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Crabapple timeline

I had my first Chestnut crab last year, they are one of my favorites so far. Along with Kerr, this is the first year I have had them and I picked them all.
I checked one other Chestnut crab yesterday and all of the dropped apples under it are cleaned up. I have 8 or 9 more between three locations and they are pretty much ‘no go’ areas until the rifle hunt.

There are two bearing chestnut and one young tree in the home orchard.
 
It wasn’t moonshine…. This time.

;)
The county next to us was known for Minnesota 13, which was a well known moonshine shipped from this area to Chicago during the days. Much of that moonshine came from the county line area.

I had farm clients that said Stearns County got all of the credit and that their family made just as good of moonshine , because they were the same old family recipes and made with the same corn. They were entirely serious.

Most of the families were derived from brothers on different sides of the county line.

So I now have stole my own thread.

Moonshine allowed many farmers to keep the family farm during the Depression.
 
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Bill’s Red Flesh ( Firecracker) Crab is dropping now. It is probably at it’s best point for taste at this time.

The deer are cleaning up the Chestnut Crabs, Firecrackers, and most everything nightly.

Five were under the Chestnut Crab two nights ago. One fawn laid down for a nap.
 
Mn 1734 from 2017 and only 2 apples? That par for antonovka rootstock?
 
Mn 1734 from 2017 and only 2 apples? That par for antonovka rootstock?
That tree was set back by a pocket gopher but it is now a big healthy tree. I can just reach the two apples from a step ladder.

Slow to produce for sure.

I received a substitution from the same place. It produced for the first time this year. A large mushy, yellow apple.

I will give it another year and hopefully remember to sample it earlier.
 
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Pink Pearl has to be the best red or pink flesh I have tasted. My daughter and I think there is a hint of watermelon flavor in it.
 
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Sweet Dog is dropping an occasional apple and are approaching the taste I like. A few are dropping.

I had been cleaning up apples in my home orchard to reduce future insect problems. This last week the deer have been cleaning up everything, nightly.
 
View attachment 83331View attachment 83332
Sweet Dog is dropping an occasional apple and are approaching the taste I like. A few are dropping.

I had been cleaning up apples in my home orchard to reduce future insect problems. This last week the deer have been cleaning up everything, nightly.
Maybe ?? A bit of russeting or something else on a Sweet Dog. I occasionally see this on Chestnut Crab. Is it only my mind that says these apples taste better? Russeting or something else?
 
Sweet dog looks like a good producer. SLN claims its good for deer, assuming late season dropper. Had it in my cart, but dropped it. Wondering it was truly a zone 3 tree or not. So, I went with more historically proven ones. See any dieback on it ever? I have one vriety that is having dieback in zone 3 adirondacks. Thinking of topworking it if I get to camp at the right time.

After seeing dieback, I decieded to only go with well proven ones up there. Could have a tree there for a god chunk of a decade until a polar vortex smacks it down. SLN is selling zone 4 and 5 trees, They say enterprise iand liberty are good for -40 and freedom is good for -50.
 
Sweet dog looks like a good producer. SLN claims its good for deer, assuming late season dropper. Had it in my cart, but dropped it. Wondering it was truly a zone 3 tree or not. So, I went with more historically proven ones. See any dieback on it ever? I have one vriety that is having dieback in zone 3 adirondacks. Thinking of topworking it if I get to camp at the right time.

After seeing dieback, I decieded to only go with well proven ones up there. Could have a tree there for a god chunk of a decade until a polar vortex smacks it down. SLN is selling zone 4 and 5 trees, They say enterprise iand liberty are good for -40 and freedom is good for -50.
Does SLN have Sweet Dog? I haven’t looked at their list this year.

Sweet Dog is now dropping and at the point where they taste pretty good.

This picture is Sweet Dog and a wild crab I grafted. The wild crab (red) is just mush and not dropping. I need to sample a few more of those.

SD seems fully hardy for me. It is a seedling from a ditch apple.
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Chestnut Crab continues a slow drop. This is my oldest tree on the farm. It’s days are limited. I have 10 or so Chestnut Crabs here.Five different locations.
 
