Last ditch effort to preserve the chestnut crab. Borers girdled my chestnut crab before I knew what happened and it was clear that the tree wouldn’t be around much longer. I cut a few scions that were already drying and grafted them onto a couple of potted apples. I checked today and the scions are putting out new leaves. Feeling pretty good about them now.
Sorry about the bad picture.
@Auburn — I was just searching post here trying to find out if there were favorite crab apples mentioned, that are larger and taste good, and do well in the south.
I see you are from AL, and @Preston who has replied here with a nice pic, great looking crab apple (nice size too)… and he is from KY.
I am in TN… right between you two…
Looks like you both agree that Chestnut works for you… and if it works for both of you it should work for me too.
Are there other Crab Apples that work well in the South ? Good size fruit, good for fresh eating (I am ok with tart if there is some sweet in there too)… very disease resistant ?
I have a crab now, pink blossoms, got it from starks many years ago, tiny useless apples.
That one that Preston is showing there… looks like ideal snacking size to me… you could always do 2-3-4 if you needed more.
Other Crab Names that I found this evening reading thru Post here in the past… Whitney, Dolgo, Centennial, Hewes Virginia, Harrison, Hyslop, Kerr…
Not sure if any of those are known to be good for the South.
I am in Southern Middle TN, so need one that would work here…
Thanks
TNHunter
Pretty sure that Harrison isn’t a crab, though it is a cider apple.
I suspect Hewes would do fine there, but you might find it a bit tannic for fresh eating. It’s more of a cider apple, too.
You might consider the excellent Wickson crab. I see that David Vernon at Century Farm Orchards in NC has it on his inventory list. You could drop him a line and ask how well it does for him there.
Similarly, Trailman is a nice little crab that’s great for fresh eating, though I don’t know how well it does in TN.
I really like the taste but I haven’t had the variety long enough to verify how well it will do in my area.
Centennial & Kerr (both Dolgo offspring), and Bastian Orange crabs should work well in Middle TN, and all are well worth growing.
Thanks all… I see in my OGW catalog that they have Callaway Dolgo and Whitney… crabs… but they are all listed as early bloom season…
Then they also have Kerr… listed as early mid.
My apple trees are all early mid & late mid… so of the varieties they have Kerr should work. The pic they have of it sure looks nice, good size… they say large flavorful crisp juicy great for fresh eating makes tasty jelly or cider…
Hope it turns out like that here at my place.
TNHunter
I agree Centennial and Dolgo are recommended in KY, TN, GA, and the Carolinas for their ORNAMENTAL value. Lovely blooming. Excellent disease resistance.
Centennial has apples 1.5 to 2 inches. Dolgo is a huge tree, fruits probably already ripe and gone in August…size one inch plus and suitable for jelly sans the ascorbic acid. (Tree size can be altered by different rootstocks.)
I do not own either.
I’m 70 mi NW of Nashville. Centennial finished, for all intents, a week or so ago. Kerr ripening now. Bastian Orange ripened a couple of weeks ahead of Centennial.
@Auburn — I wish you the best of luck with saving that Chestnut crab… and hope it turns out to be a good one for your location. If it works for you, no doubt it will for me. Sure looks like it is working for Preston in Ky.
I watched some youtube vids (skillcult) last night where he was showing and tasting the chestnut crab… and WOW… he really liked them, bragged on them a lot and they looked just like the one in @Preston pic above.
@Lucky_p and @Blueberry thanks for all the recommendations… I do appreciate it much.
All this info I am collecting is for when we start over again in a new location in the next year or two (retirement, relocating)…
Lucky… not sure I would need the Bastin Orange… I am really just looking to extend my fresh apple eating time a bit, and I think my Early Mc may have that Bastin Orange Earlier time covered already.
My Early Mc produced ripe apples this year from June 10 to July 22. One apple tree producing at a time is fine with me.
You said your Centennial finished fruiting around Aug 10… so I expect it started producing ripe fruit not to long after July 22.
Sounds like my Early Mc will be finishing up about the time Centennial may start producing… which is ideal.
And then your Kerr started producing around Aug 15… and hopefully produces ripe fruit for a couple weeks at least.
