Based on the way this apple tree is growing, my theory is that it was once a seedling rootstock. The top died and the rootstock took over.
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It sure looked that way. All the large branches came up below ground level.
Tony
All I can tell you is about 5-6 years ago I started with a tree looking very much like that. Over the years I’ve been lowering and thinning the tree significantly. Last year was our first year thinning fruit and bagging apples and we had our best usable crop ever. (just over a large wicker laundry basket of baseball or better sized fruit) Previous to that, we had easily over 200 small apples that were so pest laden, rotten, and mostly unusable that the tree had been slated for total removal.
You’ve got a project ahead of you, for certain. If your guess is accurate that the tree comes from the rootstock itself, you may want to verify the apple variety is actually something you enjoy the flavor of. Otherwise, those years of manicuring and training could be better spent on a new tree.
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Your most likely correct that it is sprouts from the root stock. The only practical exception that I could come up with is if it was planted at or below the graft point. In this case it might be the scion variety. When it fruits you should be able to decide. Good luck, Bill
Tony, I suspect that it might even be a seedling, or perhaps several seedlings, given all those major trunks all below grade. Are there any clues, now that you’ve begun to manage it so well, that you’re actually dealing with more than one tree?
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All branches produce the same large sweet red apples . I have not been able to identify the apples. The fact that it has three main trunks leads me to believe it may have been a seedling. It appears to be growing on it’s own roots at this point. I cut out about half of the wood over the last 3 years. It was a tangled mess.
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Are the first and last photos of the same tree?
I feel like I should have an opinion, but I really don’t. On one hand I’m inclined to agree with you and Bill, but on the other agree with Mark.
I do feel as though it’s unlikely that the top simply died, and sprouts from the rootstock took over, even though I DO agree that it definitely looks that way. I say that only because those apples look too good, too well shaped and colored (and as you say sweet) to be the product of any commercial rootstock. I’ve seen the product of a few of those both first hand and those I’ve read about etc, and they are usually garbage.
I kinda think like Mark…I think it’s most likely always been a seedling (or even a group of them) and there may have never been a true central leader or perhaps as you said, it may have died.
That tree is pretty old, I’m sure you know that years ago it was commonplace to train apples into a V shape and that habit probably persisted by novices long after the commercial industry abandoned it. I had a photo from 1912 of an orchard with all seedling rootstock standard trees formed to perfect Vees. I believe the practice was even fairly outdated for 1912.
I’m curious…do you have any idea how old the tree might be…neighbors, family…age of the home or farm?
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39thPar: Neat reclamation project you’ve done. What state do you live in? Any local heirloom experts near you to give an opinion? Such large size seems unusual, might give some old-
timer a critical clue.
Regardless of whether or not it is a seedling you have yourself a winner. Great looking apple. Bill
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In the last few years I have been seeing some Gala’s that are red and shaped like yours at our Publix. The red colored Gala taste sweet like the earlier/original Gala. Bill
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Agreed, looks very nice.
I thought the same thing- looks like a nice, big Gala. But the fact that apples from different trunks seem all the same suggests that mebbe -must mebbe, mind you- a novice planted the tree too deep and you have a grafted tree as Bill suggests.
Name it a Carmine Delicious and market it!
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I am in Kansas and sadly heirloom apples have been largely forgotten in the midwest. A sudden Sub zero freeze (Armistice Day Freeze) Killed off most of the apple trees here in 1940 and that was the death of many orchards here. They said you could hear trees still full of sap cracking and see trunks splitting open.
The tree come with our 100+ year old house. It is similar to many apples but, is not maching the description because of harvest time, the shape of the stem ect. I am have planted a large collection of heirlooms that I can compare to when they start producing. I planted a sucker off the tree a couple years ago that will bear additional evidence as to weather it grows on it’s own roots. Honestly, I prefer to think it is a one of a kind genetically unique seedling rather that something I can’t identify. I have been propagating it as the “39th parallel apple” because it sits exactly on the 39th parallel.
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The flavor is very good and it keeps well which that with size all implys years of breeding. There are many possibilities and as you know many new varities were bred within a short distance such as staymans Winesap apple, Douglas pear etc. And who knows perhaps it’s a left over of the once popular fruit breeding programs in the area. See this article for info on staymans apple Stayman (apple) - Wikipedia. See this research on Douglas pear Douglas Pear. Google search
A. H. Griesa Experimental Grounds which was a well known nursery in the area in late 1800s early 1900s that did a lot of fruit breeding and research. Though they are best known for the Douglas pear they experimented with lots of different plants.
Your question is unanswerable, of course. Even if it seemingly had the qualities of a named variety we know, it could be a seedling of that apple and happened to have picked up a lot of the traits, or pure coincidence (barring DNA testing)…
I always assume the odds are that multi- leader trees are seedlings, but if soil is pushed above the graft union, which can even happen with properly planted trees over time, multiple scion shoots could emerge below the ground, especially if the above ground tree was badly injured by extreme cold or perhaps various pitfalls of old age.
I manage a lot of trees like yours and often graft them over to desirable varieties if there was no hitting the jackpot and the apples the tree produces are mediocre or worse. Even if the apples are good, big apple trees tend to produce more fruit than what you can use of a single variety unless you make cider.
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I have several trees that grow(some have now died ) just like the one you have pictured that are leftovers from a similar scenario that happened in the 30s when the temp here reached a record breaking -53. They are named varieties and were of fruiting age when the record cold killed(or severely damaged to the point of being removed ) all the other trees from that orchard . Now I have no idea if the trees were grown with multiple trunks on purpose back when they were planted or if it developed over the years ( not all the leftover trees are/were that way). I can say that they were growing that way as long as I can remember and I am pushing 50.
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I tasted the apple and its exceptional for both taste and size. It stores very well. Its a winner even among great apples.
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You can name it and patent it and let someone else try to prove it is an established variety.
Seriously, it the apples are that good the tree probably resprouted from the scion just above the union. Or it is the very rare chance seedling winner and could be patented.
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What makes me think its a cultivated variety and not seedling is the redness. The odds of getting a totally red, large, tasty apple from such an old tree - from a time before red was “it” for apples - seems small. Not impossible of course, just small. It looks something like Jonathan. If its a seedling maybe thats one of the parents.
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It’ll be nice when its true identity is finally pinned down, or at least narrowed down, but in the meantime, you’ve got a good horse. Ride it!
:-)M
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