A few years ago a friend pointed out a wild apple tree with about 6 apples on it. I was thrilled, I had no idea I had any wild ones. I have been planting a few grafted tree for about 10 years now and it's been somewhat of a struggle. It seems I find a few more wild apples every year now and have been releasing them. I can't believe in a year what they are producing without the competition.
Released wild apples / great results
- Thread starter ruskbucks
- Start date
They all are very different size, shape,and flavor. A couple of the large apples taste very good. One tree has yellow apples the size of golfballs that are a little sour. The tallest tree in the last Pic has apples the size of a cherry that are really sour. I'm sure the deer won't mind.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
How do you identify the apple trees? I have had apple trees on my land that have been producing since about 2005, I would think after all this time, I would have a few volunteers.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I look for them at bloom time.
A real close look at leaves and bark can work on younger trees.
Is that at your Rusk County property? I've only found 1 wild apple tree on my property up there and I think it is where we threw an apple core while planting apple trees 15 years ago. My friend has a property in Rusk County that is an old field that was abandoned and is slowly returning to woods. He has dozens of wild apple trees growing in that area and they are doing great. Give them a bunch of sunlight and keep your fingers crossed that the bears leave them alone and you are set.
I released one apple two years ago. It was about 10ft tall. The rabbits girdled it and killed it. I thought the same thing. How could it make it that long with no protection but soon as I cut the tag alder around it gets destroyed.
Yes it's up in Rusk. I used to take apples up there from my house in se WI. I wouldn't just dump them in a pile all the time, I would throw them all over the place. Is this how they started, I'm not sure. I have 3 growing along the road that I know I didn't toss any there. They are under a powering also. One apple I just found is probably 30 ft tall and straight up with hardly any branches. I think it might of been there before I bought the land. The others just seem to come out of nowhere. I did accidentally add 2 pictures of my dolgos that I planted (candy apple color). That dolgo was one the bears busted the central leader off. It came back thick like a bush. No apples after that for 3 or 4 years but it is really throwing them out now.
Like sandbur said anytime I see something white flowering in the spring I go check it out. I usually say to myself " noway is that a apple over there" to my surprise it usually is. I also have gotten pretty good at identifying the bark. I find most of my morel mushrooms under old half dead apple trees so I learned what the back looks like. I take flagging tape and mark one if it's in question to check on it later.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
I suspect a few of those are grafted trees. Look at the base for a graft union. As said bloom times, taste, ripen times, drop times, signs of disease even mild, Flesh color, seed color, russeting or not, storage ability. Bring some to a local apple farmer and see if he can ID them. Flesh composition is another way. For examples empires are very juicy. McIntoshes flesh separates more easily off the apple.
Apple leave color chape can be helpful, bark color. Spir or tip bearing. Pomifurious is a good site to check out varieties. Any other trees you had to cut down? Check for rings on main branches to get a rough age. May be difficult with some trees.
Got a feeling some are seedlings and some have been put there by someone at somepoint.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Most dont make it, I think a few get lucky, and I also believe sometimes they tend to have scalier bark at an earlier age maybe - especially around the base that helps - mostly luck of the draw
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Now that you mention it, I realize I might have seen the same thing.
The wild apples and crabs I see in the open farmland/ prairie environs tend to be multi trunked 12-15 foot tall bushes. That with the scaly bark at young ages probably tends to give some protection against sun avails as well.
They also grow into more of a tree type shape in densely wooded river bottoms. Those trees do survive periodic flooding, even multiple times during the summer. I have used a few as rootstock and they do well in the wet environments.
I have two Big Dogs and two franken trees on that rootstock. I have not been able to grow that rootstock from seed but only tried once.
Electrodigical
5 year old buck +
It's a shame what was. Both neighboring properties had apple orchards. One with maybe 15+ trees, the other with countless dozens, who knows how many. It was deer heaven when I was young. Now they're almost all dead, left untended to, over grown and shaded out by other trees. A shame on so many levels. Between that and the lack of local farm fields now, the deer population really shrank.
