A look at the orchard

[Natureboy]

Have you ate any golden nugget apples?
I added this to my scion list this year based on the late Hoyt Adair's recommendation from an old Classical Fruit catalog of his.

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Merle,
If don't believe that I tasted any of the Golden Nugget apples. I will have to try some this fall. Just a note, even thought they were purchased on M111 rootstock and are about five years old my Golden Nugget trees are really only bushes yet, only four feet tall at most and still totally protected by cages. Hopefully with a good pruning, they will put on significant growth this year.

 

[Mortenson]

It's December 10th. Any updates on what's holding well this year?

 

[Apple Junkie]

As of a few days ago, Goldrush was holding tight. Galarina and Empire still had a few stragglers holding on.

 

[greyphase]

I have Brushy Mountain Limbertwigs and Keener's Seedlings still holding on, also a wild seedling tree I call the Sinkhole apple that always holds until Jan or even Feb.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

I had Yates still on going into November, till the squirrels found them.
Calloway crab are still on, but they hardly ever fall.

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[DrDirtNap]

My Keeners held through Nov. till the coons found them. Has been a good apple for me so far.


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[Charman03]

This all winter hangover crab I got from SLN awhile back still holding everything it produced. I kinda brought this tree back from the dead by a single shoot

 

[Natureboy]

Made it to camp today, quite a few apples still hanging on Goldrush, closely followed by Sundance and a few still on Liberty

 

[BuckSnort]

Made it to camp today, quite a few apples still hanging on Goldrush, closely followed by Sundance and a few still on Liberty

Your trees look great!!

 

[bornagain62511]

awesome looking orchard Natureboy! Excellent work.

My Northwest Greening and Galarina are holding lots of apples still. Enterprise have a fair amount still hanging and Liberty still have a few too.

This year seems to be a great year for apples to hold longer since we haven't had many really extreme temperature swings going from very cold to warm and back and forth several times like in recent years. This year has been more consistent between 0 and 35 degrees for most of December. and we haven't had many nights down between 0 and 10 degrees yet. November was quite mild this year too and the previous 2 years we had some extreme cold for October and November, with warm spells in late November and December, then more cold snaps followed by warm spells in December which weakens the stems and causes the fruit to get mushy sooner, causing apples to drop sooner.

 

[williams111]

Made it to camp today, quite a few apples still hanging on Goldrush, closely followed by Sundance and a few still on Liberty

Any updated pictures of the orchards? Seeing the progress from year to year is inspiring. I have planted many trees, but I haven't seen any "fruits" of my labor yet. What trees are standing out most consistently from year to year?
Thanks!

 

[bornagain62511]

Last year's apple crop here in southwest Wisconsin driftless area was nearly non existent on our farm. April through mid June were very dry which stressed the trees out so much most trees hardly had any blossoms to begin with and we had a lot of frosty mornings in May and a late hard freeze in May. So we ended with hardly any apples on the many hundreds of apple trees on our farm. Over the years I've been able to observe the various varieties and my favorites are Galarina, northwest greening, enterprise, and liberty. After that, snowsweet and winecrisp make my top 6 list. And for early ripening, Williams Pride is my favorite.

One thing I would have done differently if I had known 20 years ago, is that I never would have planted any B-118 rootstock. They grow so flimsy and poorly anchored in the roots compared to Antonovka. I wish I had known that 20 years ago when I began planting them and I read so much positive feedback on B-118. I would have never planted a single B-118 if I had known then what I know now. I'm even cutting out some B-118 that are 3 to 5 years old and many of them have one to three years of growth from the T-bud. I removing the B-118 that are less than 1" diameter and replacing them with Antonovka seedlings that I grew from seed.

 

[chummer]

Last year's apple crop here in southwest Wisconsin driftless area was nearly non existent on our farm. April through mid June were very dry which stressed the trees out so much most trees hardly had any blossoms to begin with and we had a lot of frosty mornings in May and a late hard freeze in May. So we ended with hardly any apples on the many hundreds of apple trees on our farm. Over the years I've been able to observe the various varieties and my favorites are Galarina, northwest greening, enterprise, and liberty. After that, snowsweet and winecrisp make my top 6 list. And for early ripening, Williams Pride is my favorite.

