Brush farmer
5 year old buck +
I’ve got a very old apple tree that in years past had completely fallen over. I discovered that while the top was dead it had a couple arm sized shoots growing vertically off of the lower trunk. I cut the dead top off and left the shoots to give it a chance.
Later that year I learned it produced a red / green striped summer apple that makes really good applesauce!
Now, here’s where the strange part comes in: This past weekend I noticed a single apple on the tree, keep in mind this is mid September and the apples are normally long gone. Even stranger, it was a yellow apple. It seemed ripe so I picked it and had a taste. It was very similar to a Grimes or Golden Delicious in taste although the apple itself was small like Grimes (maybe smaller).
I highly doubt that old tree was grafted. I had wrote it off as one of the early apples many old timers around here planted from seed. Even if it was, how could only one limb make a different apple on the new shoots? Is there any way that one limb is producing a sport? I could see it being a little different, but this is an entirely different type and seems impossible. If I take a scion from the limb that apple was on will it produce the yellow apple?
I was planning on taking some scion off this tree for bench grafting this spring just to have more than one source of the good sauce apples and now I’m certainly going to try a scion off that one limb out of curiosity.
Does anyone know what is going on with this tree?
Later that year I learned it produced a red / green striped summer apple that makes really good applesauce!
Now, here’s where the strange part comes in: This past weekend I noticed a single apple on the tree, keep in mind this is mid September and the apples are normally long gone. Even stranger, it was a yellow apple. It seemed ripe so I picked it and had a taste. It was very similar to a Grimes or Golden Delicious in taste although the apple itself was small like Grimes (maybe smaller).
I highly doubt that old tree was grafted. I had wrote it off as one of the early apples many old timers around here planted from seed. Even if it was, how could only one limb make a different apple on the new shoots? Is there any way that one limb is producing a sport? I could see it being a little different, but this is an entirely different type and seems impossible. If I take a scion from the limb that apple was on will it produce the yellow apple?
I was planning on taking some scion off this tree for bench grafting this spring just to have more than one source of the good sauce apples and now I’m certainly going to try a scion off that one limb out of curiosity.
Does anyone know what is going on with this tree?