unknown apple at Home depot?

[mikmaze]

Well I went out yesterday and saw a set of nice apple tres for sale at HD, unfortunately they had no names on the label. They did list however the grower. So this am, I called the grower, they gave me the HD sales rep for the store I got them from. I called his cell #, he answered, we talked. He asked for pic of the label which I sent him via text and within 4 minutes, I got a text back. Red Macintosh, asked about root stock and he is going to get back to me. I bought 9 of them at 12$ each for my buddies place up north, he has plenty of wild apples/ crab-apples nearby for pollinators so he should get fruit. So don't shy away from no names, a little time on the phone and you can know what ya got.

 

[Telemark]

Nice find!

I would probably have bought them without knowing the variety if they were big and healthy. I've started planting apple trees on other people's property too. Can never have too many!

 

[Prof.Kent]

You can always topwork the trees over to another variety if you want to also. But at $12 a tree you can't go wrong. McIntoshs usually drop pretty early though.

 

[Tree Spud]

Bought 4 fruit trees, 2 apple 7 2 pear, from Home DepoT. They were 3'-4' trees and were potted. Did everything I could all spring/summer to supplement water, good soil, weed mat, fencing, etc.

All 4 failed ... when I pulled the failed trees in the fall, root balls were the size of a hard ball. Never had a chance to be transplented like that. Learned fruit trees were grown in a southern climate and then over trimmed to save on shipping cost.

Will never waste money on a big box tree again.

If you get success, good luck, just inspect the trees to make sure you know what you have.

 

[mikmaze]

I buy em in the fall, if they can survive a season in a pot being watered by a HD flunkie, it will survive in the woods.

 

[Tree Spud]

I buy em in the fall, if they can survive a season in a pot being watered by a HD flunkie, it will survive in the woods.

Glad you have a season to waste, I look for 1st year success. Rather pay $20 per properly developed root ball than $10 on pos.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Rootstock will be M7, M106, or, more rarely MM111.
I've never seen a big box store's trees mention the rootstock type other than just sayng "Dwarf" or "semi-dwarf". And usually it is "semi-dwarf". I take that to mean M106 or MM111 for semi-dwarf and M7 for dwarf. I wouldnt buy a dwarf tree for a deer apple tree because most wouldn't grow much above the deer browse line. If you want to plant it for a deer apple tree, plant the graft union a few inches underground. You will get a bigger tree this way. It may not be as cold hardy though, so maybe avoid doing this in zone 3 or 4 unless the variety is an apple bred in the north.

 

[mikmaze]

How do you figure it is a season wasted? The fall is the season for planting for me, spring around here swings crazy temps, go from nice and easy 60's, to bam, 90 degrees for a week with no rain. then there is summer, churning along all seems normal, then 6 weeks without rain, I don't have the time to run down and water trees when it doesn't rain. Planted in the fall he roots have months to grow along and be ready to support the tree come hot and dry weather. I'll stick with 5 trees to your 3 any day.

I like the idea of planting a bit deep, gets the topwork a chance to root, and supply added "power" to grow beyond the dwarfing rootstocks.