Theres a Reason........

[greyphase]

My Limbertwig update.
My 2 Brushy Mountain trees have a few apples on the small side. Tasted some last year but was not impressed. Maybe I need some scion from NH.
My Myers Royal is my favorite. Lost one tree to crown gall last fall but have another with a small crop on. Will be planting more of these.
My Kentucky has it's 1st crop of about 2 dozen apples. Still mostly green with a little color coming on.
My Black has it's 1st crop of about a dozen apples. Starting to turn red but will be awhile yet before I taste them.
My Victoria trees are bearing for their second year. A nice tasty, beautiful apple.
My Red Royal has 3 apples on. Holding my breath the squirrel or coon don't try them before I do.
My Red. Have two trees with several dozen apples on.
My Swiss has a half dozen apples.
My Caney Fork just a couple bug bitten apples on.
My Fall no apples yet.
My Summer no apples yet.
My Virginia just a couple apples.
These trees are 4-5 year old.

Have the following 1-2 year old Limbertwigs.
Little, Royal, Old Fashioned, Watts, Weavers Red Sweet, Hanging Dog, Levering, Hillside, White, Nanthalia, Ashford, Myers Green, Smokey Mountain, and Rocky River.

Yea I may be a little obsessed with Limbertwigs.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

blueKYstream - I don't know how your climate there might give you different results than ours here, but we have several of the apple & crab varieties on your list.
We have Ark Black, Liberty, and Enterprise from your "x" list. All very good trees - no problems with any of them.

We have Galarina & Sundance , both very good DR trees and we have good growth & no problems.

We also have Dolgo, Wolf River, Trailman, Chestnut, and Kerr. No problems with any of those either.

The rootstocks you get those trees on will play a part, too. I should say we have no members of the juniper family ( red cedar, or other junipers ) anywhere for miles around our camp, so we avoid CAR by that isolation. The 5 trees in the sentence directly above may or may not get CAR if you have red cedars around you. Without looking them up I don't know how susceptible they are off the top of my head. I just know CAR doesn't affect our trees at camp.

I think you have a great selection on your total list. Native Hunter is there in KY. with you & he can dial you in on some winners for your local climate and surroundings.

 

[Native Hunter]

My Limbertwig update.
My 2 Brushy Mountain trees have a few apples on the small side. Tasted some last year but was not impressed. Maybe I need some scion from NH.
My Myers Royal is my favorite. Lost one tree to crown gall last fall but have another with a small crop on. Will be planting more of these.
My Kentucky has it's 1st crop of about 2 dozen apples. Still mostly green with a little color coming on.
My Black has it's 1st crop of about a dozen apples. Starting to turn red but will be awhile yet before I taste them.
My Victoria trees are bearing for their second year. A nice tasty, beautiful apple.
My Red Royal has 3 apples on. Holding my breath the squirrel or coon don't try them before I do.
My Red. Have two trees with several dozen apples on.
My Swiss has a half dozen apples.
My Caney Fork just a couple bug bitten apples on.
My Fall no apples yet.
My Summer no apples yet.
My Virginia just a couple apples.
These trees are 4-5 year old.

Have the following 1-2 year old Limbertwigs.
Little, Royal, Old Fashioned, Watts, Weavers Red Sweet, Hanging Dog, Levering, Hillside, White, Nanthalia, Ashford, Myers Green, Smokey Mountain, and Rocky River.

Yea I may be a little obsessed with Limbertwigs.

Wow - you have just become my new Limbertwig Idol!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Native Hunter]

Any updates on your Limbertwigs? I've been pondering an order of apples this Fall (and maybe one in the Spring). I'm debating if I want to plant crab apples from a place like NWC or planting some disease resistant apples. It would mainly be for wildlife purposes, but having something I can snack on during a hunt would be cool (but not the deciding factor). I spoke with David at Century Farms...great guy! There isn't a whole lot of information out there on some of the heritage apples. He recommended considering the following along with some others on my list:

Harrison – October
Keener Seedling – Can hang until November
Old Fashion Lumbertwig – Ripens late October/mainly in November?
Virginia or Old Fashioned Winesap (doesn't seem like a better option than Arkansas Black to me from a disease standpoint but not sure)

Is your Old Fashion Limbertwig or other Limbertwig varieties vigorous? I have cattle on half my property. I spray around my trees, but they still like to mess the fence up to pick the leaves from my young pear trees. Fortunately, they haven't eaten the leader. I think they'll be fine if they can put on some vertical growth. The cows seem to leave the persimmon and chestnut trees alone though. If some of the above varieties are slow to establish, I may try crab apples on that portion of the property and perhaps apples on the other.

Some of my other considerations (x = almost certainly planting):
x Arkansas Black – October/Nov – Poor Pollinator
x Enterprise – Late October – Avg Pollinator (Group 2)
x Liberty – Sept/Oct – Poor Pollinator (Group 2), Self Fertile
x Yates - October
Dolgo
Freedom
Galarina
Hewes
Kerr
Trailman
Wolf River
Chestnut
Black Oxford
Sundance
King David - reported drop dates are extremely variable with this apple (Late August or Late October)
There was 3 Callaway crabs at Menards the other day but they were $60. Good looking trees though.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Cummins on a few varieties as well as some of the pros/cons of P.18. They don't have much on MM.111, so I'd likely have to go with B.118 if I went through them. Any info you got would be greatly appreciated!

My small King David has a bunch of apples this year. They are as red as a candy apple, but will set your teeth on edge right now. I'm sure they will sweeten up later.

