Crabapple Varieties & guys' comments / input

[Bowsnbucks]

From the way the lower limbs are cleaned off, I'd say the deer LIKE them. We have some of the real small ( 1/4" ) crabs that the birds clean off all winter long. Keeping the birds alive and healthy thru the winter only helps US when we need them to eat insects in the spring/summer. Many birds eat nuts, seeds, berries during the cooler months and then switch to bugs during the warmer months. Everything we plant/do for habitat pays long-term dividends in so many ways.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

TTT

Fun thread to read through

 

[Mortenson]

Yeah it was. I missed this one in the archives somehow. Ya know usually I want time to slow down a bunch. Except when I read thru these apple threads, then I'd like a 5 year time warp.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

TT & Mortenson - Still plenty of time and space left on this thread for fresh up-dates. I have to say that my Winter Wildlife crabs (SLN) look exactly like Greyphase's pic at post #64 on page 4 of this thread. I'm real impressed with the amount of fruit and the red color "glows" just like in Grey's pic. They stand out from a distance. For only being in the ground for 3 years, they put on clusters of apples and grew to about 12 ft. tall. Can't wait for this next year to see how much more they grow & produce. We have 3 of them already & probably will buy 1 or 2 more !!! BTW - SLN said they will have Winter Wildlife crabs ready for sale again for spring 2019. They have All-Winter-Hangover crabs for sale this winter for spring 2018.

Sandbur and Greyphase have some really good crabs growing. Hopefully they'll keep us updated on their trees and give us more input. Many of the pix are from them.

I've learned something about the Hyslop crabs we have at camp. I'd described them as dry & mealy in the beginning of this thread. Having picked some earlier than I did previously, they aren't bad at all. Tart, I'd say, but that's OK by me. My first impression of Hyslop - a few years ago - was after they had gotten too ripe and then they got dry & mealy. I'm sure deer will eat them, and they are a great pollinator.

 

[Jhoss]

All these pages and no mention of Zumi Crab? A good crop every year but a great crop every other. This pic take 19Dec17.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I think I've read Zumi's only get to be about 1/2" dia. fruit. (?) Are there more than one kind of Zumi crab ?? Whatever that is in your pic - it looks pretty good. Ribbed too ??

 

[H20fwler]

I missed this thread too, thanks for bumping it up!

I originally started planting crabs because they are such good pollinators for apple trees planting at least one for every five apple then realized what great wildlife soft mast they can produce.

My crab varieties are;
Chestnut
DropTine
Ten Point
30-06
Golden Hornet
Ed’s Cherry Bomb
Malus Sargenti

And I will be adding Dolgo

Spring 2018 added;
Zumi
Crossbow

 

[Apple Junkie]

I too have become more interested in looking at crabs, so I’ve planted a few recently to see how they do.

In 2016 I planted a Chestnut crab and I like how it is doing so far. It set a few apples this year, but I knocked them off to put energy into the tree itself. This past year, I added a Wikson crab and a Franklin (I consider many “cider” apples to be crabs). Both of these trees grew well over the summer, and looked great going into the winter. This spring I am adding a Harrison and a Redfield (both from Cummins). If a Kerr shows up there, I’d like to add one of those too based on the comments from other folks here.

Since all of my crab apples are pretty new, the jury is still out. That said, I am excited about the prospect of having some very productive tree is a relatively short period of time. We’ll see…

 

[Bowsnbucks]

A.J. - ^^^ If you want an endorsement for Kerr - I'll give it !! We have 3 of 'em and they are super. They taste really good for an eater, and they hang on into November here at camp. Growing really well for us and I'm glad we planted all 3. I'd highly recommend them.

FYI - SLN has Kerr on Antonovka rootstock in their 2018 spring catalog. You'll get a full-sized tree with that rootstock - 25 ft. tall.

 

[chickenlittle]

Scab resistant PRI 77-1 crab. 2nd leaf tbud on Polish18 rootstock. Still holding most of the few fruit it had on Jan 13.

 

[IkemanTx]

I am very interested in crabapple varieties, but not sure how well they would perform here in the south.
Are there any documented chill hour requirements on these crabapple varieties?
We get very few chill hours (often much less than 600 or 650 hours) and MANY varieties of commercial apples will fail to produce down here. I wouldn’t want to spend the time and money planting dozens of trees to find out in 10 years that they will never produce mast.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sandbur]

Does anyone have experience with the Martha Crab?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

A heads-up that Northern Whitetail has updated their website, today I think. Looks like they are offering a new one called crossbow in place of the 10-point. I didn't see where they name the rootstock on crabs, but they mentioned M7 and MM111 on their orchard apple trees.

 

[Jhoss]

I think I've read Zumi's only get to be about 1/2" dia. fruit. (?) Are there more than one kind of Zumi crab ?? Whatever that is in your pic - it looks pretty good. Ribbed too ??

Mine were ordered from ColdStream nursery in SW Michigan. At the time (2010) I bought 10 Zumi and 10 Siberian. They are all non-grafted seedlings. All the Zumi look the same when talking about the fruit - I would say larger than 1/2 'diameter but probably less than an inch. There is some color variation...same size but yellow apples on one. I only have two left as I grafted them over to eater or cider varieties but I wish I had more as they dependably put on good bloom and fruit load.

As for the Siberians , same story, grafted all but two over to eaters or cider varieties. These too load up with pea sized fruit. Both get a lot of traffic from deer and birds and both hold fruit pretty late.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sandbur - I've read something about the Martha crab, but I can't seem to remember where. I've been looking all around my usual haunts on the web to see if I can find where I saw it. I don't have it myself, but saw some info on it recently. If I find the info, I'll post the location.

 

[greyphase]

http://www.outonalimbapples.com/varieties/martha-crabapple

Here's a little info on the Martha crab.

 

[IkemanTx]

Is 650-950 chill hours sufficient for most crabapple varieties?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Greyphase, for posting that link to Martha crab. That's John Bunker's other site besides Fedco. That's where I saw it. After reading the info on Martha, it sounds like a good one to graft !!

 

[H20fwler]

Mine were ordered from ColdStream nursery in SW Michigan. At the time (2010) I bought 10 Zumi and 10 Siberian. They are all non-grafted seedlings. All the Zumi look the same when talking about the fruit - I would say larger than 1/2 'diameter but probably less than an inch. There is some color variation...same size but yellow apples on one. I only have two left as I grafted them over to eater or cider varieties but I wish I had more as they dependably put on good bloom and fruit load.

I had seen the Zumi on the Coldstream site before but I guess I didn't look at it hard enough. Yours look awesome and they are sure priced right, love the late season hang time. I'm going to try a few out, thanks! I've always been happy with everything I've gotten from ColdStream in the past.

https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/zumi-crabapple.html[/

 

[sandbur]

http://www.outonalimbapples.com/varieties/martha-crabapple

Here's a little info on the Martha crab.

I thought I had read where Martha had some dolgo blood in it. If anyone has personal experience or reads about disease resistance, please let me know. CAR especially.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk