Project W: Columnar Apple Shot Plot

[chickenlittle]

This is the first post in a series documenting my project on columnar apple trees. Columnar trees on dwarf rootstocks have been marketed toward the backyard grower as container/patio trees, as ornamentals, and as novelties. Project W will look using columnar apple trees for an archery shot plot. I call this Project W after the man who discovered the columnar apple, Anthony Wijcik.

Columnar apple trees are derived from a Macintosh sport mutation that was found by Wijcik in 1963. The mutation produced a dwarf tree with short spur limbs around the trunk. Breeding programs have created new columnar varieties from the Wijcik Mac. Columnar trees can be planted in rows at 2 to 3 foot spacing with little pruning and potentially no staking support. Breeding programs recognize the potential for high density orchards if suitable columnar varieties are developed. I have found over 80 released varieties but most are only available in Europe. For my interest, a row of columnar trees could be planted at a preferred hunting location. Fencing would protect the trees while allowing access to dropped apples. Several varieties can be planted together to provide apples throughout the hunting seasons and to ensure pollination if there are no nearby apples or crabapples. I started researching and planning Project W in late 2014 and started work in the spring of 2015.

The first phase of Project W will evaluate up to 14 columnar varieties that are or have been available in the U.S. From a commercial nursery (Raintree), I purchased grafted trees of the 7 currently available varieties. 7 other varieties were previously available as grafted trees and will be added as I am able to obtain scionwood or budwood. These plantings will be my source of scionwood and budwood for this evaluation. Columnar varieites will be grafted onto semi-dwarf and full-size rootstocks and field tested for the shot plot application. This evaluation will include bloom time, ripening times, drop times, cold hardiness, disease resistance, etc. One shot plot site has already been populated with rootstock for future grafting. More field trial sites will be added but the number and locations remains undefined.

Since it is likely that few of these 14 columnar varieties will be successful, Project W has a longer term goal of developing new columnar varieties for this application. This will include both uncontrolled, open pollination of columnar trees and controlled crosses of columnar trees with selected non-columnar varieties. Seedlings with columnar growth will be evaluated for disease resistance, flowering time, fruit size, and drop time. Inferior seedlings will be culled as early as possible. Promising seedlings will be grafted and subjected to field trials to further define the cold hardiness and disease resistance.

I expect this to be an interesting journey. I have much to learn and do.
CL

Example of a row of columnar apple trees from a Czech researcherhttp://www.slideshare.net/fruitbree...der-day-meeting-20120207-rbiph-apple-breeding)



My shot plot with P.18 rootstock for future columnar grafts, 48" welded wire fencing placed 6 to 10" off the ground, ground sloped so that falling apples can roll out of the fence. Future box blind not shown.


Raised bed orchard with 7 grafted columnar trees, P.18 rootstock for future columnar grafts, and potted dwarf rootstock for non-columnar breeding selections.

 

[John-W-WI]

Awesome project. It will be interesting to see the progress!

-John

 

[Turkey Creek]

Interesting project. I dont know of anybody with first hand experience growing them.

 

[chickenlittle]

NH, I don't know how much different tree diameter would be with these. The mutation is dwarfing which may slow that but rootstock probably matters. I've read that columnar trees live about 20 years but that probably depends on the rootstock too. I will see a 20 year old tree later this summer. There is an arboretum a short drive from me that has the Maypole columnar crabapple. They will allow me to collect budwood from it.

 

[buckvelvet]

Thats the oddest looking apple tree I've ever seen. Like a straight pole when mature, crazy. I'm gonna enjoy this thread.

 

[chickenlittle]

Economics and Costs

I am not looking to quit my day job or make any money on this idea, just looking for a fun hobby. But I have given thought to whether this approach would be a good value. At current retail prices, the columnar trees are $30 a piece and up. I tolerated that to get this started but I would not want to buy 10 or 20 trees at those prices. A nursery that offered better pricing and volume pricing would make it more palatable (and Cummins did offer the Wijcik Macintosh on MM.106 and MM.111 a decade ago). To be attractive to very many hunters, I think it would need to get to $10/tree. Even then you could argue that 2 or 3 disease resistant trees on B.118 would be much cheaper, produce more apples, and be almost as effective at ensuring a deer has to come into bow range to get an apple. For the most part, I think columnar trees will be DIY grafting game.