With just those 3 trees… I should have ripe apples from June 10 to end of August. That would be nice.
If my Akane or Hudson Golden Gem happens to work out (don’t think Gold Rush is going to)… I think both of those are known for storing well…
I read details at one nursery that said that Kerr will store for 3 months or more.
Chestnut Crab… starks says they bloom “Early”… Raintree says they are in group 3…
My Early Mc bloomed this year from 3/28 first blooms were opening… until April 20…
Hopefully that would line up or cross with Chestnut Crab some.
TNHunter
TNHunter… I tell folks Bastian Orange is the best apple they’ll eat all year… and most who get a chance to sample one at its peak agree. Crisp, snappy, almost like Honeycrisp, but a great flavor, and you can eat the whole thing, core and all… only thing we don’t eat is the stem.
I read the ripening time twice just to make sure that I didn’t make a mistake. That is a very early ripening apple and resisting disease makes me think this is an awesome variety to have. I would assume it would ripen a little earlier at my location zone 8a Alabama. The Monark that @Lucky_P grows sounds like another great one to have. Good luck and it looks like you will be well prepared for retirement.
Hello, I have some experience to offer about Chestnut and its bloom time. I have most of my orchard on a steep slope with a southern exposition which means it gets really hot early in spring. Chestnut is of all my apple trees the most sensitive to this. It (I have 3 trees in total, my mother really went overboard there) always wakes up the earliest which means that, when the inevitable spring frost hits, the blooms and even the tender young leaves get burned back quite badly. Of the 3 trees, two are on the southern slope, one is on the east side of a wall, the only one to have fruit this year. I have become quite frustrated with the tree to be honest.
I know that you are in the South of the US and I am in the middle of Switzerland on top of a Mountain so our climates have to be very different, but I thought I would mention it anyway.
My theory is that chestnut is better adapted to a continental climate with cold winters and hot summers and a quick change between the two than the endless back and forth we have here.
If I could start over again I would try to plant this tree in a somewhat delayed location. The fruit should be early enough, so this should cause no problems
Thanks
Harrison is indeed a Crabapple. It is also a multi use apple, used not only for cider but for eating and cooking as well.
Thanks for the correction. I had the impression that it was larger than a crab, but I don’t recall why I thought so.
Niedzwetzkyana is also considered a ‘crab’…but I have several in the tennis ball size or bigger. Did is a better word…turned most into a apple cobbler and I don’t regret it. Yum.
@Oepfeli — thank you on the early bloom warning on the chestnut crab.
My new location will be a ridge top with a slight slope to the east (south/east)… very much the same as my current location… and early bloomers do not fare well here either. Our springs are much like you describe yours… warm up’s followed by hard frost.
I found a couple nurseries online saying Centennial is a mid season bloomer… keeping that one on my list.
Kerr per OGW is early-mid, but other places online are saying group 3… (which may still be early mid).
That might work OK… my Early Mc is early-mid and I get fruit on it more often than not… when not a late frost usually wipes them all out.
Dolgo is Early… I better not go there.
@Lucky_P - thanks for the extra input on the Bastian Orange… It seems to be hard to find (for sale)… at a common nursery ? no luck at all with that. Did you get yours from Jim himself ? Do you know what pollination group it is in ? early - mid - late ?
TNHunter
Yes, my BOC scions came directly from Jim Bastian.
I’ve never paid attention, or given a thought to bloom periods…15 other apples/crabs within 100 ft…it gets pollenized.
I think Hocking Hills offered it at one point, but I can provide scions.
Info on it here: Bastian Orange Crab
That said, mine looks almost nothing like the photo, and doesn’t really fit the description all that well, despite the scions having come directly from Jim himself. Mine are, at largest, golfball size, yellow with a pink blush, no remarkable striping… they look similar to Centennial, though smaller, and more round, and almost never go fully red. Flesh is crisp and yellow; not orange, and certainly no red coloration.
But… I had a young graft of it here, imprisoned in a pot against the east wall of the house that bore fruit this year… several weeks later than the free-standing tree in the orchard… they were more rounded, and did have striping in the red… which was more pronounced than on the free-standing tree - which was the source of the scion that it grew from.
