Ideally, I am shooting to just have another good pollinating apple that is good for fresh eating. So, crabs may be more of a backup. But, chestnut is interesting.
Chestnut is more like a small apple than a crabapple. Back in the day it would have been called an apple-crab I imagine
2 Likes
Williams Pride may flower relatively early, but supposedly has a very long bloom period. I don’t grow it myself, but it very well may still be blossoming when your other varieties start blooming.
3 Likes
You do know that crab apples are particular prolific with flowers and tend to flower for longer, and as such are the choice for pollination?
2 Likes
Chestnut is indeed pretty amazing. I wonder what its parents were, it acts like a cross of a crab and a regular apple. It has a chew more like a regular apple than a crabapple. I grew several other crabapples and only Wickson and Chestnut gave me a real “wow”. Many of them go mealy far too fast, or are just blobs of tartness, or lack any interesting flavor.
5 Likes
Interesting. Good to know! Although, I’m still somewhat torn between your earlier suggestions, just pulling the trigger on a Newtown (or some other heirloom), getting a crab, or continuing my search.
Ugh!
It might be hard to find in the US, it’s hard to find here in Canada, by my favourite apple by far is the NovaMac. Highly disease resistant, scab free (mine has never had scab even with a perpetually scabby Cortland about 10 feet away), very sweet with a slight white wine flavour, good crunch, very juicy and a good size. It was developed by the Kentville Research Station in Nova Scotia in the 80s (you might know their other releases NovaSpy or NovaEasyGro better). Here’s its orange pippin listing: Apple - Novamac - tasting notes, identification, reviews. It should have no trouble in zone 4 IMO.
2 Likes
There is no need to either a crab or a heirloom, there are plenty of heirloom crabapples 
I sound like you are hung up on the ‘crabapple’ label as if that was some sort of scarlet letter on the tree. Some of my favorite apples just happen to be sub 2" in diameter.
1 Like
We grow 1,700 varieties of apples and sell scions of most of them when they grow large enough. Our orchard is run as an UPIc and our season for that runs from the the first of July until the middle of October. Malinda is a variety we grow and ripens pretty late
3 Likes
As a northern grower one of the varieties I’ve really come to enjoy the last couple of years is Kinderkrisp. Id describe it as a smaller, easy growing honeycrisp with a similar juiciness and texture but slightly more complex flavor.
3 Likes
Thanks! I’ll check that cultivar out.
So far, I decided to add a Chestnut crab and Frostbite based upon the suggestions above. Still thinking about which heirloom to add. Debating on getting an Ashmead’s, but also looking at Fameuse, smokehouse, and a few others…anyone have any good luck with any heirlooms?
I planted and grafted (mostly grafted) a decent amount of heirloom varieties last year but can’t comment other than that. Just a quick list includes ashmeads, coxs orange pippin, golden russet, mn1734, newtown pippin, gray pearmain, zabergau reinette, hudsons golden gem, pomme gris, Roxbury russet, borrussa and some others i can think of right now.
1 Like
Let me know how your Hudson’s GG does for you. Mine held on for a 6-7 years and then kicked the bucket last year. I plan to graft another next spring, but i have my doubts about hardiness here.
2 Likes
No doubt I’m pushing it with some of the varieties ive grafted but if its just a single branch then no real loss if it doesn’t survive. At least that’s my take, never hurts to try.
3 Likes
I agree completely about trying varieties. I haven’t counted lately, but I’ve got somewhere around 70 different varieties of apples grafted here. I really enjoy eating H.G.G. and I’m hopeful my tree dying was an anomaly.
4 Likes