There is however a potential low cost option. Because the columnar trees are naturally dwarf, they could be grown on their own roots. They might be a larger or smaller on their own roots but still columnar. Once good columnar varieties have been developed, they could be cloned by the same methods used for rootstocks, stool beds or micro-propagation. I would think stool beds could get you affordable trees for a shot plot. The downside is that you cannot pick the best roots for your site so there would still be a place for grafted trees. We will probably find that there are productivity gains by grafting onto certain rootstocks.

 

[dipper]

So the scions influence that growth? Not the rootstock? I want some haha

 

[chickenlittle]

Yes, the columnar growth is caused by a genetic mutation of scion that can be passed down to some percentage of the seedlings. I will have scionwood or budwood to share at some point. Maple Valley sells scionwood for 4 columnar varieties, Crimson Spire, Emerald Spire, Scarlet Spire and Northpole. I got scionwood from them for the columnar varieties and for several normal varieties. Unfortunately my results with the Maple Valley scions was poor. I had just two successful grafts of the Crimson Spire and maybe one graft of a regular apple. With scions from other sources, I had what I thought were excellent grafting results for my first time grafting.

 

[chickenlittle]

How did I get into this?

I got into this habitat thing a couple years ago with no interest in planting an apple orchard. Then after reading all your posts, I got talked into it. Usually I am more likely to go overboard than just dabble in something. I spent hours researching apples and planning. I decided on transforming a small field on my parent's farm in PA into an orchard of about 50 apple and pear trees. I got my order into Cummins for 25 trees last summer. I had no interest in grafting but I got talked into that too. So I ordered some rootstock too and figured I fill out the orchard with my own grafts and save some cash. So I had more to research and learn about grafting.

In all the web surfing, I came across the columnar trees late last year. I had probably seen them in Stark's catalog at some point but never paid any attention since I was not in the market for apple trees. Now I had trees on order for the farm but had not planned on planting any apple trees at my house in NY. I do not have a big lot but have a decent size fenced backyard. About half had been converted to garden and some to growing hops. I did not think I had room for apple trees and it tends to be water logged in the spring. But I realized these columnar trees would work and I could build a raised bed for them to keep them a little drier. So I put in an order to Raintree for the 7 varieties they offered and kept researching and thinking. It was relatively difficult to find out information about the columnar trees. They are not widely planted or discussed. There are occasional mentions on fruit or gardening forums. I found some scientific papers and some plant patents. Most of the varieties that are or were sold in the US have multiple names. The trees that Stark sold were developed in England at East Malling, patented under one name, marketed overseas under a 2nd name (the ballerina series), and marketed by Stark as the Spire series. I like a challenge so I kept digging and cross-referencing. I'll cover what I know about the varieties in some later posts.

As I formulated the idea for Project W, my plans grew and more rootstock was ordered. 10 B.118 for columnar grafts. 100 P.18 for regular trees, columnar trees, and some given away. For breeding, I wanted very dwarf rootstock that could be potted. I ordered some M.27 and tried to get some similar sized G.65 but ended up with the slightly larger G.11. Then looked for scionwood for the Stark Spire trees. Those are off patent and Stark stopped selling them. A man by the name of Nick Botner is famous for having a huge private collection of 4000+ apple trees and would sell/trade scionwood. He had everything I wanted but he is now in his late 70s and stopped selling scionwood a couple years ago. I found 3 Spires and the Northpole variety from Maple Valley. GRIN has the original Wijcik Mac so I ordered budwood from them. I found an arboretum that will let me collect budwood from their Maypole crab. That leaves 2 Spires that I cannot I find yet. I'll hopefully find someone who can send me some scions for those some point but that is mostly so I have a complete collection.

I got my grafting done. Then tried to plant as many of the 600 seedlings I had ordered from Missouri, New Hampshire, and the PA game commission nurseries. Then I planted my Cummins order, my grafts, and a bunch of rootstock to graft later. It was definitely too much work. I still have things that should get tubed or caged or a weedmat. About 150 of those seedlings are still heeled and will be planted if still alive this fall. Assuming I do not go crazy ordering things, next spring will be more sane. Things have finally slowed down and I can start posting about Project W and spend some time watching bud grafting videos on youtube.

Wijcik Mac on USDA GRIN, PI 590186 http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1024956

 

[Rally1148]

This is the first post in a series documenting my project on columnar apple trees. Columnar trees on dwarf rootstocks have been marketed toward the backyard grower as container/patio trees, as ornamentals, and as novelties. Project W will look using columnar apple trees for an archery shot plot. I call this Project W after the man who discovered the columnar apple, Anthony Wijcik.