I have a few still in the family yard, though some died off for the same reason. (I was young and didn't know, no one else cared) A couple the family cut down for the dumbest of reasons. One shaded out one (by trees I can't cut) had a very shallow root system due to the ground being all shale. It fell over on it's side a few years ago and is actually thriving now that it's getting light and producing apples, even though it's horizontal. My fear , which no doubt will happen any time now, a family member with cut it up. Of the other 5 or 6, some are producing apples, some aren't. I think some of them are getting too much water (naturally) and not enough sunlight (somehow, even thought they're wide open). Lot's of moss growing on them.
On the other side of the fence ("my" side) I discovered more apple trees than realized I had. A couple sadly dead. One really shaded, about dead, a couple so so. I did do some cutting and killing, but in the spring I really want to get to it and open them up to full sunlight.
I have a few still in the family yard, though some died off for the same reason. (I was young and didn't know, no one else cared) A couple the family cut down for the dumbest of reasons. One shaded out one (by trees I can't cut) had a very shallow root system due to the ground being all shale. It fell over on it's side a few years ago and is actually thriving now that it's getting light and producing apples, even though it's horizontal. My fear , which no doubt will happen any time now, a family member with cut it up. Of the other 5 or 6, some are producing apples, some aren't. I think some of them are getting too much water (naturally) and not enough sunlight (somehow, even thought they're wide open). Lot's of moss growing on them.
On the other side of the fence ("my" side) I discovered more apple trees than realized I had. A couple sadly dead. One really shaded, about dead, a couple so so. I did do some cutting and killing, but in the spring I really want to get to it and open them up to full sunlight.
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Great question!! I'd love to know myself.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Old apple trees & old orchards are a good place to look for morels in the spring. I learned that from a long-time morel-hunting guy here in Pa. Good luck with your morel hunting!
Electrodigical
5 year old buck +
Went up this weekend and was devastated. Looks like I killed two on my apple trees. One of them I knew I probably did. Last time up I was in a brush cutting frenzy, sweat soaked and going mad from the bugs, whacking everything in sight that was overhanging the access trail. Did a heck of a job on it before I realized it was an apple tree. (had almost no leaves on it as it was)
The other one really hurt and I don't know what happened. I cleared all round it. Cut other trees to open up the sky, pruned some dead limbs the apple tree itself, even did a small practice graft from one of the other trees. Came back this weekend to find the leaves gone from 90% of the tree. One or two apples hanging on. The only chemicals I had around was glyphosate and I don't think I was anywhere near it with it. (I spray it all around the other apple trees with no ill effect). Confused and angry, hoping it might recover in the spring but I don't think so.
The other one really hurt and I don't know what happened. I cleared all round it. Cut other trees to open up the sky, pruned some dead limbs the apple tree itself, even did a small practice graft from one of the other trees. Came back this weekend to find the leaves gone from 90% of the tree. One or two apples hanging on. The only chemicals I had around was glyphosate and I don't think I was anywhere near it with it. (I spray it all around the other apple trees with no ill effect). Confused and angry, hoping it might recover in the spring but I don't think so.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
Electrodigical
5 year old buck +
They're considerably older than I am. Or were. :(
In the 5 years owning my farm I’ve found and released over 50 “wild” apple trees and seen results similar to the OP. It’s amazing how fast it happens too! One year after release you can see vegetative growth explode and the second year usually brings a big crop on trees that held a couple dozen apples at most previously.
I often find them in the spring during bloom, but the scaly bark is a dead giveaway too.
After I release a tree to sunlight I cut off anything dead, take off any limbs lower than about 5’, and put about 5# of 10-10-10 fertilizer around the drip line. Nothing else.
I often find them in the spring during bloom, but the scaly bark is a dead giveaway too.
After I release a tree to sunlight I cut off anything dead, take off any limbs lower than about 5’, and put about 5# of 10-10-10 fertilizer around the drip line. Nothing else.
