Apple Tree winter Hardiness

[sandbur]

I live in Maine. Supposedly zone 5 but got down to -37F this past winter. My Liberty/mm111, Baker's Delight/mm111, Galarina/seedling trees died. Severe tip dieback on most of my b118 trees. Most of my remaining otherwise healthy apple varieties decided not to bloom this year. However, the ungrafted mm111's and several of the wild seedlings (even a few very young ones) bloomed profusely this past spring.

Some of my friends had die back on B 118. I did not.

My apple crop will be smaller this year, but old established trees are coming through.

Red Baron, chestnut, haralson, Firecracker,haralred, two seedlings from My wife’s Grandma, Hazen, and dolgo are bearing. My two seedlings called Buckman crab and ABC also have plenty of fruit. ‘Big Dog’ rootstock crab has lots of fruit. Also a late crab I named Yellow Dog.

Younger Trailman and winter redflesh have fruit.



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[FarmerNick]

Dolgo rootstock is common in the trees purchased in local nurseries in Minnesota.

I wonder why it is not commonly used out east? Very few even talk about it.

I tried Dolgo seedling rootstock about 20 years ago in Maine. It was supposed to be extra hardy, etc. They did not do so well in my part of Maine. Most died from disease. I cannot remember exactly which disease(s) off hand, but most likely canker or phytophthora as those 2 diseases are the worst apple diseases around my locale and are both very common on the east side of the appalachians. Borowinka or Mm111 or the most vigorous m9's or 9/111 interstems are generally the rootstocks I commonly see planted in new england. Antonovka is sort of common as well, but it is generally only used as a nursing stock until the scion can grow its own roots.

 

[PoorSand]

I compiled my notes from the apple trees I got around to monitoring during this spring’s bloom and checked on again a month later. Here’s the summary of what happened by me.

Trees:
None of the Braeburns, Fujis, Haralreds, Haralsons, Honeycrisps, or Honeygolds that bore last year had any blossoms this spring.

Nearly all my Dolgo seedings, Romes, Red Delicious, and Malus Domestica that bore last year blossomed profusely this spring.

The various zone 4 old-time varieties, a couple unidentified crabs bought from a zone 4 nursery, a probable Liberty, and a probable Enterprise had okay, but not great, blooms.

Bees:
I think the winter may have been hard on the bees by me. There was a strong correlation between orchards where I released mason bees and the percent of blossoms that turned into apples. The orchards where I released bees had good to excellent pollination; where I didn’t, it was fair to dismal.

At first I suspected last year’s pesticide use on adjacent farm fields at two of the locations might be to blame for the poor pollination, but then I checked for fruit on a bunch of other trees that had blossomed profusely this spring and were far away from any fields. They also had hardly any apples. Whatever the reason, it is easy enough to drop off bees at those three orchards too next spring.

 

[sandbur]

I compiled my notes from the apple trees I got around to monitoring during this spring’s bloom and checked on again a month later. Here’s the summary of what happened by me.

Trees:
None of the Braeburns, Fujis, Haralreds, Haralsons, Honeycrisps, or Honeygolds that bore last year had any blossoms this spring.

Nearly all my Dolgo seedings, Romes, Red Delicious, and Malus Domestica that bore last year blossomed profusely this spring.

The various zone 4 old-time varieties, a couple unidentified crabs bought from a zone 4 nursery, a probable Liberty, and a probable Enterprise had okay, but not great, blooms.

Bees:
I think the winter may have been hard on the bees by me. There was a strong correlation between orchards where I released mason bees and the percent of blossoms that turned into apples. The orchards where I released bees had good to excellent pollination; where I didn’t, it was fair to dismal.

At first I suspected last year’s pesticide use on adjacent farm fields at two of the locations might be to blame for the poor pollination, but then I checked for fruit on a bunch of other trees that had blossomed profusely this spring and were far away from any fields. They also had hardly any apples. Whatever the reason, it is easy enough to drop off bees at those three orchards too next spring.

My haralson and haralred that bore little last year are full of fruit this year. I thinned them this year and it might prevent the every other year thing.
Firecracker is full of fruit and on the same cycle, but I didn’t bother to thin it.