Columnar apple trees are derived from a Macintosh sport mutation that was found by Wijcik in 1963. The mutation produced a dwarf tree with short spur limbs around the trunk. Breeding programs have created new columnar varieties from the Wijcik Mac. Columnar trees can be planted in rows at 2 to 3 foot spacing with little pruning and potentially no staking support. Breeding programs recognize the potential for high density orchards if suitable columnar varieties are developed. I have found over 80 released varieties but most are only available in Europe. For my interest, a row of columnar trees could be planted at a preferred hunting location. Fencing would protect the trees while allowing access to dropped apples. Several varieties can be planted together to provide apples throughout the hunting seasons and to ensure pollination if there are no nearby apples or crabapples. I started researching and planning Project W in late 2014 and started work in the spring of 2015.

The first phase of Project W will evaluate up to 14 columnar varieties that are or have been available in the U.S. From a commercial nursery (Raintree), I purchased grafted trees of the 7 currently available varieties. 7 other varieties were previously available as grafted trees and will be added as I am able to obtain scionwood or budwood. These plantings will be my source of scionwood and budwood for this evaluation. Columnar varieites will be grafted onto semi-dwarf and full-size rootstocks and field tested for the shot plot application. This evaluation will include bloom time, ripening times, drop times, cold hardiness, disease resistance, etc. One shot plot site has already been populated with rootstock for future grafting. More field trial sites will be added but the number and locations remains undefined.

Since it is likely that few of these 14 columnar varieties will be successful, Project W has a longer term goal of developing new columnar varieties for this application. This will include both uncontrolled, open pollination of columnar trees and controlled crosses of columnar trees with selected non-columnar varieties. Seedlings with columnar growth will be evaluated for disease resistance, flowering time, fruit size, and drop time. Inferior seedlings will be culled as early as possible. Promising seedlings will be grafted and subjected to field trials to further define the cold hardiness and disease resistance.

I expect this to be an interesting journey. I have much to learn and do.
CL

Example of a row of columnar apple trees from a Czech researcherhttp://www.slideshare.net/fruitbree...der-day-meeting-20120207-rbiph-apple-breeding)


My shot plot with P.18 rootstock for future columnar grafts, 48" welded wire fencing placed 6 to 10" off the ground, ground sloped so that falling apples can roll out of the fence. Future box blind not shown.
View attachment 5869 View attachment 5870

Raised bed orchard with 7 grafted columnar trees, P.18 rootstock for future columnar grafts, and potted dwarf rootstock for non-columnar breeding selections.
View attachment 5871

I looked into some of these for growing in some big old containers on our patio.

 

[wiscwhip]

It's an apple "stick", I like it. :cool:Cool thread chickenlittle and a great experiment. I will be following for sure. Your thread here may turn into the "online information resource" for these trees that you couldn't find in the first place. Have you tasted any of them from the sources you have found? I'm not a huge fan of MacIntosh apples, but my dad loves them and I was wondering if these columnar apples taste the same as a "tree" grown Mac? I am picturing one of these on Antonovaka or even B118 rootstock, a 30' apple "stick" with apples from the ground to the top. lol

 

[chickenlittle]

Wiscwhip,
From what I've read, the Wijcik Mac tastes like a regular Macintosh. The tree has the same disease resistance as a Mac. Good for fire blight and cedar apple rust but susceptible to apple scab. You would need to spray for scab. Adding scab resistance has been an important goal of the columnar breeding programs.

The largest of the grafted trees I got was a Golden Sentinel. I am guessing it spent another year in the nursery. Even being planted 1st week of May, it flowered and has 5 apples. I'll get to taste those and try growing the seeds too.

As for a 30ft telephone pole loaded with apples, that is fun to imagine but I don't think that is possible. The mutation is dwarfing. I think 10ft is realistic and maybe 15ft tall. I won't know for sure until my rootstock experiments are done. In using large rootstocks, though, my desire is more for a large root system that can gather enough moisture without supplemental irrigation. Good anchoring, taller trees, and more productivity are good too.

 

[chickenlittle]

The Wijcik Macintosh.

I've already discussed the original tree some. More information about it can be found in the U.S. plant patent that was filed for it (https://www.google.com/patents/USPP4382). It started with an odd looking limb on a 50 year old Macintosh tree in British Columbia. It was noticed in 1963 and they started grafting it the next year. It retained its unique shape and produced a dwarf tree. Crosses were made with it at the Summerland, B.C. breeding program and then at the East Malling program in England.

