New hardy wildlife apples for the north
- Thread starter wooduck
- Start date
B
BJE80
Guest
Sounds very similar to what Wolfraths nursery is doing here in Wisconsin. He showed me pictures of some of his trees still holding and dropping in January.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
They were mentioned at a meeting in Staples, Mn. concerning hardy apples for the north. We got to taste them and they are a great little apple. Lee was also at that meeting.
I talked with the guy that developed them and he runs a small orchard in central Mn. It seems like drop time was Sept.
I talked with the guy that developed them and he runs a small orchard in central Mn. It seems like drop time was Sept.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
It was on a Saturday, probably in October. There might be some thread about it in the Fruit tree section.
It was at the CLC campus and we looked at the apple trees there and discussed what had worked and what had not. Lee made the whole meeting, and I just made the tail end.
There was a hand written list available. Haralson, Prairie Magic, Chestnut, and goodland were listed as Old Varieties.
Older Varieties were Hazen, Parkland, and Sweet 16.
New varieties were zester, frostbite, Minnieska(Sweet Tango),Kinder Krisp, and Intensity.
The land series were liked by many in that group. ie. Parkland, Goodland, etc.
I asked one grower what tree did the best after last winter-he and his wife both answered Norland.
some Honeycrisp just did not do well. speaker thought there might be a an issue with some rootstock and HC.
If you want apples for deer in the northland for deer, I favor crab apples. Less work and often hardier.
Other notes
Prairie Magic is very hardy and drops in early Sept.
True zone 2 apples are Duchess and Parkland.
Sweet Tango is very hardy but not available to us.
Kinder Krsip was called an apple crab
Winter injury from last winter.
Half of HC on Ant died to snow level.
2/3 of Hazen died(My hazen did fine)
Red baron, Haralson, and Sweet sixteen all had some winter injury.
For a grower from Little Falls, Cortland, Fireside, Connell red, and keepsake died. Norland and Mantet did well for him. State Fair and Goodland must have done OK.
sorry for the rambling, but just my notes as I had them.
ELH
A good 3 year old buck
Sandbur, What would be your top 3 varieties of crab apples for far Northern WI?
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I saw a notice in our local paper.
I had hoped they would form some email list or group to share ideas, but a lot of older people who are probably not connected.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I am straight west of the top of the Indian's nose from the Wis. Indian head for comparison's sake.
Top crab apples for our family's use are dolgo and chestnut.
Top three for deer are chestnut (drop time of most of Sept.), rootstock crab that Stu and I feel is Colombia (drop time of about 3rd week of Oct. thru Nov, with some apples still on into the New year.) and third-a yellow seedling crab that drops during winter.
Morse's bunches crabs must be grown from seed. They are more of a bush than a tree. I planted twenty of them a number of years ago and they are all over the board for apple size, hardiness, and how long they hold apples. All apples are less than 1 inch and a couple of them do hold apples nearly all winter.
I have planted trailman, centennial, kerr, wickson,winter red flesh, violi's hanging crab, firecracker, and numerous seedlings. Some of these seedlings match descriptions of ranetka and are starting to bear crabs. Some dolgos I started from seed are bearing on a friends place.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I would like to see someone younger than me plant 10 of each variety of rootstock and see what they get.
I would expect a great variety of crab apples for deer and wildlife.
One lady on this forum described the apple that B118 gets and it sounds like a great deer apple. We are putting together a dolgo rootstock order in central Minnesota and most will probably be planted as is without grafting. If you could get 10 Colombia rooststock, go for it.
Google ranetka and a link comes up where a person had planted ten of them on the Mn./Ontario border. They were in the ground for 10 years and were completely hardy. I think he/she said the apple size was 1.6 to just over 3.5 cm. Oblong purple fruit. Maybe even lasting into winter.
baccatta might?? be more of a bird sized crab from what I have on my place.
Pick hardy rootstock for your area and see what grows.
I would expect a great variety of crab apples for deer and wildlife.
One lady on this forum described the apple that B118 gets and it sounds like a great deer apple. We are putting together a dolgo rootstock order in central Minnesota and most will probably be planted as is without grafting. If you could get 10 Colombia rooststock, go for it.
Google ranetka and a link comes up where a person had planted ten of them on the Mn./Ontario border. They were in the ground for 10 years and were completely hardy. I think he/she said the apple size was 1.6 to just over 3.5 cm. Oblong purple fruit. Maybe even lasting into winter.
baccatta might?? be more of a bird sized crab from what I have on my place.
Pick hardy rootstock for your area and see what grows.
chummer
5 year old buck +
I wanted to try this but I can't find dolgo rootstock. Where are you ordering from? I wanted to do dolgo and B.118.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Lawyers Nursery in Montana has had seedling Dolgo in the past.
chummer
5 year old buck +
I checked their website and didn't see them. I checked all the sources I found on the old site but couldn't find any.
Lot2Learn
5 year old buck +
Chummer, a little googling led me here: http://www.chiefrivernursery.com/store/Dolgo-Crabapple-12-18-Seedlings.html
While they don't specifically say, i assume they're seedings because of the cost...$2 each at quantity 50.
I don't have any experience with the nursery and haven't even heard of them, but maybe others have.
While they don't specifically say, i assume they're seedings because of the cost...$2 each at quantity 50.
I don't have any experience with the nursery and haven't even heard of them, but maybe others have.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I was going to suggest you could buy Dolgo seed from Sheffield's. But then I saw the germination rate for what they have on hand is 4%. Unless that is a typo, that would be a frustrating waste of time.
https://sheffields.com/seeds-for-sale/Malus/sp////Dolgo///5724//Dolgo-Crab-Apple
https://sheffields.com/seeds-for-sale/Malus/sp////Dolgo///5724//Dolgo-Crab-Apple
sandbur
5 year old buck +
It's been awhile since I looked at this information from the Prairie Provinces. Has anyone got scion from across the border, legally?
http://www.fruit.usask.ca/pfg_apples.html
http://www.fruit.usask.ca/pfg_apples.html
