Some of my crabs.

[White Birch Farm]

Some wild crabs from my farm

 

[sandbur]

Can you see a preference by the deer?


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[Apple Junkie]

Ya gotta love these volunteers! I sometimes scratch my head when I stumble onto a “wild” apple that is flourishing without any of the scrupulous planning, attention, and protection I shower on my wildlife orchard trees. Go figure… love these beauties.

 

[buckdeer1]

I have some like the red ones in 2nd pic.Do you ever see them fall and does anything eat them

 

[White Birch Farm]

I have literally tons of food all over my farm, so there really isnt a big reason for deer to focus on those crabapples. I suspect the bulk of them get eaten by other animals. I have 100 apple, pear, chestnut and persimmon trees that should start producing in the next 2-3 years. For me it is all about about adding pounds of food to the property without the annual costs that go with additional acres of plots.

 

[buckdeer1]

I had 2 that produced a fruit about the size of your finger nail and didn't fall off tree until march and another that never produced anything in 10 years so they all got a dose of tordon

 

[DJN]

I had 2 that produced a fruit about the size of your finger nail and didn't fall off tree until march and another that never produced anything in 10 years so they all got a dose of tordon

Had those fruits been a little bigger, you may have had a winner there! Who doesn’t like a late hanging crab?
We have quite a few wild crabs on the farm. This year, some are loaded and some are bare.

 

[buckdeer1]

Most of them never fell,just dried up.I did use them for shade to start 2 new chestnuts before I killed them.I am running out of room to plant trees.I can't see across my food plots because of the trees

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Had those fruits been a little bigger, you may have had a winner there! Who doesn’t like a late hanging crab?
We have quite a few wild crabs on the farm. This year, some are loaded and some are bare.

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Our wild crabs drop all winter long. They are small but provide a fair amount of food when the picking is slim and the snow is deep.

 

[DJN]

Our wild crabs drop all winter long. They are small but provide a fair amount of food when the picking is slim and the snow is deep.

Same here S.T. Usually 3/4” to an inch in diameter, but plentiful and hang for a while. It gets tore up underneath them in late winter for sure.

 

[BrushyPines]

What is usually the average time crabs drop? I have ten 4 year old crabs ready to plant on my hunting property, but I would like to strategically plant them by their drop time.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

All depends on what variety they are. Could be July could be Feb.

 

[BrushyPines]

The crabs I have are a mix of Dolgo, Transendent, Chestnut, Centennial, Whitney & Prairie. Any idea on drop times for these types of crabs?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Centenial should be August, chestnut September, whitney will be Sept into october, dolgo will start in august and have a prolonged drop time dropping into december I'm not sure about the others. You should be able to find a drop time chard with a quick internet search. I'm no apple expert by any means. Root stock may also play a role but cant say much about that.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Brushy
Check out the Crabapple timeline thread started by Sandbur. He has many of those varieties mentioned there and drop times was a focus for parts of it and pics and sizes of fruit.

 

[BrushyPines]

Thanks ST and Rock!

 

[sandbur]

Brushy
Check out the Crabapple timeline thread started by Sandbur. He has many of those varieties mentioned there and drop times was a focus for parts of it and pics and sizes of fruit.

I have seen some variation from year to year. Many were two weeks early this year. Two of my Big Dogs also started dropping early. I haven’t checked the other Big Dogs.

Chestnut usually drops through the month of September with just a few apples holding later on.

Other climates could be much different.


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