A patent was filed for the tree in 1978 and was assigned to Stark Brothers. Stark marketed it as the Starkspur Compact Mac. It was introduced by Stark in 1980 per this NY Times article from 1982 (http://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/21/arts/a-new-generation-of-dwarf-fruit-trees.html). I am not sure when Stark dropped it from their catalog but it is no longer for sale by them. The only way to get it now is to get scionwood or budwood for the USDA GRIN and graft it yourself. Wijcik Mac on USDA GRIN, PI 590186 http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1024956. It is a Macintosh which some people like and some don't. Scab is a problem like for any Macintosh variant.

Cummins had it listed for sale at some point and here is their description: WIJCIK SUPER-COMPACT McINTOSH An extremely compact sport of Summerland Red McIntosh. Internodes only about 1/2 inch. Typical Mac flavor. Wijcik on MM.106 or MM.111 makes a true dwarf tree - - comparable to Worcester Mac/M.9. Tolerant to fire blight. Very resistant to C.A.R. Scab-susceptible".

I found information on some columnar trees in apple research reports from Washington State University. The Compact Mac was mentioned as a recent introduction in the 2004 report but I found no mention of it after that. They called it "Very productive, columnar tree habit, fruit typical McIntosh".

 

[chickenlittle]

Northpole or Northpolespire.

This columnar tree is offered for sale by a number of retail nurseries and scionwood available from Maple Valley. I have found very little information on it. Some nurseries say the name is trademarked but I could not find any trademark registrations. The best information I found was on the website of a British Columbia nursery that says it was bred in Canada and introduced in the 1990s (http://www.saltspringapplecompany.com/Northpole-Spire.htm).

Northpole was listed in the 2004 WSU apple report. Harvested on Sept 23 and comments: "Bicolor, nice finish, columnar tree habit, productive, flavor better than most columnar types tested, still not great"

My grafts of Northpole with Maple Valley's scionwood were unsuccessful. I have a grafted tree from Raintree on M7 rootstock.

 

[chickenlittle]

The Stark Spire Series: Crimson Spire, Emerald Spire, Scarlet Spire, Irish Spire, Ultra Spire, and Maypole Crabapple.

These were developed by the East Malling research program in the UK by crossing the Wijcik Mac with other varieties. The breeding started in the mid 1970s. US patents were filed in 1986 for most and 1994 for the Crimson and Irish Spires. The patents were owned by Stark but are now expired. Except for the Maypole, each was patented under one name, marketed in the US by Stark as the Spires, and marketed outside the US with the name of a dance (Waltz, Polka, Flamenco, etc.) and called the Ballerina series. Ripening times all appear to be mid September to late October. Being the first generation of crosses, it looks like these were probably rushed out too quickly. From reading the literature and reviews, the apples are ok but not great and there are disease issues for scab, canker, and powder mildew. Subsequent breeding programs have generally started with one of these trees and bred to improve the flavor and scab resistance.

Stark no longer sells the Spires (note, they did sell a few in 2016). Scionwood is available from Maple Valley for Crimson, Emerald, and Scarlet although I had poor success and only got a couple Crimson to take. I will try the other two again next spring. I am going to get budwood for the Maypole from a nearby arboretum this summer. I may try to find the Ultra and Irish Spires from scion trading circles. Given the disease profiles, maybe these are not the best choices for a deer plot that I have no intention of spraying. Some scab is ok as long as the trees still fruit. I will plan to cross them with varieties with better disease resistance to get more disease resistant seedlings. However, the 2nd and 3rd gen trees I'll discuss next are probably better choices for a deer plot if not propagation is not restricted by patents. And there should be more chance of disease resitant seedlings when both parents have disease resistance.

 

[chickenlittle]

One of my successful grafts of Crimson Spire on Polish 18 rootstock. Not a great photo from my phone.

.

 

[chickenlittle]

Sentinels from the Summerland, British Columbia research station.

Two varieties are available retail in the US: Scarlett Sentinel and Golden Sentinel. I did not find any US plant patents but there are plant breeder rights filed in Canada. From the breeder rights, I learned they both resulted from a cross of a Wijcik Mac x Delicious that was then crossed the an English apple variety called Discovery. The cross was made in 1986 and the trees were evaluated until the mid to late 1990s. Scarlett is said ripen late to very late and tends to be annual cropping. Golden Sentinel ripens mid-season to late. I could not find information about the disease resistance. Comments in the 2004 WSU apple report said for both "flavor less than best". They harvested the Golden Sentinel at the end of Aug/beginning of Sept. They harvested the Scarlett Sentinel in mid October.

