4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
What is your thoughts on what this warmer, drought summer will do for next years crop? Will the trees go into emergency mode and fruit like crazy? Or will they have an off year, and produce little fruit?
Crabapple timeline
- Thread starter sandbur
- Start date
sandbur
5 year old buck +
One very experienced owner of an orchard in the NE USA said to expect poor pollination next year.
I really don’t know what to expect. I have to Kerr crabs planted the same time but on different soils and different locations. They have been alternating years of loaded and no fruit.
I do see very little scion and very little new growth. Does that mean less fruit spurs next year?
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
I just went out to pickup windfalls in my home orchard. There are very few as deer have scoured them up.
I picked up one bucket of Red Baron that deer hadn’t eaten since I had several tarps on the ground by them.
I spread tarps under trees and shake them to collect fruit for cider.
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I picked up one bucket of Red Baron that deer hadn’t eaten since I had several tarps on the ground by them.
I spread tarps under trees and shake them to collect fruit for cider.
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Picked a few Whitney crabs and a couple un-named crabs from trees at camp yesterday. Whitney is very tart (here at least) and the un-named crab is fairly bland in taste. It has just a HINT of sweetness, but as you chew it, that disappears. Nothing special by any means. Seems like we have decent crops of apples and crabs this year though. I noticed that some varieties that bore well last year, are very sparse THIS year. Biennial bearers, I suppose. Because a lot of the trees are in rows in our "main" orchard, lack of pollination partners is not a problem.
Whitney size is about 1 1/2" dia. and the un-named crabs are right about 2" consistently.
Whitney size is about 1 1/2" dia. and the un-named crabs are right about 2" consistently.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Some 1/4 inch hail about 3 weeks ago damaged most of my apples.
Two bouts of hail last night, up to 3/4 inch in size, has probably finished off most of the crop.
I had a few new to me varieties to taste test and monitor drop times. I am not sure how this weather and wind will affect drop times.
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Two bouts of hail last night, up to 3/4 inch in size, has probably finished off most of the crop.
I had a few new to me varieties to taste test and monitor drop times. I am not sure how this weather and wind will affect drop times.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
The Geneva crab from GRIN has to be one of the best looking apples I have grown. Taste is less than average.
This is the first year I have had fruit, but it’s drop time seems to overlap chestnut crab. Geneva has been relatively disease free and fast growing on dolgo rootstock and on my wild swamp crab. It might be a good choice for Wisconsin and Minnesota bow opener on a typical year. All of my drop times are early this year.
Geneva would add some color to cider!
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
What I have labeled as Bastians Orange Flesh Crab appears to have a long slow drop time. As of this week, about 2/3 of the 1 inch crab had dropped and other apples were still firmly attached to the tree. The fruit was very juicy, some at water core with a good flavor. Very slight bitters which seemed to fade as they ripened. No significant disease.
I will try and get a picture of the wind and critters haven’t eaten all of them.
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I will try and get a picture of the wind and critters haven’t eaten all of them.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
Rescue crab is an early crab where the fruit seems to hang on the tree and turn to mush. I wouldn’t plant it for deer.
Again, this is only after one year’s experience with a growing season that was far from normal. It seems like Rescue was also from GRIN.
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Again, this is only after one year’s experience with a growing season that was far from normal. It seems like Rescue was also from GRIN.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
The bitters seems to be gone. The storm last night knocked all of the fruit off of the tree except one which is still strongly attached.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
The storm also knocked some Big Dog crabs off of the tree. The crabs are still very hard.
Color is showing earlier than usual and I expect an earlier drop than the usual late October time period.
This apple is from a young tree. The old tree is loaded with smaller fruit and has been dropping some apples for a few weeks. The old tree is on lighter soil and had extreme drought stress. This early drop could be related to the drought stress.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
It is the government repository of plant materials, including apple trees. At times, scion can be requested for research purposes.
I have requested scion from various crabs to evaluate them for disease resistance, cold hardiness, and usefulness for feeding wildlife.
Above comments are part of my reporting of results.
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Sorry to hear of your storm & hail damage. Even here it seems like we don't get "normal" rains the last several years - maybe 10 years. It's either dry as punk - or the rains are deluges that wash away soil & cause floods.
Are your apples destroyed - or just dimpled??
Are your apples destroyed - or just dimpled??
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Most will be left for wildlife, but we are going out to salvage a few buckets... hopefully.
Others within a few miles had worse hail damage.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
The second final of my two apple crop has dropped. It has a pear like taste and seems to be disease free. This is also from GRIN and I have it tacked on a flowering crab franken tree.
I have Jonsib Crab on another flowering crab. The fruit is starting to turn red but is holding tight.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
This works great to prune off the shallow hail damage. We made some apple pie mix that we will be freezing. Red Baron, Haralred, Haralson, and a few Firecracker for color were used in the mix.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
This works great to prune off the shallow hail damage. We made some apple pie mix that we will be freezing. Red Baron, Haralred, Haralson, and a few Firecracker for color were used in the mix.
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sandbur
5 year old buck +
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This stuff is addicting, straight out of the kettle.
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Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
That look great! For pies?
