Crabapple timeline

Ours at camp has been a slow-go too. For our purposes at camp, I wish I'd have planted a Sundance or Galarina where the Violi's is. Maybe it'll kick into gear one of these years.
I have pruned hard these last two springs. The old timers said to take a baseball bat to the trunk to stress it. Maybe that will be the next step.
 
Bur -
One of your Buckman seedlings put on its first couple blossoms this spring. I'll nip those off to put more energy into tree growth - but it's exciting!!!
 
Sanbur,

You gave me some scions last year. Still got plenty. Just wondering if you're sharing that tree with the world. Not sure if I ever checked out midwest deer trees. Trailman scions you gave me were 1st to wake up, right behind the kerr. Did save 2 for myself out of the 6 or so. One's at home, the other at farmland. Parked any extra on a mautre tree, so I always got some scion material for years to come. Probably around 12 varieties on my mature trees. Definitely any tree I only got 1 of is on there, even if I have to whack a top of an ordered tree.

Bowsnbucks,

IF you need some sundance or galarina scions, should have some next year. Bought a sundance on M7 and whacked off the top 8 inches to make 3 more on m111's. Scooped up 3 galarina's on m111 for a living experiment. Pruning well, pruning ok, and barely touching the 3rd one. Maybe let her go for 5 years if I can help myself.
 
Trailman was slow to grow last year, but kwafed out well this spting. Will dig her up this fall. Might stsy home might go to camp see how the nusery trees do this year
20240416_195137.jpgoaknut's signsl fire. Behund the garage but getd ok light there.20240416_194836.jpg
 
Sanbur,

You gave me some scions last year. Still got plenty. Just wondering if you're sharing that tree with the world. Not sure if I ever checked out midwest deer trees. Trailman scions you gave me were 1st to wake up, right behind the kerr. Did save 2 for myself out of the 6 or so. One's at home, the other at farmland. Parked any extra on a mautre tree, so I always got some scion material for years to come. Probably around 12 varieties on my mature trees. Definitely any tree I only got 1 of is on there, even if I have to whack a top of an ordered tree.

Bowsnbucks,

IF you need some sundance or galarina scions, should have some next year. Bought a sundance on M7 and whacked off the top 8 inches to make 3 more on m111's. Scooped up 3 galarina's on m111 for a living experiment. Pruning well, pruning ok, and barely touching the 3rd one. Maybe let her go for 5 years if I can help myself.
I don’t blind anyone planting the courthouse crab. It is just getting hard to reach any scion due to the maintenance man removing the lower limbs. At least 4 of us have grabbed scion from the mother tree.

15 months ago, the snow was piled high and it was easier to reach scion. No snow banks this year.
 
I pulled fence from one of my 4 seedling exclosures, today. Trees on the south side grew the best. Trees in Reed Canary did very poorly. I should have used weed barrier and controlled weeds before planting.

More pictures to follow if I can get them to post.
252CE9C1-C667-4218-B86D-E0DB4C597703.jpeg
 
It got a separate cage. Dang Reed canary grass. I did put a fabric barrier around it two years ago.25B8D11F-7A1A-4B5C-9C0D-8F8015A60F21.jpeg
 
It got a separate cage. Dang Reed canary grass. I did put a fabric barrier around it two years ago.View attachment 63938
Seed was gathered in the late summer of 2008 from a wild crab with fruit of about 1 inch size. Trees were planted in this location in 2010 after growing in containers. They received very minimal care after that.

Seventy percent of the seedlings(15-20 total) resemble the mother tree with 3/4-1 inch fruit. 15% are bird sized crabs. Another 15% are more interesting. There is one tree with a larger apple crab that works for deer, but is nothing spectacular in taste. Another seedling is the crab we call ABC and we use it for jelly and apple sauce. It resembles a slightly elongated dolgo. Who knows if I got any seeds mixed up!8CA0DEF4-546B-4DAD-B1C3-8958CB6E98A4.jpeg
 
I reused the cement wire to block some paths where deer were crossing behind our box stand. Added brush adds depth to the fence and deer are less likely to jump the 5 foot fence.4F6E5C2B-CCCC-475A-A260-E78DD88C7078.jpeg
 
I am running out of room to plant trees and also cut back on my grafting.

Yesterday, I top worked three varieties. One pear on a Franken Tree. Crow Egg went on my Franklin cider apple which hasn’t impressed me . Pipsqueak crab went on a dolgo seedling. One buddy says Pipsqueak is their favorite crab for eating.

Both apples also went on a franken, flowering crab.
 
What happened to Franklin Cider apple guy? He came around here a lot when he was promoting it. Kinda fell off the map.
 
Franklin cider fella, a classic pump and dump sales kind of guy. Will say as a wildlife tree they aren't bad. Better than say a typical dolgo which drops too early to be much use later in the fall. Now the dolgo seedlings which are a cross with something else can make interesting trees as Sandbur has shared with many.

Have not heard about Franklin as a stand out on the cider side of things so far.

Still need to top work a tree with ranetka seedling scion that seems promising. At least the wildlife give it a thumbs up but break too many branches on that one tree. Need to graft that a bit in case a bear decides to really trash the original
 
After fruiting for just a year or two, Franklin doesn’t seem too bad for a deer apple. I have it close to the house, so I tried to convert it by top working.

If it were outback, I would have just let it grow as is.
 
What happened to Franklin Cider apple guy? He came around here a lot when he was promoting it. Kinda fell off the map.
Profile says he hasn't been here for 4 years. Fall off date seems to coincide with timeline of growers starting to share their own experiences with the variety which might not exactly align with the originators.
 
What happened to Franklin Cider apple guy? He came around here a lot when he was promoting it. Kinda fell off the map.
I like Franklin as a wildlife apple since it slowly drops apples until March. It has a really nice framework as well, but it seems a little spindly on B118 rootstock. I think a Franklin on a seedling rootstock would be an ideal wildlife apple.

I know Franklin was marketed as a cider apple, but I know nothing about cider so I can't speak to that claim. The apples are pretty ugly and they do not taste good to me, but the deer like them.
 
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