Trailman had fruit two years in a row.

Kerr crab in my yard bore heavily for two years but took this year off. I should have thinned it.

I have two Hazens.. they are on alternate years and this year I thinned the one.


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[Bowsnbucks]

Bur ^^^^ - Is Firecracker an "every year" crab or every other year ?? I wasn't 100% sure from your post. The pix of Firecracker I've seen on the web seem to be loaded.

 

[sandbur]

Bur ^^^^ - Is Firecracker an "every year" crab or every other year ?? I wasn't 100% sure from your post. The pix of Firecracker I've seen on the web seem to be loaded.

Otha’s been pretty much every year for me.


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[trampledbyturtles]

B118 Liberty not looking good.
Came out looking sick from the get go, pushed leaves late an stayed small for a long time.
Will be replaced next spring with a frostbite.
Thought enterprise was gunna suffer the same fate, but looks to be pulling through.
Got to -38 for about 4 hrs

 

[PoorSand]

This was supposed to be the on-again year for about half my modern variety apple trees that didn't bloom this spring. At least that's what I had been expecting when I took photos of each of these trees planted 12, 14, and 15 years ago with only 1 - 8 apples each on them last year.

 

[PoorSand]

Trampled: I'm wondering if maybe that lower limb with the dead leaves in your photo has been struck by fire blight.

 

[homerj]

I don't think that Liberty looks like it does because of winter temps. Likely fireblight as previously suggested. It looks like there are several cankers on the limbs and trunk

 

[PoorSand]

It reminds me of one once that had fire blight down low on it and that I cut down to the first bud just above the graft union. The next spring, the bud sent up a tall shoot, so all I lost was a few years of growth.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Good to know fellas, fireblight is fairly rare in our parts. But with all the rain this spring/summer we r seeing more of it on certain shrubs as well. Never thought being one of my supposed best disease resistant varietes out of 60 plus that it would be the one to get hit. Thought the black patches were freeze dieback.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bur, post #106 - What are "Otha's" ?? Is that another name for Firecracker crab ??

 

[sandbur]

Bur, post #106 - What are "Otha's" ?? Is that another name for Firecracker crab ??

Heck if I know. I was low on coffee and spell check corrected it.

Firecracker has had fruit every year except one late frost year.


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[chummer]

Good to know fellas, fireblight is fairly rare in our parts. But with all the rain this spring/summer we r seeing more of it on certain shrubs as well. Never thought being one of my supposed best disease resistant varietes out of 60 plus that it would be the one to get hit. Thought the black patches were freeze dieback.

Looks like every one of my Liberties before it died from winter. Isn’t Liberty immune from FB?

 

[Mortenson]

I could be wrong, but I didn't think any of them were technically immune to FB.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

After checking several sources, Liberty is listed as either "highly resistant" or "resistant" to FB. I didn't see a rating of "immune".

 

[homerj]

I would add that a person shouldn't assume a tree is true to label until it has fruited. Just because you get a tree from a nursery and it is labeled as being Liberty, that doesn't mean it's a Liberty.

 

[chummer]

I would add that a person shouldn't assume a tree is true to label until it has fruited. Just because you get a tree from a nursery and it is labeled as being Liberty, that doesn't mean it's a Liberty.

Yes. I believe I had five Chestnut Crabs that grew like crazy their first year and were in great shape going to winter. They were all dead, rootstock and all the next spring.

 

[Appleman]

Report from Northwestern Vermont: Honeycrisp; very heavy fruit set. 3 cover sprays wth Sevin Carbaryl at post petal fall saw removal of 80% or more fruitlets and retained King blooms set. Excellent fruit growth and insect damage almost no existent. Very clean fruit. Snowsweet; excellent fruit set. Some thinning required. A few trees suffered minimal dieback otherwise looking good. Liberty; heavy fruit. No winter damage to report. Frostbite, Honeygold, Fortune, Sweet Sixteen, enterprise all good. Temp low of -34f this past winter had very low impact on tree health. Franklin; Heavy fruit set. Extremely winter hardy so nothing to report. My trees are grafted to B118, M7, G30, M111 with no winter damage to report.