Notes on my first chestnut crab ever

General Fruit Growing
1

I let my 2nd year chestnut crab tree keep a few fruit. Tonight I picked one and shared it with my family for the first time. I love it.
I found that is has a very good sweet tart balance
It has some of that unusual wickson flavor.
They are a little bigger than I expected
Wickson is more tart and more intense
Eden is better than both with much more of that strange flavor.

I like it overall and love these types of crabs. Now I have wickson, eden and chestnut all of these types. Chestnut ripens first, Eden will be in about a month and wickson will be a month after that. I have a few more similar types planted that I hope to test next year.
I like it and recommend it to everyone but I’m not sure if it cracks my top 10 list but it’s close. Also, it might get even better as the tree matures.

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mine are very good after sitting cool off the tree for a week. they have a kind of good under flavor to them that i can’t describe. mine are only a bit bigger than i anticipated. i only got a few from my tree, it’s also 2nd leaf

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bottom two are chestnut i think in this picture. with a trailman and an unripe granny. the trailman was very ripe earlier than all the other varieties here

I’m hoping they get more flavored as the tree ages up too. mine is in south facing full sun, not a lot of water- i haven’t even pruned since the initial chop. how big has your tree gotten?

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I have added grafts of Chestnut to my Early Mcintosh tree. They are both in flowering group 2. Hope to get some fruit next year.

I added Trailman and Pristine grafts to my Novamac (all in FG4). Hopefully results in some good pollination and fruit variety.

One of the grafts of Trailman that I added this spring… grew very strong, bloomed and set 5 apples then continued to grow a shoot 2 ft long.

I thinned that to 1 apple and it ripened July 23 and fell from the tree. My wife and I tried it out. Delicious… a very nice mix of tart and sweet.

Hopefully next year many more Trailman and some Chestnut too.

TNHunter

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Does your Chestnut Crab defoliate from fungal disease, likely Apple Leaf Blotch (Marssonina)? Debating whether to graft it over or spray with Immunox.

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@hambone … my grafts of chestnut are young… did them this past spring. No probems at all dropping leaves yet.

TNHunter

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My chestnut is 2 years old. No problems yet but we’ll see.

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