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GRIN tour coming up

Turkey Creek

Turkey Creek

5 year old buck +
https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-...es-research/docs/collection-tour-sept-16-2017

Apple, Grape, and Tart Cherry Collection Tour

The Clonal collection of Plant Genetic Resources Unit, USDA-ARS, Geneva, NY is pleased to announce our annual open house on September 16, 2017, Saturday from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. The location is at McCarthy Farm, 2865 County Road 6 (Preemption Road), Geneva, NY, 14456 (across from St. Mary’s Cemetery). It is going to be two hours walking tour on uneven ground through the orchard and vineyard. We will walk and talk for 10 minutes about the collection overall, 10 minutes about the tart cherry collection, 70 minutes about the apple collection, and 30 minutes about the grape collection. One would have a chance to taste many apple and grape varieties in the collection. If there is any question about the tour or the collection, please contact C. Thomas Chao at c.thomas.chao@ars.usda.gov or at 315-787-2454. We will see you rain or shine on 9/16/2017.
 
Man I would love to go to this!
 
Is there some type of registration or RSVP required or can you just show up?
 
I think I'll drive up to Geneva for this open house. Anyone else going?
 
I'll be there
 
20170916_090913.jpg Kaz x Gala seedlings
 
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Rootstock stoolbed20170916_094109.jpg
 
HOLY MOLY look at all that deer food! Is the entire orchard fenced? More pictures!
 
Ask them how much spraying they do to keep trees and fruit healthy, or do they let things fend for itself. IF so then keep an eye open for the next best deer trees.
 
20170916_095934.jpg
 
Standard spray. They want to keep the trees alive and healthy. Also herbicide strips around trees.
 
Looks like great weather for the field day.
 
It was beautiful out there. Could taste any apple you wanted as long as the tree was not marked for a research project. I probably tasted 3 or 4 dozen. They have 50 acres, fenced. I should have taken a list of trees I got from them or am interested in. You could walk around the entire collection. It would be great to walk through every couple weeks and see what drops when. Lots of nice small apples in the wild stuff they've collected. Would be great for deer if disease resistant.
 
PRI77-1 crabapple, scab resistant. PI 589786. I just happened to look at the tag and see it was one I have grafted. I got budwood from them in August 2015. My trees already had fruit this year. Looks like a winner if it is still loaded with crabs and few drops on the ground.
PRI771-Crab.jpg
pri77-1 at Geneva.jpg


Here is a photo of it blooming in 2013 from the USDA website.
PI_589786.JPG
 
Here is another tree I grafted, Jonsib Crab PI 589824 (jonathon x irkutsk[baccata]) -scab resistant

One of my grafts failed and I lost the tag of the other tree that might be Jonsib or another variety. Waiting for that 2nd tree to fruit.
Jonsib crab.jpg
 
Are a lot of the trees dwarf size? I made the assumption that these mother trees we get scion wood from were all these very large, standard sized trees.
 
No. Their newer trees are on Bud 9. I think the older trees are on M7. They only have 50 acres for apples, grape, and tart cherry collections plus experiments where they are growing out seedlings. They need dwarf trees to get space for everything.
 
Chicken - Were there any that stood out as eaters ?? Sometimes those crabs have crazy-good flavor. - - - - BTW, thanks for posting pix !!
 
I tasted a bunch of apples. Many were pretty good. A few spitters. I tried several Malus Coronaria crabs and those were hard and sour. I'm not sure if I tasted the PRI-77. I saw that on the walk back out . If I tasted the Jonsib, it was ok. I saw a pretty Hyslop crab and those tasted good. Co-op 15 was pretty good. I saw a Spanish cider apple, Collaos, that was loaded. It tasted ok even though it is a late ripening cider apple. The Curator of the collection, Thomas Chao, gave the tour and he made a point of stopping at a Pixie Crunch and saying it was his favorite. I thought it was good. There were 2 of those trees next to each other, one loaded and the other with few. He noted a lot of trees went biennial after getting frosted out badly a few years ago. He also talked about their efforts to bring in wild apples and grapes from all of the world. He talked of searching for Malus Coronaria in the midwest recently. He said many of the locations mentioned by previous researchers are gone now, developed into housing or Walmarts or whatever.
 
Hyslop crab with purple crabs, good taste, white flesh.
hyslop crab.jpg
 
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