Club apple seedlings

[sandbur]

I just watched a video with some of new apples from the University of Minnesota.

I wish some younger guy would buy a bag or two of the club apples or newer releases and grow them out. Fifty per cent of the genetics should be top notch. I would buy them from a local orchard and maybe ask about pollinators. Seedlings from a local orchard might have better hardiness potential. Heck, maybe?? Disease resistance potential.

Plant seeds in fall. Two springs later, harvest scion and top work.

I had one Kinderkrisp seedling fruit for the first time on own root. Not impressive.

 

[Turkey Creek]

The Club Apple scene is here to stay, maybe its better, maybe not. One of our bigger contract grows this coming year for us is for a club apple variety, no not at liberty to discuss the details. After seeing the apple variety details though it is not something we would ever grow for sale anyway, most current grocery store apples aren't that special in my book. Just a rinse and repeat of the same overused genetic material, repackaged slightly to cause the consumer to pay more for it. But hey, I am in business to make money and they are willing to pay to use our services at least once. They are already telling us if our finished stock of their club variety looks as good as what they have seen from our current inventory they will give us as much work as we want. One of the other contract nurseries failed to deliver product on schedule so we are up ...... we shall see, some varieties are just not as vigorous of growers as others. These trees are destined for a commercial orchard that we already provide nursery stock to on a yearly basis. Our name came up in the talks the orchard had with the "club" and they said "We want our guy to grow our trees." They gave the green light so here we go.

 

[Telemark]

What is a club apple?

 

[Turkey Creek]

In a nutshell a more highly controlled new apple variety. They used to patten a variety and then anybody that wanted to buy a license to propagate basically could. The club apples are more highly regulated in terms of who they will allow to grow and sell the fruit, supposedly to keep tight enough controls on things that if you buy a "X apple" from so in so it will taste identical to the one you bought from another orchard or store. Also if you hype the variety enough and create a big demand, and then tightly control production you can sustain a higher price on the fruit for longer. Grocery store apples are all about the latest and greatest (basically the advertise the hell out of something) make as much profit as they can and then release the next latest and greatest. IMO the "clubs" are just trying to ride the wave a little longer on the new releases. Again apple marketing comes down to the hype. With very few exceptions do you think you could put 10 of the hundreds of varieties in front of a consumer and they could identify any of them by taste alone?

 

[gunfun13]

Not interested in growing out Club apples, but see myself growing out seeds from my own trees in the near future. I have all good disease resistant varieties and I would think any random resulting cross would have a high probability of being at least a great wildlife tree. Maybe even try some pollination on my own for specific crosses.

Youtuber Skillcult has done a lot of this with some success.

I also believe St Lawrence Nursery offers a variety now derived from a Sweetango seedling. Think it was more a of wildlife crab if memory serves correct.

 

[bigboreblr]

Big deer is the SLN crab. Anybody have one, I'd love some seeds or scion.

I put a pinch of apple seeds in a small starter pot just like you get vegetable garden. 6 spots have cosmic crisp apples from 3 different sources. Another 6 spots are my own trees. 30-06 near liberty and crossbow. Crossbow near 30-06 and my existing ochard. Some sort of september apple disease free a bit above average insect impact.

Seedling rootstock is quite important. Especially if you ID something that works in your soil and area.

New varieties are welcome. But, we are well covered here. Letting the world know of good local tree like sandbur and chainsaw has done is probably higher on the list than finding good new deer apples. Finding out a new trees and what it does takes a decade. I am looking to play around with it starting next year. Fencing in an area, planting B29 on a trellis. When they get a bit bigger, put scion material on the B29 and see what it does in 2-3 years vs 10. Seedlings can take 5-7 years just to start making fruit. I will be direct pollinating from one tree to another, then trying the cross. Higher chance of being a big winner in my opinion will also be planted a s a seedling tree. Real late hangers seem to be covered. Looking for something around hte lines of turning point. Especially a rhick skined yellow one. Yellow jackets are one of my biggest problems. sundance x enteprrise might be a good one.

The biggest gain for us is trees that can tolerate wet roots and trees that tolerate low pH or certain types of poor soils. Sections of the US has higher pH high calcium soils. My soil needs roughly 125 lbs of lime per tree to get the pH correct. Many folks who improve their proerties are not that good about this. Even more so fruit trees vs food plots.

One problem I noticed pruning and training this year is vigorous trees. Galarina and williams pride branches seemed to snap easier than other trees. These fast growing trees combined with milder to no pruning would not make good hardy wildlife trees. many modern varieties are designed for flavor and production. Slow growing trees are less profitable. Apple trees are very labor intensive.

Cosmic crisp is being relased in 2028. If you live in washngton, or know someone who does....... You can buy it now.

Cosmic Crisp® Apple

Enjoy the Cosmic Crisp® Apple, a dwarf variety with exceptional flavor and crispness. Available for shipment to Washington state only.

raintreenursery.com

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Does anyone have a source for Wodarz apple trees? I had 1, really liked the apples, but I think I killed the tree.

 

[homerj]

Does anyone have a source for Wodarz apple trees? I had 1, really liked the apples, but I think I killed the tree.

SLN sells Wodarz