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Firecracker is ripe and dropping. I can eat a few of these. Last night I picked a few Firecracker, Chestnut, and Sweet Dog and brought them to the house.46DB8CDB-EC2B-4F4C-9AF7-BC7684C48CD1.jpeg
 
Chestnut has limited days? How old is that tree, know what it is grafted on? I knocked down alot of trees at my home, place was an old orchard. Still have 3 or 4 still kicking. Doubt after I am gone, much of these trees will be not cut down. Planted the majority of them when I was 45/46.

Went to a fancier farmstand yesterday. They were selling chestnut for 3.95 a pound. Wife ate one, Didnt like it at first, too dry, but started liking the flavor. They had firecracker too, but didnt get any. Was hoping they had liberty, enterprise, or another apple tree I had.

SLN has a crabapple called weet dog. They took 100 seeds from sweetango apples and planted them to see what they would do. Best find out of their experiment was a good winter crabapple. Not sure how many years they have been offering this. They're about 40 minutes from my camp and have events from time to time. Might have to stop in and look around.

I was going to do an experiment with cosmic crisp this year. Wife thew out the germinated seeds from the fridge by accident. I'm guessing these trees are planted in a whole field the same type. I do have 2 cosmics growing at home from scion. They are next to violi's, sweet 16, dolgo, macoun, galarina, and sln's winter wildlife. Might make some interesting seedlings. Probably will mesh bag a few flowers and direct pollinate with other meshed flowers from other trees.
 
Chestnut has limited days? How old is that tree, know what it is grafted on? I knocked down alot of trees at my home, place was an old orchard. Still have 3 or 4 still kicking. Doubt after I am gone, much of these trees will be not cut down. Planted the majority of them when I was 45/46.

Went to a fancier farmstand yesterday. They were selling chestnut for 3.95 a pound. Wife ate one, Didnt like it at first, too dry, but started liking the flavor. They had firecracker too, but didnt get any. Was hoping they had liberty, enterprise, or another apple tree I had.

SLN has a crabapple called weet dog. They took 100 seeds from sweetango apples and planted them to see what they would do. Best find out of their experiment was a good winter crabapple. Not sure how many years they have been offering this. They're about 40 minutes from my camp and have events from time to time. Might have to stop in and look around.

I was going to do an experiment with cosmic crisp this year. Wife thew out the germinated seeds from the fridge by accident. I'm guessing these trees are planted in a whole field the same type. I do have 2 cosmics growing at home from scion. They are next to violi's, sweet 16, dolgo, macoun, galarina, and sln's winter wildlife. Might make some interesting seedlings. Probably will mesh bag a few flowers and direct pollinate with other meshed flowers from other trees.
That Chestnut Tree is over 35 years old. If you look at the the trunk, you can see it is hollow. I am not sure of the rootstock but suspect it is whatever Bailey’s was using at the time. The rootstock throws young trees out 12-20 feet from the trunk. I have dug these up and planted them. They grow an apple like a small dolgo and I have top worked them.

Decades back, my uncle told me that trees on lighter soil have a more limited lifespan. That seems to be true when I compare my better soils to light soil. This chestnut might also be getting bad influence from a walnut.

It appears to me that Anty roots have a much shorter lifespan on these soils. An experienced grower in Montana says that Anty only survives if he buries the graft Union on hardy trees. I wonder if cold winters with little snow are part of the problem. I just can’t figure it out.

I tried the hand pollination one year and used firecracker on chestnut. Then all of the blossoms froze.

I am glad to hear you are experimenting with different things and seedlings. We need more of that.
 
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I checked some more apples. Trail is dropping and is all mush.
 
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Noran continues a long slow drop. This might be a good choice for a bow stand.
 
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Violi’s is still pretty much holding. This tree is on Anty from SLN and has done well.
 
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Snowsweet still on the tree at about a six foot height.

Haralson on the ground with bites out of them.

I don’t see this with crab apples or applecrabs. They are pretty much just gone.35F8724B-C1F4-47A8-B98C-17240BB9F364.jpeg
 
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