apple tree varieties

[bornagain62511]

Hi everyone,
I was interested in adding some more varieties of apples when I start t-budding in a couple weeks. Some of you might remember me from several years ago on the QDMA forums where my user name was "whitetail fanatic". I've t-budded hundreds of apple trees on our farm but I haven't been on this forum much nor the QDMA forums for the past several years, so I was wondering if some of you apple experts could fill me in on any varieties that I might not be aware of that make for excellent deer apples.

My main goals are:
1. varieties with at least a fair degree of disease resistance.
2. varieties that tend to have nicely shaped branch formation (I've noticed that Liberty and Galarina seem to be the best horizontal branch forming varieties of what we have growing on our farm so far)
3. varieties that tend to hang onto their apples late into the fall and winter months.

as of now, I have the following varieties.
galarina
liberty
enterprise
winecrisp
snowsweet
honeycrisp
honeygold
northwest greening
gold rush
williams pride (early ripening)
red free (early ripening)

thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[chummer]

Kerr seems to be the best tree I have planted so far. Still waiting on fruit.

 

[buckvelvet]

Chestnut Crab is great growing tree w/ good natural crotch angles as well for me anyways.

 

[Natureboy]

I would add Florina Querina to the list. The tree is very similar to Liberty in size with good crotch angles. The fruit starts ripening mid October at my camp in Western NY with apples falling thru mid December most years. To me the apple is too bland but an excellent tree for wildlife.

 

[doublelunger]

Dolgo crab apple has been a very fast grower for me, I haven't gotten any fruit yet (planted seedlings in 2014) but a lot of the 12" whips I planted were 5' tall by the end of that first summer.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Dolgo, Kerr, Chestnut, Centennial, Hyslop, and Trailman crabs are all doing really well at my camp. Our best crab so far is one from St. Lawrence Nursery ( SLN ) - " All-Winter-Hangover ". That tree is spectacular, so much so that we bought 2 more and planted them. As for regular apples that are DR, you have Liberty, Goldrush, Enterprise, Galarina, and Winecrisp. I have no experience with your other apples. A couple other very good DR apples are Crimson Topaz, Sundance, Priscilla, Prairie Spy, and Nova Spy. We have those at my camp and all are doing quite well - bugs more of a problem than disease on those trees. They ripen from Sept. 20 - ish into late November, with some apples hanging on into December.

 

[bornagain62511]

thanks to all of you for the replies so far!

 

[James P. Bipps]

Welcome back to the forums, this is a good one.

My fastest growing T Buds have been Honey Crisp and Liberty. Siberian and Dolgo have been fastest growing crab apples.

 

[Maya]

You've got a very good list there Bornagain. All of them combined should spit out some great deer apples as would what the others have suggested. I would just add, take care of what you have. You can plant 50,000 varieties, but I'd rather have a half dozen varieties of well taken care of trees.

I've sold many of the varieties you have mentioned and consulted dozens of people that are growing them for deer. The ones that are doing well are the ones that were planted properly, fenced well, trained well, watered well etc.. That's the key to apples imo.

 

[CrazyEd]

Take a closer look at some of the crabapples commonly grown for deer and wildlife. Dolgo, Kerr, Centennial, Chestnut, Winter Wildlife, Violi's, All Winter Hangover, Centurion.

 

[bornagain62511]

thanks again for all the replies. all those who've mentioned crabapples, that reminds me that I do have one other variety that I forgot to list. I only have a couple grafts of this variety, but it's some kind of a crab apple that has fruit about the size of a golf ball or a little bigger. I found it growing in a nearby city and snipped a few branches for t-budding from it one day a couple years ago. I watched that tree for a couple years and it was loaded with apples and many of them hung on into February and some into March. It must be some kind of a cultivated/domestic variety of crabapples, perhaps one of the varieties listed on here, but I have no idea what variety it might be. From what I've observed of it though, it appears to be a great one for wildlife and probably for eating or making juice for ourselves. Thanks for reminding me about this crabapple, I'll be sure to t-bud more from that tree this August, without all your suggestions, I might have forgotten about that one!

 

[CrazyEd]

Hi everyone,
I was interested in adding some more varieties of apples when I start t-budding in a couple weeks. Some of you might remember me from several years ago on the QDMA forums where my user name was "whitetail fanatic". I've t-budded hundreds of apple trees on our farm but I haven't been on this forum much nor the QDMA forums for the past several years, so I was wondering if some of you apple experts could fill me in on any varieties that I might not be aware of that make for excellent deer apples.

My main goals are:
1. varieties with at least a fair degree of disease resistance.
2. varieties that tend to have nicely shaped branch formation (I've noticed that Liberty and Galarina seem to be the best horizontal branch forming varieties of what we have growing on our farm so far)
3. varieties that tend to hang onto their apples late into the fall and winter months.

as of now, I have the following varieties.
galarina
liberty
enterprise
winecrisp
snowsweet
honeycrisp
honeygold
northwest greening
gold rush
williams pride (early ripening)
red free (early ripening)

thanks in advance for any replies!

You should post some pics from your place. I'd love to see how your trees and other projects have grown in the past few years since I saw your pics on the old QDMA forum . =)

 

[bornagain62511]

Hey Ed, I'll try to do that soon! Last year was the first year I had a fair number of apples on some of the older trees. This year some of them are loaded pretty good. In a few more years and thereafter, there should be loads of apples on our farm, Lord willing!

 

[Dan Wombles]

Add Yates to your list, a small apple, great yearly cropper, apples drop from late October through December. And they are great for filling your pockets on the way to your stand.

 

[CrazyEd]

Hey Ed, I'll try to do that soon! Last year was the first year I had a fair number of apples on some of the older trees. This year some of them are loaded pretty good. In a few more years and thereafter, there should be loads of apples on our farm, Lord willing!

You are lucky to have Apples. We lost our whole crop over in marquette county. It was like 24 degrees during full bloom. I think I have 8 apples on 50 trees that should be producing.

 

[bornagain62511]

You are lucky to have Apples. We lost our whole crop over in marquette county. It was like 24 degrees during full bloom. I think I have 8 apples on 50 trees that should be producing.

In low places, we had 26 degrees one morning in May when most trees were in full bloom. A bit higher in elevation it was 28 degrees. We have a lot of trees that were loaded with blossoms and don't have a single apple on them. But thankfully we got a decent crop on some of them

 

[Bowsnbucks]

One variety I forgot to mention is Arkansas Black. It's growing REALLY well for us at camp. I planted one after reading all the good comments on here about it and I'm glad I did !! It's a great looking tree shape-wise and doesn't show any real disease problems - at least yet. It's supposed to be a late hanging apple, which will be good for our hunting purposes.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Some I didn't see mentioned you may look into
Wickson crab
Horse Apple (summer Apple)
X2 on the Yates

 

[H20fwler]

This past spring I put in from Cummins out of NY;

Golden Russet
Honey Crisp
Spitzenburg
NY 414
Northern Spy
Baldwin
Honey Sweet pear

Trees were bare root 3'-4' whips

From TSC local store;

Keifer pear
Golden Delicious
Jony-Mac
Cortland

Trees were potted 6'-9' well branched

Northern Whitetail Crabs out of PA;

30-06 crab apple
Droptine crab apple
10Point crab apple
Sheepnose
Gray Ghost

Bare root 3'-5' branched