Two Montana Roadside Apples, 23 Brix

I was told that honeycrisp gets it’s crispness from crab genetics, I think M. prunifolia. I’m definitely interested in anything like that for breeding. If you’re really adventurous, I can trade you some choice red flesh pollen for a stick of whatever you think are the best of those and you could make some crosses next time it flowers. Just sayin’ you could :slight_smile: Either way, I’m interested in vetting them for the breeding stable.

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After eating a half dozen of each, the smaller yellow orange crab (“End of the Vine”) is a lot more interesting. The red apple is good, but nowhere near as intense and interesting. I’m happy to send you a a stick or two - it was on my mind that it might be something you would be interested in trialing.

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That’s a nice how-do-you-do, that the rootstock is a better apple than what is grafted to it? I have some rootstock apples on store-bought trees. The apples are large enough and with good texture and reasonable keeping in storage, but they have an odd musky flavor.

It is interesting these apples appear free of apple maggot tracks and codling moth holes. Some of the fruit in your pictures looks beat-up, but what you bit into looks clean.

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@PaulInMaplewood I’m not sure about what was grafted and what was rootstock - hard to say what the history is.

There were plenty of apples with damage and worm holes - I did my best not to bite into them :rofl: From what I read, growers back east deal with a lot more pest and disease pressure than here in the Idaho/Montana area. At my place we average less than 12" of rain/snow equivalent a year.

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