recent ones posted being an exceptional eating and sized apple . However it does have some scab issues ( not as bad as most of the surrounding trees though). The second one of the recent pics tastes sweet with good flavor off the tree but has a slight ,what I call a “cellar” taste . That taste an apple gets after it has been stored in the cellar for a long time. That taste does not bother me in the least though. Both those apples are not super crisp but also not mushy or mealy off the tree.
Many more trees to look at on this property . Like I mentioned there are way too many to count and many growing in thickets . I will say I either sampled or disregarded, for disease reasons ,many hundred trees so far to come up with those three! Two others from that property I will post pics of later are a pink/red fleshed large crab and a real crunchy mostly tart type yellow apple . The crab is nothing special eating wise ( neither bad nor good) just the pink/red flesh. The yellow apple is OK because of how crunchy it is. Haven’t decided yet if I will try to propagate either one of those yet. The other three recent ones posted are for sure ones I will be propagating to see how they do in a more controlled crowing condition.
One other pink fleshed apple seedling that I will post pics of at some time is growing along the river in the back yard and looks like it has some promise . Sweet tart(best discription) , crisp, and durable ( not an easy bruiser). Smaller apple but also first time it has had fruit on it ( only about a half dz)
Beautiful apples! You might want to mark which ones are which and trade scion wood this next spring to preserve the varieties. I send people scions of my seedling apples to preserve the varieties.
Some companies and individuals as your aware patent and sell new apples. If you have some perfect seedlings you might consider that if your interested in that.
Right now all options are on the table for the right apple going forward. However like you , right now my interest is in preserving the best of the best for every one to enjoy. Many of these apple trees are ones I have picked apples from off and on for decades and now recently I am going back to after learning how to propagate them by grafting. And of coarse that has branched out into gaining access to ( or finding)apple trees that I have never sampled .
Here is the other two I mentioned from this new property
The chance of producing a superior new apple variety from seed is not very good. It took millions of seedling trees planted over more than 100 years to produce just several thousand named variety. On the other hand it could happen. Just consider Ginger Gold
I guess you would have to define “superior” . For instance the apple I started this thread with. It might not be “superior” to many of apples already out there if based just on sampling a bite out of one. However if compared to early ,sweet, crisp juicy, highly disease resistant , extreme cold resistant , apples already out there ,it may( still many other things about it to determine at this point) just end up being a superior apple. The big thing for me right now is finding the best of the best that show disease resistance and going from there. And enjoying the adventure of all the different apples growing wild ,and remnants of ancient orchards. How many have the opportunity to sample a hundred (or more) new apple varieties in a single day !
Here is a pic from my adventures today. There is also the remnants of an ancient orchard along with a couple of monster walnut and oak trees that very few people even know are there.
BTW this house was never finished after all the work put into it(all hand poured cement blocks) and planting the orchard ,oak, and walnut trees.
You are in a very special and unique situation and one where you could discover a new and exciting variety, or perhaps something that was thought to be extinct. I expect one of the well known apple researchers would be interested in your findings. Good luck on your quest.
Here is an interesting link that describes a situation simular to yours:
I was speaking about planting apple seeds with the hope of locating and selecting something new and better in my first post
David Benscoter, the subject of the article, is one of our members, isn’t he? I know he was on the old forum as “Dbens”. In fact he sent me scions, including a Hawkeye that should bear next year.
Chartman,
The second thread was revived recently on these seedling apples and I wanted to see if you have follow ups for these apples. Some apples are biennial, have heavier disease pressure one year than the next etc. you may not have had time to pick apples from these again this year but I thought I would check. I really wonder if some of these red flesh have an Etter connection decades ago.
Hey Clark , have been real busy and haven’t been on here in a wile so just now seeing your question. I did check out many of these apple trees again this year and some did not have apples and others were not as good as last year. I suspect it had to do with our mild winter and then the hot and humid summer we had . Lots of insect pressure was the most noticeable and the apples dropping early was another. At another spot was the wetness from all the rain we had caused a lot of stress on the trees themselves and those that did have apples were small and dropped early. The red fleshed apple from the riverbank behind the house has to be a cross between a prairie fire crab and one of the other apple trees around the house. No other red fleshed apples any where near where it is growing. The one spot that there is many wild red fleshed apples clustered together ( hundreds of acres with thousands of wild apple trees but so far all red fleshed ones are in one area) has the remnants of two small orchards ( a dz or less trees each) . I would bet the most likely red fleshed parent (if there was one ) might be a redfield as any baking or cooking apple variety was commonly planted at any homestead back then .
I will do an update on the ones I was able to check this year
The russet crab was not something I thought was a good apple . Just interesting and it does hang on the tree well into winter . I had plenty of apples on it again this year.
The first yellow apple pictured is in a wet spot and unfortunately was quite stressed this year. It had plenty of apples but they were real small and dropped early. I think the tree will make it but it had quite a bit of dieback by the end of summer. I did cut some scion wood from it last summer but possibly got it mixed with another wild tree I also cut from. Either way I grafted it onto a B-9 rootstock and plan on trying to cut another scion from the tree this winter if I can make it back there.
The next apple is also in the wet area and the tree was doing well and did have apples again this year but they had all dropped already when I was in there ( same time as the prior year so they dropped early) Did not cut scions from this tree.
The next apple only had a couple apples on it this year but they were as delicious as last year. Cut scions from this tree last year and grafted on B-9 rootstock.
The next one with the pink flesh had a lot of apples again this year and I plan on cutting scions from it this winter.
The next one with the red/pink flesh was loaded last year and nothing at all on it this year. I cut scions from it last winter and grafted to B-9 and seedling rootstocks.
The pink/red fleshed crab had apples again this year but do not plan on propagating it.
The next yellow apple didn’t get marked so no follow up on it.
There were two more apples that I must have posted in another thread on here . The first was a sweet red apple that was loaded last year with almost perfect apples. This year it didn’t have apples on it. I cut scions from it last winter and grafted them on seedling , M-7 and B-9 rootstocks.
The other is the red fleshed apple that is growing on the river bank behind the house. It is a fairly young tree that is just starting to bear fruit. Last year it was loaded with blossoms but only set a few apples due to several hard late frosts. I pruned it pretty good last winter and this spring it only had a few flowers on it. So it only had several apples on it this year again
Here are pics of that apple
