This sounds like a great tree in its own right, as well as having potential as a cool new rootstock! Have you had a chance to see how it does in seasonally-saturated soil yet? It’d be great to have a good-tasting, small apple tree that can handle really wet ground in winter.
After getting feedback from Chris Homanics (who is an apple expert), it seems this tree is almost certainly a seedling from a large fruited selection of Malus baccata (probably hybrid). If this is the case, it might not end up being any more tolerant of wet feet than any other apple. He was also telling me that there can be some long term graft incompatibility issues when M. baccata is used as a rootstock, but fortunately for me I was able to use standard M.26 apple rootstock to get clones made from it (though I’ve since layered them off onto their own roots).
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Well, even if it doesn’t like soggy ground, it’s still a very pretty tree with good fruit. I’d grow it for that alone!
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