One thing I would have done differently if I had known 20 years ago, is that I never would have planted any B-118 rootstock. They grow so flimsy and poorly anchored in the roots compared to Antonovka. I wish I had known that 20 years ago when I began planting them and I read so much positive feedback on B-118. I would have never planted a single B-118 if I had known then what I know now. I'm even cutting out some B-118 that are 3 to 5 years old and many of them have one to three years of growth from the T-bud. I removing the B-118 that are less than 1" diameter and replacing them with Antonovka seedlings that I grew from seed.

I agree. I have been very disappointed with B.118. I had a 5 year old wolf river blow over last year with no apples on it. It was a beautiful tree with very few roots. I have had other suspected root issues too.

 

[westonwhitetail]

I agree. I have been very disappointed with B.118. I had a 5 year old wolf river blow over last year with no apples on it. It was a beautiful tree with very few roots. I have had other suspected root issues too.

What type of soils do you guys have that are having troubles with the B118? Just curious for my future plantings, I am putting in a couple this spring. Or are there other factors that contribute to that issue?

 

[bornagain62511]

What type of soils do you guys have that are having troubles with the B118? Just curious for my future plantings, I am putting in a couple this spring. Or are there other factors that contribute to that issue?

soil type doesn't matter. I think it's in the genetics of the B-118 from what I can tell. they are all very "weak spined" and poorly anchored in the roots. I have a "green thumb" meaning I have always paid close attention to trees, shrubs, etc. I've been a lifelong gardener and planted tens of thousands of trees of different varieties and I've never seen anything like B-118 rootstock in the way they are so weak spined and poorly anchored in the roots. we have mostly loam/silt/clay soils around here, but like I said, I don't think it would make much difference in different soil types, B-118 are just not good in this respect.

The trees in the photos a few posts up that were loaded 2 winters ago were grown from wild apple seed and T-bud grafted when they were 2 to 4 years old. Now they are around 20 years old and big, strong, sturdy and well anchored trees. After those first few years of planting seedlings grown from wild seed, I learned about rootstocks and planted a bunch of B-118 every year for about a decade. After struggling to keep the B-118 trees upright I've decided to remove the smaller ones 1" diameter or smaller like I said in the previous post and replace them with grown from seed Antonovka this year and T-bud them in the following years

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We've planted some of our apple trees on B-118, mainly because of the earlier fruiting that was supposed to be a trait of B-118 roots. But we've also had "leaning" problems with B-118. When we started planting our newer apple trees in 2013, I chose 3 rootstocks for the trees - B-118, MM-111, and Antonovka - based on several recommendations from nurseries. It was an experiment to see which rootstocks did the best. A couple B-118 trees began to lean after a couple years. After talking to the head of Penn State's fruit tree dept., he recommended MM-111 for our soil type, saying it would make for a better anchored tree. He was correct (surprise, right??!!). He told me either MM-111 or Antonovka, or a seedling rootstock would anchor better than B-118. We haven't planted any B-118 trees in 6 years now, and any that tip over or croak for any reason will be replaced with MM-111, Antonovka, P-18, or Dolgo rootstock trees.

B-118 rootstocks may work well in some soils, but in our soils, they aren't that great. A few years' reported earlier fruit production aren't worth the risk and time wasted. We tried B-118 - they didn't pan out. No more B-118 for us. --------YMMV.

 

[chummer]

What type of soils do you guys have that are having troubles with the B118? Just curious for my future plantings, I am putting in a couple this spring. Or are there other factors that contribute to that issue?

I have pretty good soil with rocks mixed in. It isn’t the soil because b.118 is the only one that does it. A 5 year old tree shouldnt just tip over.

 

[BuckSnort]

I have pretty good soil with rocks mixed in. It isn’t the soil because b.118 is the only one that does it. A 5 year old tree shouldnt just tip over.

This is an interesting conversation. I will add that I had reached out to CrazyEd who used to be a regular on here. My parents property is similar to his, very sandy soils. Last we talked, he hadn’t had the problems many are describing with B118. Mine are doing well so far. I’ve got some Antonovka which are doing well also. Really before Blue Hill, I hadn’t found much info regarding Dolgo as a rootstock. I’ll maybe try some of those moving forward if I can find them at a decent price.

 

[silver_yummies]

I’ve got 100 or so trees and 80% are on B118 while others are MM111 and P18. No issues so far on any of them leaning or uprooting. Loamy soil. Going on years 5 and 6 with them.

 

[Barndog56]

I've got a lot on B118, will be in 4th leaf this year. No problems yet.

Aren't B118 usually the highest recommended semi-dwarf for sandy soil?