Fruit trees for Spring 2023

[Native Hunter]

I know it's late, but I got a wild hair yesterday to add maybe 4 or 5 more apple or crabapple trees this spring. I figure at this late point in time it would need to be a northern nursery that would still be shipping. I looked at Cummin's and a few others that I'm aware of. and didn't see anything that tickled my fancy. Do any of you guys have suggestions? PS - I prefer semi dwarf of standard size but definitely don't want any more B118 rootstock trees.

 

[Smokegobbler]

A few that you may want to take a look at are Burnt Ridge, Roots to Fruits, Maple Valley and Fedco (20% off). Remaining stock is probably limited, but I believe thet're still shipping.

 

[TenPoint]

I know it's late, but I got a wild hair yesterday to add maybe 4 or 5 more apple or crabapple trees this spring. I figure at this late point in time it would need to be a northern nursery that would still be shipping. I looked at Cummin's and a few others that I'm aware of. and didn't see anything that tickled my fancy. Do any of you guys have suggestions? PS - I prefer semi dwarf of standard size but definitely don't want any more B118 rootstock trees.

Why no more B118?

 

[Native Hunter]

Why no more B118?

Well, I don't want to get a rootstock war started on here, but since you asked, I will just lay it our plain and simple. Between me and other family members, we have approximately 25 trees on B118, and over half of them have gone down in various windstorms - mostly in the 30 mph to 40 mph range, but one storm at one location was stronger than that last year and got three trees at once. However, other apples (and pears) in the vicinity were just fine.

Most of the B118s that haven't gone down are leaning, and there is not a single one that is solid in the ground. The only ones that aren't leaning yet are the ones that are still small. I'm in the process of bracing all of the remaining trees with T-posts and coated clothesline.

Another thing I'm doing on some of the most important locations is piling a huge amount of dirt around the base along with the bracing. The weight of the dirt itself helps, and I'm hoping that the trees make more roots above the B118 roots.

Most of my trees are on MM111, and they are as solid as a rock. I've never had a single anchoring problem with any of them. With what I've been through I wouldn't take a B118 tree if someone gave it to me and planted it for me. Best wishes.

 

[TenPoint]

O

Well, I don't want to get a rootstock war started on here, but since you asked, I will just lay it our plain and simple. Between me and other family members, we have approximately 25 trees on B118, and over half of them have gone down in various windstorms - mostly in the 30 mph to 40 mph range, but one storm at one location was stronger than that last year and got three trees at once. However, other apples (and pears) in the vicinity were just fine.

Most of the B118s that haven't gone down are leaning, and there is not a single one that is solid in the ground. The only ones that aren't leaning yet are the ones that are still small. I'm in the process of bracing all of the remaining trees with T-posts and coated clothesline.

Another thing I'm doing on some of the most important locations is piling a huge amount of dirt around the base along with the bracing. The weight of the dirt itself helps, and I'm hoping that the trees make more roots above the B118 roots.

Most of my trees are on MM111, and they are as solid as a rock. I've never had a single anchoring problem with any of them. With what I've been through I wouldn't take a B118 tree if someone gave it to me and planted it for me. Best wishes.

I’ve got a ton of them. Some have leaning issues. Others seem fine. Some are on flat ground and others on slopes. Flat ground ones have few issues. More leaning problems on the hill ground.

 

[Native Hunter]

O

I’ve got a ton of them. Some have leaning issues. Others seem fine. Some are on flat ground and others on slopes. Flat ground ones have few issues. More leaning problems on the hill ground.

I wish you the best with yours.

 

[bigboreblr]

Nativehunter,

Whitetail crabs had a sale on droptine whip for $13 each. He often uses B118, but I would email him if he has any other roostock. I bought droptine and 30-06 on antonovka from him in decemberr. Cummins nursery in NY or .mehrabyan nursery.

mehrabyan has some hewes, wickson, empire, and honecyrisp on M7. Makes a 60% tree. Goldrush might be a good one for deer too. deer hunter will enjoy them from what I hear.

 

[Native Hunter]

Nativehunter,

Whitetail crabs had a sale on droptine whip for $13 each. He often uses B118, but I would email him if he has any other roostock. I bought droptine and 30-06 on antonovka from him in decemberr. Cummins nursery in NY or .mehrabyan nursery.

mehrabyan has some hewes, wickson, empire, and honecyrisp on M7. Makes a 60% tree. Goldrush might be a good one for deer too. deer hunter will enjoy them from what I hear.

Thanks for the info.

 

[TenPoint]

I wish you the best with yours.

I’ve got a bunch that are 9-11 years old. No issue. But those are on flat ground and I used a guide pole to keep them straight when younger. Younger ones in the hills are leaning. I didn’t use a guide pole but probably should have. Going from 30 to 80 trees real fast and not wanting to spend all the money on that stuff though. It is what it is. None have fallen over yet. :)

 

[sandbur]

All of my apple trees are in their final location. I might be off a bit on my count, but there were 6 or 7 seedlings from seeds planted fall of 2021 in my garden and 4 or 5 grafted trees.

These will probably be my last seedlings as I didn’t plant seeds in the fall of 2022. Maybe the end of fruit tree planting except for a replacement here or there.

 

[bigboreblr]

Nativehunter,

Consider putting some good sized rocks in the area before you cover it wth dirt. The tree grows roots around the rock. The wind will have to displace the soil round the rock if it wants to pull it out. Bowling ball to push mower sized rocks probably would make a big difference. Maybe even burying ct brnaches could make a difference, 3ft long 4-6 inches or so branches. When I used to suf fish with my s10 blazer, I used to bring a few 3-4ft 2x8's to either use as traction ramps or bury in the sand to use as a winch anchor. Saved a guywith a month old jeep from the tide taking their jeep with a buried 2x8 as an achor.

