Red Baron apple

[greyphase]

Anybody growing this apple. It's sold by SLN, and there is a review of it here.
http://www.growingfruit.org/t/red-baron-apple/2229
I believe the grower lives in Maine. A late summer apple for him and seems to be resistant to most diseases. He's offered me scion from it which I'll take (of course :D). He's getting apples from 5th year Antonovka which I thought was pretty impressive.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

SLN catalog says it's tolerant of fireblight and bears at a young age. Mid-season apple. From the description of crisp, juicy flesh, good fresh, for sauce, baking and a good keeper, it sounds like a pretty good apple. I hope it turns out tasty for you guys that have it or are planting it.

 

[sandbur]

My tree is on ant and has been in the ground for over 25 years. It is showing it's age. It has no major disease problems and is a decent apple. It is a bit soft and I doubt it is a good keeper, but I have never tried to store it.
I might graft one this spring just to keep it around.

I bought a about 5 or 6 trees from an orchard/nursery in east central Minnesota that is now out fo business. Cambridge area. I still have his old catalogs. All of his trees were on anty, and the descriptions are very similar to what you see in SLN. I wonder if he grafted his own or purchased from SLN for resale-about 25 years ago.

 

[sandbur]

Here it is.

 

[greyphase]

Thanks for the pics Art. Good looking apple.

 

[sandbur]

Red Baron is still dropping apples. Chestnut crab is practically done. What I have decided to call Big Dog crab is starting to drop.

 

[sandbur]

I assume that pic ^^^is what you call Big Dog crab? It looks quite a bit like a crab I saw in L.P today

That's it.
The rootstock we think is some type of columbia crab. I have 3 or 4 young trees that have their first crabs from this tree. Custom grafts and maybe a seedling or two in there.

 

[sandbur]

I'm going to try and get a pic of the one I found in L.P., and maybe snag a fruit while I'm there :) It appears to be a tree with both the rootstock and scion fruiting...most of the tree has small, ornamental fruits and the typical reddish/bronze leaves of an ornamental crab. Some of the tree has a few of the larger fruits, and larger, more greenish leaves.

The rootstock has the larger crabs?

I found a similar tree to yours along the bike trail in Pequot Lakes, foggy's area. Flowering crab above and a 2 inch crab on the rootstock.

Pretty similar to my tree in apple size and shape. I suspect these were a seedling rootstock as there is just a bit of variation.

 

[sandbur]

I have noticed there is a Red Barron crab apple and a Red Baron apple. I have the larger apple spelled with one R.

 

[sandbur]

Apple from L.P. View attachment 7718
It isn't fully ripe now, I had to shake the tree to get a couple fruits to fall. The seeds aren't brown yet, so that's another clue about the fruit being unripe. Not inedible, not tasty. I'd guess in another week or two the fruit would be much sweeter, but also pretty mealy.

One side of this tree is pretty much ideal scion wood for the fruit in this pic. The other side is also ideal scion wood...but for a .5" ornamental crab. Kind of interesting to see. I remember watching the city guys trimming these trees and thinking "those guys don't know shi& about pruning fruit trees". I'll be grabbing a scion come spring

Apples do not get mealy from my tree. Maybe not inedible, but I see no reason to eat it. Very hard. The shape is similar.