2 Favorite Trees for Every Month

[bigboreblr]

Going to do a twist on the favorite 3. Since many of us have more than a handful of trees around.

My home in zone 5, all trees are young but went with good tasting multi-purpose disease free trees

August- Redfree and Pristine.
September- Chestnut and Trailman.
October- Liberty and Empire. Wife loves empire apples, is somewhat disease free though.
November- Enterprise and Frankling Cider
December- Galarina and AWHO. AWHO is planted close to my in-laws house, so they can see more birds.

At Zone 3b, maybe 4a now in sady soil at camp.

September- Trailman and Dolgo. Trailman is mostly for a colorful apple folks can see in the parking lot. Dolgo is low commitment seedling. I have the risk of trees being cut by loggers.
October- Kerr and Crossbow. Crossbow is very disease free. Some reason ants and japanese beetles leave my tree at home alone.
November- Droptine. Seems to grow a bit faster than 30-06.
December- Usually the deer have left camp for less snow by the lake. Got a good snowshe hare and grouse population. going with AWHO and Signal fire. Should keep them fed and might help a club mmber without a dog score some small game. Signal fire, I'm hoping to see grey squirrels at camp, only reds. Got those mean ermine snow weasels, might be the lack of grey squirrels. The tree is a favorite of squirrels in the winter I am told.

 

[Dantana]

My trees are still pretty young so my contributions to this are limited. Zone 4B now 5a. Heavy clay soils.

October - Liberty
November - tough to beat Droptine and Enterprise. Both are producing a decent amount in year 4. Could also add Arkansas Black here.
December - my focus going forward. Buckman and Big Dog.

 

[bigboreblr]

I forgot to mention the farmland I hunt. One parcel is bow season and muzzleloader. The other is rifle season use. So far got big dog and blue permain there. Thought big dog was a more october/ november tree.

 

[silver_yummies]

Zone 4B

August - Centennial Crab and Zestar (Zestar is 99% for human consumption, way too delicious to share with wildlife)
September - Chestnut Crab and Liberty (Liberty is turning out to be a family favorite for eating as well)
October - Bonkers and Wickson Crab
November - Enterprise and Goldrush

 

[gunfun13]

I only have about a dozen different varieties producing meaningful crops so far but have over 75 varieties planted. I fully expect this will change a lot over the next few years...but as of right now it sits like this:

August-Pristine and Trailman
September- Chestnut Crab and Morse Nova Scotia
October- WC 10 Point and Liberty
November-WC Droptine and WC 30-06
December-Same as november

Zone 6A

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We have too many varieties to narrow to just 2/month - but I'll agree with some of the guys above on some good ones.
August - Centennial & Trailman crabs
September - Chestnut crab and Morse Nova Scotia crab (NS crab is a surprisingly good tree with a good natural shape)
October - Liberty, AWHO crab, WW crab
November - Enterprise & Goldrush

We have some newer varieties from Blue Hill - too young to produce or evaluate.

 

[MN guy]

What is AWHO?

 

[H20fwler]

All Winter Hangover?

 

[bigboreblr]

What is AWHO?

All Winter Hangover. Saint Lawrence nuruseries used to sell them on antonovka rootstock. WW is winter wildlife. Both are smaller crabapples that fall into winter. Not well suited for eating, but probably could make cider or jelly from them. My AWHO is young. Went for this one to help out turkey and grouse through the winter. AWHO is biennial, which means a good crop every other year and a light one the next. Winter wildlife produces annually. Their a good couple to be next to each other. WC is whitetail crabs in PA.

The trailman tree is still available at turkey creek in kansas Although liberty and enterprise might be hard to find, they have freedom. Kind of a blend between liberty and enterprise far as drop times. Good tree right before rut. I have a young one of all of those 3.

 

[sandbur]

July would be Norland as that is the only apple I have had ripe in July

Trailman and Centennial for August

Chestnut for September

I need to check my records, but Kinderkrisp is a favorite for eating and St Edmund’s Russet was our favorite late season apple this year.

Kerr is a good choice, probably October.

 

[Native Hunter]

Unless I missed it, no one had June. I have two:

Striped June (Margaret) ripens mid June, and Bevan's Favorite starts ripening late June. Bevans is the superior eating apple of the two. Both are fine for cooking.

 

[H20fwler]

^^^ I need to put a couple of each of those in.
Have looked on the net a couple places in the past they are kind of hard to find.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Bumping this up as kind of a "if you were going to topwork a tree and had access to good scion, what would you put on that topwork spot"..let's say you had spot for 2 scion on the topwork location..(aka the origin of a frankentree)

 

[Rubee]

Chestnut and Blue Hill’s Candy crabapples.

 

[bigboreblr]

Bumping this up as kind of a "if you were going to topwork a tree and had access to good scion, what would you put on that topwork spot"..let's say you had spot for 2 scion on the topwork location..(aka the origin of a frankentree)

There are thousands of options you can do. I try real hard to pick a disease free one and a later blooming one too. Not much wow compared to others, but whitetails 30-06 has been a tank. Flowers noticeably later than most crabapples I have, no disease issues, grows fast and strong. I have 3 from Terry on anty doing well in low pH soil. 2 at camp and 1 at home. Not sure of my count so far, but I've grafted that tree close to a dozen times and at least 5 on anty for camp. All scions took and were probably my best growers on year 1. Crossbow has been good to me too. I'd be happy if I had many copies of those trees and and a mix of whatever varieties you like. Works great on m111 too.