I put my trees up north aroud big rocks for other reasons. If the loggers want to cut it down, they can take out their cutting blade to do it. The loggers do some stuff on prupose, wreck treestand, destroy bridges made by us. Trees are new up there.

I believe lowe's trees use domestic apple rootstock. They have honeycrisp and mcintosh. My area is riddled with micintosh, the apples start dropping around october 1st and usually are bare around late october. I didn't take a pic of the tree's root, but they had those nice and thick roots like antonovka has. It looked like a bareroot tree with lighter soil put around it after being removed from the ground. I removed the soil, mixed it with my heavier loamy clay and put a sealing layer of the heavier clay from the bottom of the hole ontop to keep voles out. They had kieffer pear too. Home dpot had some wolf river, but they put in on a 8-12" dwarf rootstock.

 

[Smokegobbler]

I know it's late, but I got a wild hair yesterday to add maybe 4 or 5 more apple or crabapple trees this spring. I figure at this late point in time it would need to be a northern nursery that would still be shipping. I looked at Cummin's and a few others that I'm aware of. and didn't see anything that tickled my fancy. Do any of you guys have suggestions? PS - I prefer semi dwarf of standard size but definitely don't want any more B118 rootstock trees.

Appears 39th Parallel still has a number of varieties on M111.

 

[bigboreblr]

Not sure how I feel about 3t9h parallel. Been a weird spring for many of us. I am batting 0 out of 12 so far for grafting to bud out. Their rootstock looked good, I have 2 of their M111's growing just nicely on scions from members on here. Grafted trees from them should be ok, just bummed about the scions. No coating on them. Saint lawrence nursery could be another source.

Don't disregard trees from the big stores. Got a red delicious doing well from last year. Son-in-law is pumped into turkey hunting mode, so I utilized his excitment to help me dig and plant a mcintosh tree from lowes. Apples starting dropping late september and just about bare 3rd week in october. And, that nutrition helps them build fat for the winter too. They seem to be on domesitci wild apple rootstock. They claim 20-30ft tall. Mcintosh has produced apples for me without any spraying, or even any care either. Old stuff at my house. My home was built on an old apple orchard. Honeycrisp is a good choice for zone 3 folks, they have some cedar apple rust issues, nothing horrible for deer trees though. If I didn't tear my bicep, I would of planted one at at my adirondack camp this year as an experiment No juniper or red cedar up there to transmit cedar rust.

I find cummins nursery to have pretty comphrehensive explaination of varieties. Disease issues, zones, maturity date, and bloom groups.

looking at cummins and putting 1/2 standard, see alot of good ones. liberty, enterprise, mcintosh, centennial, kerr, and NY 35 called bonkers red delicious crossed with liberty.

 

[homerj]

just bummed about the scions. No coating on them.

No coating? What do you mean? What commercial nursery/scion suppliers send out scions with "coatings"?

 

[bigboreblr]

Just snipped bare wood ends. Member gave me a bunch of kerr scions wax coated. All of them are starting to bud on antonovka planted last year. Got 6 bareroots in rootmaker pots indoors. They're all doing great, 2 M111 rootstocks and 4 dug up antonovka from Saint lawrence last spring. Removed those bareroots for grafted trees. all winter hangover, kerr, signal fire, big dog, and droptine fro members on here doing well. Crossbow as from one of my trees, and thats doing well.

Between what i got and what I have planted, should be pretty good on scion sources. So, I can just prune some the day rootstock arrives.

In hindsight, I should of wax dipped those scions when they came in, might of been too late. They could still bud, so all might not be lost. Most of what I have grafted outside is kerr and signal fire. Kerr is bloom group 2.

 

[homerj]

Member gave me a bunch of kerr scions wax coated.

That's very nice of that member. No commercial scionwood providers are sending out waxed/parafilm wrapped scions. 39th Parallel's scions are as good or better than other commercial sources.

 

[Teeder]

There were no coatings on my scion from Cummings and they're all doing great.

 

[bigboreblr]

Had a local store backfire. A local nursery had some pretty large trees. One of them was freedom. Picked it up and took it out of the bucket, rootball nightmare...... Shoulda put the money on the little guys. Did what I could to open it up. Think it'll be ok, it does have a 2 year warranty. Looked t it better after I bought it, it was there since last year. No pruning since last year. Chopped a large double leader off it and brought back each limb a bit.

After spending $70 on that 8ft tall tree, thinking ordering bareroots make much more sense.

Wish I didn't cut back on my turkey creek order. Wasn't sure if I would get the help I have been putting them in.

 

[b116757]

Had a local store backfire. A local nursery had some pretty large trees. One of them was freedom. Picked it up and took it out of the bucket, rootball nightmare...... Shoulda put the money on the little guys. Did what I could to open it up. Think it'll be ok, it does have a 2 year warranty. Looked t it better after I bought it, it was there since last year. No pruning since last year. Chopped a large double leader off it and brought back each limb a bit.

After spending $70 on that 8ft tall tree, thinking ordering bareroots make much more sense.

Wish I didn't cut back on my turkey creek order. Wasn't sure if I would get the help I have been putting them in.

I prefer bare root trees, potted trees are often root bound.

 

[chummer]

Finished caging the remainder of 42 apples I planted this year. Took 3 weekends to get them planted, mated, painted, and caged. I was only planning on 4 trees from Blue Hills but Chainsaw’s wife called for me to take some trees out of his nursery. I kept digging and she kept piling them in the truck. Ended up with 38. These are all native trees that Dave found. All believed to be late dropping. There were tags on about 1/3 of them. I cleared an acre a couple years ago and wasnt sure what I was going to do with it. Well now it is the Chainsaw’s leg of the orchard.