Raintree had these on M7 rootstock. The Golden Sentinel was the biggest tree I got from them and perhaps had another year in the nursery. It had several leaders at the top and I pruned off several and likely will have to do a better job of that this winter. While these trees tend not to branch, they can when a the central leader gets damage. I got my trees about a week into May. The Golden Sentinel flowered and set 5 apples. Presumably it was pollinated by a neighborhood flowering crab. I removed the smallest apple from a cluster of three this week. I intend to harvest the apples and grow the seeds. I'm still learning the apple diseases. It appears to have some Cedar Apple Rust.


The Scarlett Sentinel is about the same size as all the others but leafed out vigoroursly.


Summerland has a newer release called September Sentinel. It might be available in Canada but not the US. To gain scab resistance, they crossed Co-op 27 with another Wijcik cross. Canadian plant breeder rights were filed for that in 2008.

From a research station in Quebec, there is also a columnar variety called MacExcel that is the Wijcik crossed with a scab resistant variety. Canadian rights to it were filed in 2000 but I have not seen it for sale.

 

[chickenlittle]

Urban Apples: Tasty Red, Tangy Green, Blushing Delight, and Golden Treat

The Urban Apple series looks the most promising columnar apples that are available in the US for eating, growing, and Project W. These come from a Czech Republic breeding program that has released about 10 named columnar varieties and many regular apple varieties (like the variety Topaz). Like PRI in the U.S., they look to breed in scab resistance. Their columnar trees are generally crosses made with the Spire series trees (2nd gen) and some may be 3rd generation crosses from the Wijcik Mac. They file European Variety Rights for most of their varieties and have been granted US plant patents for three columnar trees and several other apples. In researching these, I got a good education in modern apple business. These are marketed in the US as Urban Apple Tasty Red, Tangy Green, Blushing Delight, and Golden Treat. Blushing Delight and Tangy Green are shown to have US plant patents but those patents are for Moonlight and Goldlane, respectively. From there I got to the website of the Czech Institute and looked through their other trees. All looks quite nice. Urban Apples also lists the research designations and I cross-checked those to find that Tasty Red is the Czech release Rondo. I could not cross-check Golden Treat. I finally e-mailed the lead researcher, Dr. Tupy, and he responded in a few days that he was unfamiliar with the Urban Apple names and the US releases were handled by a middle-man company in Oregon that specializes in marketing new apples. He said the variety known as Golden Treat was one that had been decided was unacceptable after trials. He did not say what was unacceptable about it and that could be for any number of reasons. He referred me to the US company but they did not reply to my e-mailed questions.

Their flowering crab Rosalie looks like a great apple for me but it is not for sale yet in the US. Ripens mid october, hangs into November, scab resistant and tolerant to mildew, 2" crabapples. Looks darn near perfect if I could buy one.

Sheets from the Czech Institute on their columnar apples
Tangy Green / Goldlane https://www.google.com/patents/USPP21413, http://www.ueb.cas.cz/cs/system/files/users/public/cerny_126/goldlane-eng.pdf
Blushing Delight / Moonlight https://www.google.com/patents/USPP21511, http://www.ueb.cas.cz/cs/system/files/users/public/cerny_126/moonlight-eng.pdf
Rosalie columnar flowering crab. https://www.google.com/patents/US20140013473, http://www.ueb.cas.cz/cs/system/files/users/public/cerny_126/rosalie-eng.pdf
http://www.ueb.cas.cz/en/content/station-apple-breeding-disease-resistance has links to their other columnar and non-columnar apples.

Here are links to the Urban Apple marketing:
http://www.greenleafnursery.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/whatsnew.detail/recID/29/index.htm
http://www.greenleafnursery.com/_ccLib/image/whatsnew/PDF-29.pdf

In my next post, I'll show some photos of my Urban Apple trees.

 

[buckvelvet]

The straight poll look of these trees still freak me out. You'd think it would be quite stressful under a heavy producing year to stand up like that.

 

[chickenlittle]

The straight poll look of these trees still freak me out. You'd think it would be quite stressful under a heavy producing year to stand up like that.

I have that impulse too but remind myself that it should really be better than having to support the weight of limbs and wind blowing on the limbs. I think of the physics demonstration where you hold 2 gallon jugs of water. Much easier if the jugs are next to your body vs with your arms extended. The columnar profile means less area for wind to blow against.

But it also has fewer leaves to fuel growth and apple production.