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Crabapple timeline

IMG_1857.jpegAt daybreak, one young one is eating grass and eyeing up the bird feeder. Others are cleaning up the twigs from my pruning.

Will these deer be used to my scent and more vulnerable in deer season or will they only tolerate my scent around the orchard or lawn?
 
I started pruning today and found some things.

My oldest tree that we planted is now hollow on two sides. It is a chestnut crab. I have about 10 root suckers from it for new trees through the years.

It’s knees and back are giving out, kind of like old habitat managers!

:)
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Don't write off older, partially hollow apple & crab trees!! We have a couple old, partly hollow apple trees at camp, and they are still producing decent crops each year. They've been partly hollow for the last 25+ years. Those old trees are about 30 ft. tall, and still put on crop loads heavy enough to break some branches.
 
Don't write off older, partially hollow apple & crab trees!! We have a couple old, partly hollow apple trees at camp, and they are still producing decent crops each year. They've been partly hollow for the last 25+ years. Those old trees are about 30 ft. tall, and still put on crop loads heavy enough to break some branches.
Both trees produced last year. Hopefully again this year.
 
Bloom time is around the corner. Any particuarly late or particuarly early bloomers. Any comparables to big dog?

I think you have both chestnut and kerr. Which one blooms later? Thats my backup scion source, left a few branches unclipped.
 
Bloom time is around the corner. Any particuarly late or particuarly early bloomers. Any comparables to big dog?

I think you have both chestnut and kerr. Which one blooms later? Thats my backup scion source, left a few branches unclipped.
I have never payed any attention to bloom time. Maybe I should have.
 
Kerr is the big white blossom tree on left. Chestnut short white tree between the purple and pink. Picture was taken April 22 southern Michigan around the Lansing area. Hope this helps.
IMG_4295.jpeg
 
Kerr is the big white blossom tree on left. Chestnut short white tree between the purple and pink. Picture was taken April 22 southern Michigan around the Lansing area. Hope this helps.
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Holy cow, that Kerr!
Mine are slowly plodding along.
 
I went for a short walk out back at the home property this weekend in between storms. Found one new crabapple tree that is 8-10' tall. Never noticed it before. Had 3 mushy fruit still hanging on. I will keep an eye on this going forward. I dug up 3 rootsuckers from various trees and planted them in my nursery to baby for a year. Also did a count of the crabapples that will be topworked - currently sitting at 10 trees so far.
 
I went for a short walk out back at the home property this weekend in between storms. Found one new crabapple tree that is 8-10' tall. Never noticed it before. Had 3 mushy fruit still hanging on. I will keep an eye on this going forward. I dug up 3 rootsuckers from various trees and planted them in my nursery to baby for a year. Also did a count of the crabapples that will be topworked - currently sitting at 10 trees so far.
I pruned a few more trees that I had passed over earlier and was looking at what I could top work.

I have some old multi trunked MorsesBunches Crabs. I think I will tack something on them.

I need to find something close to the house for Prairie Sensation and perhaps for Dearborns Unknown.

I got one stick of 922 End and sent half of it to a buddy in Alaska.
 
IMG_0598.jpegI ran across a photo of winter Apple survival and a few notes from the past. Memory tells me this is the winter when we had record cold of -60 at Tower, Minnesota.

Norland is my earliest ripening apple. Norland is just slightly bigger than the normal applecrab description .

My Honeycrisp planted the previous spring died back for me.
 
Coldest at camp so far is about -38 maybe -40. Dolgo, antonovka, and 30-06 did well. Cant tell if crossbow was not cold damaged or animal injury to the leader, tree was only 5ft tall. Been fine since though. Added alot more trees since then, but nothing over -20 past 2 years.
 
Coldest at camp so far is about -38 maybe -40. Dolgo, antonovka, and 30-06 did well. Cant tell if crossbow was not cold damaged or animal injury to the leader, tree was only 5ft tall. Been fine since though. Added alot more trees since then, but nothing over -20 past 2 years.
-40 recently?
 
-40 recently?
Thats was 2022/2023 winter. Click the link before for NOAA hstorical data


go on here, pick your location, then pick monthly summaried data on collumn 2, then collumn 3 variable in min temperature.

I did a summary for Rice, MN too. Ave december is -24 deg F, January is -27 deg F. Coldest since 2006 was a 2019 cold snap -38.


I changed collumn 2 to first/last dates, then used 28 deg F instead of 32. Thats the line for apple blossoms. Average date was may 1st, with a range from april 6th to may 15th.

I did this for camp, station data was sketchy one site closed then a new one came around a few years later. But I got an average of may 14th, last time to be 28 deg F anywhere from april 26 till june 1st. And season end sept 29 to october 22, average october 6th. If its the same 28 deg F for maturing apples / leaves in the fall.

I did this for my home's local area 4 hours Southeast of camp. Average last/frist 28 degree day is april 12th and october 27th. I got around 50 more days to make plants grow at home.


So, I compare 15 deg F last average dates for camp and at home. This is when oats die. Give it 3 months to grow, I should be planting by august 10th at camp, and no later than sept 10th at home. Got a whole extra month for fall grains.
 
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Thats was 2022/2023 winter. Click the link before for NOAA hstorical data


go on here, pick your location, then pick monthly summaried data on collumn 2, then collumn 3 variable in min temperature.

I did a summary for Rice, MN too. Ave december is -24 deg F, January is -27 deg F. Coldest since 2006 was a 2019 cold snap -38.


I changed collumn 2 to first/last dates, then used 28 deg F instead of 32. Thats the line for apple blossoms. Average date was may 1st, with a range from april 6th to may 15th.

I did this for camp, station data was sketchy one site closed then a new one came around a few years later. But I got an average of may 14th, last time to be 28 deg F anywhere from april 26 till june 1st. And season end sept 29 to october 22, average october 6th. If its the same 28 deg F for maturing apples / leaves in the fall.

I did this for my home's local area 4 hours Southeast of camp. Average last/frist 28 degree day is april 12th and october 27th. I got around 50 more days to make plants grow at home.


So, I compare 15 deg F last average dates for camp and at home. This is when oats die. Give it 3 months to grow, I should be planting by august 10th at camp, and no later than sept 10th at home. Got a whole extra month for fall grains.
Interesting. Rice, Mn is close by.

I am in a bit of a cold / hot pocket.

Winter mornings tend to be about 5 degrees colder than any temps I see on the internet for our township. Fall frosts seem to hit a bit earlier. Summers are hotter with sandy soil and a slight south slope.

I drove 55 miles to work for well over thirty years. Once I got a car with a thermometer, it was interesting how cold pocket locations were the same, year after year.
 
starting my own crabapple timeline

yesterday I grafted 8 southern crabapple trees with dolgo scion from my own dolgo stock

Sandbur, here I come!!!!!!!

bill
 
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