Been liking what Sandbur has in his woods. Maybe he sells it to us well. Chestnut is one I will have more than one of. Courthouse and big dog I plan on copying again too. He is fond of trailman, but it's a summer fruit.

Far as catching up goes on your tree. Williams pride and Galarina have surprised me. Plenty of growth, as much as you'd want to bring water over to. Galarina is a late tree a deer hunter would like. Williams pride is an early tree. Not real early, but when you can't wait for apples to be ripe anymore, williams will be good. The USDA repository says it's not good on m111, been good so far to me on the one I bought and 2 or 3 I grafted. Hopefully its not weak graft union. Find out in a few years.

What I am learning with anontovka, it's more pH sensitive than other large rootstocks. A 20ft diameter circle around your tree is 314sq ft. 2 tons per acre in that circle is 28 lbs of lime. So, a 1/2 bag of pelletized lime around that tree would cheer up that rootstock.

What I read and what I have observed with my grafting, I think crabapples that bloom early need to be on crabapples based rootstock. The runting I see with some crabs on m111 I think is caused by that. Antonovka is bloom group 3. It;s overall been more crabapples friendly. Violi's has been ok. AWHO, trailman, winter wildlife I've had runting issues. Think they need to be on dolgo or ranetka. Commercial crabapples varieties have been more tolerant like kerr or what little I've seen of chestnut.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

I’m going to do top work two trees this year. Was thinking of putting at least two scions in and two different kinds. Not sure what I want though. Was thinking candy crisp and a crab.

 

[marlin]

Bumping this up as kind of a "if you were going to topwork a tree and had access to good scion, what would you put on that topwork spot"..let's say you had spot for 2 scion on the topwork location..(aka the origin of a frankentree)

Red Fuji (late drop) starts becoming ripe around Halloween in south Central Michigan would be my number one choice. Enterprise, Cripps pink lady, gold rush and pixie crunch would also be solid choices in my opinion.

 

[sandbur]

There are thousands of options you can do. I try real hard to pick a disease free one and a later blooming one too. Not much wow compared to others, but whitetails 30-06 has been a tank. Flowers noticeably later than most crabapples I have, no disease issues, grows fast and strong. I have 3 from Terry on anty doing well in low pH soil. 2 at camp and 1 at home. Not sure of my count so far, but I've grafted that tree close to a dozen times and at least 5 on anty for camp. All scions took and were probably my best growers on year 1. Crossbow has been good to me too. I'd be happy if I had many copies of those trees and and a mix of whatever varieties you like. Works great on m111 too.

Been liking what Sandbur has in his woods. Maybe he sells it to us well. Chestnut is one I will have more than one of. Courthouse and big dog I plan on copying again too. He is fond of trailman, but it's a summer fruit.

Far as catching up goes on your tree. Williams pride and Galarina have surprised me. Plenty of growth, as much as you'd want to bring water over to. Galarina is a late tree a deer hunter would like. Williams pride is an early tree. Not real early, but when you can't wait for apples to be ripe anymore, williams will be good. The USDA repository says it's not good on m111, been good so far to me on the one I bought and 2 or 3 I grafted. Hopefully its not weak graft union. Find out in a few years.

What I am learning with anontovka, it's more pH sensitive than other large rootstocks. A 20ft diameter circle around your tree is 314sq ft. 2 tons per acre in that circle is 28 lbs of lime. So, a 1/2 bag of pelletized lime around that tree would cheer up that rootstock.

What I read and what I have observed with my grafting, I think crabapples that bloom early need to be on crabapples based rootstock. The runting I see with some crabs on m111 I think is caused by that. Antonovka is bloom group 3. It;s overall been more crabapples friendly. Violi's has been ok. AWHO, trailman, winter wildlife I've had runting issues. Think they need to be on dolgo or ranetka. Commercial crabapples varieties have been more tolerant like kerr or what little I've seen of chestnut.

You may have hit on why I have so much struggles with Anty rootstock. On heavier soils it is ok and they tend to have a higher pH and hold the pH better.

I have lighter soils on higher locations and it doesn’t seem to do well.natural pH is lower. Very light soil, I don’t even plant apple trees.

I also suspect Anty is not hardy when we have prairie like conditions with extremes and some years of low snow fall.

Best rootstock? Your native wild crabs ( or apples).

 

[sandbur]

Bumping this up as kind of a "if you were going to topwork a tree and had access to good scion, what would you put on that topwork spot"..let's say you had spot for 2 scion on the topwork location..(aka the origin of a frankentree)

I didn’t reread this thread, but I might just be repeating previous posts.

Variety of trees in a location depends on many factors. CAR exposure, other disease, etc.

I feel varieties selected should depend on the purpose intended for this location.

A bow hunting location needs a tree with the proper drop time. Perhaps deer movement in that location varies with leaf cover or no leaf cover.

Later fall hunting locations for mzzle or firearm would need the proper drop time.

For winter survival of the herd, those trees that feed during the winter need to be close to winter cover and in a location where winter snows tend to not be as deep.

Plantings for turkeys or grouse would be different as well.


Same thing for top working and which varieties to use.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Exactly. ^ ^ ^ ^