Wolf River has been reported by some to have bad fireblight problems. I have a young one that has never fruited. It appears to be extremely CAR and Scab resistant, but you will not know about fireblight until you start getting flowers. I first thought I would topwork it when I started hearing the FB horror stories, but it looks so beautiful I'm going to let it grow and see what happens.

Freedom: I've seen enough now to think this variety is okay. No hint of disease. My young tree had 2 or 3 apples I pulled early. Going to try them in a few weeks.

I think you have my comments on others from prior posts. Good luck.

 

[blueKYstream]

My Limbertwig update.
My 2 Brushy Mountain trees have a few apples on the small side. Tasted some last year but was not impressed. Maybe I need some scion from NH.
My Myers Royal is my favorite. Lost one tree to crown gall last fall but have another with a small crop on. Will be planting more of these.
My Kentucky has it's 1st crop of about 2 dozen apples. Still mostly green with a little color coming on.
My Black has it's 1st crop of about a dozen apples. Starting to turn red but will be awhile yet before I taste them.
My Victoria trees are bearing for their second year. A nice tasty, beautiful apple.
My Red Royal has 3 apples on. Holding my breath the squirrel or coon don't try them before I do.
My Red. Have two trees with several dozen apples on.
My Swiss has a half dozen apples.
My Caney Fork just a couple bug bitten apples on.
My Fall no apples yet.
My Summer no apples yet.
My Virginia just a couple apples.
These trees are 4-5 year old.

Have the following 1-2 year old Limbertwigs.
Little, Royal, Old Fashioned, Watts, Weavers Red Sweet, Hanging Dog, Levering, Hillside, White, Nanthalia, Ashford, Myers Green, Smokey Mountain, and Rocky River.

Yea I may be a little obsessed with Limbertwigs.

You are a Limbertwig-aholic! You have quite a selection there! They must taste awesome! Are they fast growers in general or slow growing? Would you say they're good wildlife trees trees?

 

[blueKYstream]

My small King David has a bunch of apples this year. They are as red as a candy apple, but will set your teeth on edge right now. I'm sure they will sweeten up later.

Wolf River has been reported by some to have bad fireblight problems. I have a young one that has never fruited. It appears to be extremely CAR and Scab resistant, but you will not know about fireblight until you start getting flowers. I first thought I would topwork it when I started hearing the FB horror stories, but it looks so beautiful I'm going to let it grow and see what happens.

Freedom: I've seen enough now to think this variety is okay. No hint of disease. My young tree had 2 or 3 apples I pulled early. Going to try them in a few weeks.

I think you have my comments on others from prior posts. Good luck.

Trees of Antiquity states that Wolf River is fireblight resistant, but Orange Pippin says it's fireblight susceptible, so I'm not sure on that one either. Hope it works out for you!
I've read Hewe's may be fireblight susceptible too so may cross that off the list
Freedom sounds like a good one! That might be a great option!
King David sounds like an intriguing variety! Do you think it'll be closer to an August ripening or late October?

 

[blueKYstream]

blueKYstream - I don't know how your climate there might give you different results than ours here, but we have several of the apple & crab varieties on your list.
We have Ark Black, Liberty, and Enterprise from your "x" list. All very good trees - no problems with any of them.

We have Galarina & Sundance , both very good DR trees and we have good growth & no problems.

We also have Dolgo, Wolf River, Trailman, Chestnut, and Kerr. No problems with any of those either.

The rootstocks you get those trees on will play a part, too. I should say we have no members of the juniper family ( red cedar, or other junipers ) anywhere for miles around our camp, so we avoid CAR by that isolation. The 5 trees in the sentence directly above may or may not get CAR if you have red cedars around you. Without looking them up I don't know how susceptible they are off the top of my head. I just know CAR doesn't affect our trees at camp.

I think you have a great selection on your total list. Native Hunter is there in KY. with you & he can dial you in on some winners for your local climate and surroundings.

As for weather, I believe it's essentially the same as yours. I'm Zone 5/6 border as well. The weather we get usually follows that path towards you. I have tons of cedars in my area, so that's definitely a concern!

I think I've read Dolgo was slow growing which was somewhat of a turnoff to me
Sundance crops biennial from what I understand but I'm definitely considering
I haven't seen much info on Trailman, so I'm glad to hear it's disease resistant
Like Native said, I'm not real sure about the fireblight resistance on Wolf River. For that reason, I'm a bit hesitant on that.

 

[Native Hunter]

Trees of Antiquity states that Wolf River is fireblight resistant, but Orange Pippin says it's fireblight susceptible, so I'm not sure on that one either. Hope it works out for you!
I've read Hewe's may be fireblight susceptible too so may cross that off the list
Freedom sounds like a good one! That might be a great option!
King David sounds like an intriguing variety! Do you think it'll be closer to an August ripening or late October?

October.

 

[greyphase]

You are a Limbertwig-aholic! You have quite a selection there! They must taste awesome! Are they fast growers in general or slow growing? Would you say they're good wildlife trees trees?

They have given me good solid growth for their ages. They originated in the southern Appalachian mountains. Seedlings raised and selected by subsistence farmers whos lives depended on the crops they raised. Most all are fall and winter apples and seem to hang well on the tree. I would consider them fine for wildlife apples. But remember I'm a Limbertwig-aholic and may be a little biased.

 

[Robert799]

I have a wolf river which has grown fantastic— gets plenty of sunshine and water. Only get about 4-5 apples each year. It is 5 yrs old. Any thoughts? I have plenty of pollinators around. Didn’t know if it just had come to age yet.