Don’t assume that because you tried a crabapple and were not impressed that it represents what other people are raving about when they mention crabapples. There are many species and hybrids which fall into the crabapple umbrella and while Malus domestica can vary in size from crabapple to “regular size”, there is just so much more variation out there that is present in crabapples which have not yet been bred into larger apples.
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There are some strange mutants of crabs. Like Muz Alma. A 250gram crab relative.
I have 6 trees that I raised from crossing Trailman with apples. They have yet to fruit but they are getting close. I don’t expect much but the fun is in the unknown 
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I have a couple centennial crab. I love the intense flavor more than most standard apples
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Crabapple jelly is very, very good.
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Crabapples are more nutritious than regular apples. The nutrition is in the peel, which crabs have more of by weight. Pollination, yes, more disease free, yes. You can also experiment with varieties more. You get 20 crabapples off of a small portion of your tree. Some dwarf trees only have 20 apples total for the tree.
John S
PDX OR
That is correct. It tastes so good.
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Some of the best apples I’ve had have been crabapples. Afaik the term crab apple simply refers to any apple under 2" diameter. The association with crab apples being bad is purely cultural.
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Ah, the shifty nomenclature.
Here in Europe, we have malus sylvestris (forest apple), which we call wild apple or crabapple in English. The term was used almost exclusively for the wild species or hybrids that inherited small-sized astringent fruit. As the hybrids became more palatable and the spectrum of malus(insert wild subspecies of choice) and malus domestica broader, the more we tend to quarrel about it. :). Why not when nurseries use the same term without supplementing the wild species name or “hybrid”…
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I have always wondered about that. In particular how the French have so many astringent crabby small apples domesticated for cider. They are probably barely removed from being wild.
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@Zone6 … yes they pollinate regular apples.
My Early Mcintosh apple … had pollination partner planted 20 ft away… that died of fire blight… i tried another variety… again died of fire blight… tried another… again died of fire blight.
During all that my Early Mcintosh fruited… because at the same time I planted it… I planted a flowering crab in my back yard.
For about 10 years… the back yard flowering crab was the only other apple anywhere near my place… and my Early Mc fruited regularly.
My flowering crab in the back yard. It blooms early and long… covers FG2, 3 and the early part of 4. It does produce some very small apples… too small to mess with.
It is 23 years in ground.
I have 4 grafts added to the high sunny side of it. Chestnut crab, black limbertwig, red royal limbertwig, myers royal limbertwig.
TNHunter
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I have crabs spread throughout the orchard for pollination with the benefit of fresh eating and cider uses:
Almata (Crab crossed with red fleshed)
Centennial Crab
Chestnut Crab (MN 240)
Clarks Crab
Dolgo Crab
Geneva Crab
Giant Crab
Harrison (referred to as a crab in older publications)
Hewe’s / Virginia Crab
Hyslop Crab
Red Vein Crab
Roberts Crab
Whitney Crab
Wickson Crab
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My cider from '23 contained a mix of crabapples that contributed about 20% by weight. Its the best straight cider Ive made to date. The balance was golden delicious and an unidentified red apple that came with the place.
This year was the first Harrison fruited for me. Id say its a large crab or a very small apple.
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All of the recent disease resistant apples released by universities get their scab immunity from crabapples.
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My wife makes pecin out of bitter crab apples. She stores the pectin in icecube trays in the freezer and then uses the homemade pecin to make jellies. She also feeds crab apple to our farm animals. I’ve read that some crab apples can be very tasty, just small sized. So there is posibilities for juice, cider and sauce, maybe even indvidual sized pies, if they will hold up well to baking. For me I like that she uses them. And they seem to work really well for cross pollinating other apple varieties.
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Crabs often have higher acid, more pectin and even higher sugar than most apples and can be very useful as an addition in sweet and hard cider as well as for all kinds of culinary uses.
Most apples grown from seed aren’t very good and crabapples are only different from apples by a definition that is entirely based on their smaller size. Because of that size they are not as useful commercially and therefore have not benefitted from a lot of breeding to improve their flavor.
However, there are a few good ones and I grow Wickson crab, which is a beautiful and tasty apple. It’s like flavor is concentrated in less flesh. It also seems to be a reliable annual cropper, probably because it requires less energy to produce smaller apples. Siberian crab also seems to be a very reliable cropper as well as a couple other types I manage and all the ornamental crabs that I observe.
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Im growing a couple of Clark’s Crabapples.
Why? for the wow factor, plus its a long keeper… so lots of sharing over the winter with friends and family.
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I’d be interested to see science identify the plant gene for prolific cluster fruiting that crabs sometimes have.
Most apples set fruit in clusters. Big apples we thin, crabs we don’t. I thin 4-5 fruit from most apple clusters. And on many clusters, all are thinned off.
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