Every year I tell myself I am not going to graft more than 200 new trees for me. Now this is not counting the ones I graft for other people or to sell as that typically is another 150 to 200 or so. But every year I wind up with so many great offers to swap that I always graft more and this year I did just at 400 apple and 60 pear new grafts.
Even with the horrible virus going around this Spring has been beautiful in our part of Ohio. The blossoms on the early pear varieties and peach trees which always bloom way too soon have managed to go their whole life cycle and were covered in bees.
The new grafts have all broken dormancy and are starting to grow. So our orchard is now at 1,600 apple varieties of which over 250 are red fleshed varieties (five new this year) and 150 pear varieties with twelve of them being red fleshed (two new this year).
My favorite red fleshed apple is still Red Devil and below is a pic of the a Red Devil blossom and a pic of what the fruit will look like when ripe.
Red Devil for those who are not familiar was developed in England in 1975 by Hugh Ermen who is responsible for a number of great varieties and just recently passed away.
The fruits are medium to large sized and ripen mid August here. Scarlet flushed skin with pronounced bloom on skin, Discovery x Kent cross with a strong fruity taste, “bewwy” flavor as my granddaughter says. They have crisp, juicy, pink stained flesh, one of my favorites.
And a great red fleshed apple for making cider is Niedzweckyana which is a variety brought to the USA from Kazakstan. Pretty tart so we mainly use it for cider. Pic of the blossom and then fruit below.
Derek Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio.
