Which apple tree varieties have done well with little spray?

[sandbur]

Dolgo, chestnut crab, red baron, NW Greening, and hazen.

Honeycrisp just has never done well and one tree is nearly dead.

Liberty, Nova Easy Gro, and Enterprise are only in 2nd leaf.

 

[Rally1148]

I'm looking forward to seeing these lists!

 

[chickenlittle]

it would be helpful to know what problems the other trees have. Fireblight, cedar apple rust, scab, powdery mildew, other?

 

[Jordan Selsor]

I'm anxious to see these comments as well. Id be curious as to what's the most disease resistant late drop Apple especially

 

[CrazyEd]

Pristine also has very good disease resistance, but it's an early apple. Wolf River and Black Oxford have both done well on my place with little / no spraying. Black Oxford did show some sign of CAR on the leaves but the fruit was fine. My Zestar! at home has showed some signs of scab but nothing too serious.

 

[deepsleep]

I do some basic spraying now, but the first 4 years I didn't and Yates, Goldrush, Querina, Centennial produced just fine. Had some sooty blotch but otherwise no apparent problems.

 

[sandbur]

CAR and some scab are on my place. The wild crabs and my rootstock crab are often disease resistant and some drop almost until spring.

 

[DLH]

What about tolman sweet?

 

[Jordan Selsor]

What about yates and black twig? Anyone have any feedback on these?

 

[deepsleep]

What about yates and black twig? Anyone have any feedback on these?

See my comment above on Yates. In short, reliable without spray, at least in S. MI.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

So far the crabs have the least signs of any problems. Even before spraying, bugs just don't seem to bother them as much as regular apples. Our 3rd leaf crabs ( since planting ) have their first fruits this year. Dolgo, All-Winter-Hangover, Centennial, Centurion all have some fruit set. ( all on Antonovka from SLN ) A-W-H is the leader of the pack for us at camp. Healthiest regular apples are Liberty, Enterprise, Wolf River, Prairie Spy, N.Y. 35 " Bonkers ". We don't have much of a C.A.R. problem because we don't have any cedars close by - the alternate host for the disease.

 

[DLH]

Alright thanks guys I got some scion wood from grey phase to try the tolman sweet and 4-5 have taken and didn't know if I should try and keep most of them. I mostly wanted it because of the unique flavor I had read on here about.

 

[Rally1148]

Those of you who are "Cider guys"... which of your apples have the best minimum spray potential?

As of now. I've grafted Priscilla, and Goldrush/ Enterprise into my orchard. At the property I have lib, goldrush, enterprise, pristine and chestnut crab. Those at the property will be hard to get to during hunting season.

For "the orchard" I've got Pristine, Goldrush, Enterprise, and what I believe to be Dolgo (planted 50+ years ago by my great grandpa). We also have a few unknown apples that were planted at that time. We've got 2 honeycrisps as well.

For my additions, (mainly cider driven), I'm looking at grafting: Wickson, Dabinett, Arkansas Black, Williams Pride, at least one type of limbertwig, and Novaspy. I'll also want to plant one or two Golden Russets on B118's on the other side of the lot, just a few hundred feet away (if I can convince my dad to let us "expand").

What do you think about these varieties, and what varieties would you plant geared towards cider and for minimum spray (dormant oil, and then some neem oil later in the year)?

 

[sandbur]

I thought woodduck said he uses chestnut crab in cider.
I've got a fair variety of crab apples this year and need to contact a client who has a press.

Quite a few of the dolgo seedlings are bearing and I will sort through them to see which ones are top worked.

 

[Rally1148]

I thought woodduck said he uses chestnut crab in cider.
I've got a fair variety of crab apples this year and need to contact a client who has a press.

Quite a few of the dolgo seedlings are bearing and I will sort through them to see which ones are top worked.

The Chestnut crab that I got from you is going great! So hopefully in a year or two I'll be able to either take some scions (since it's on our hunting property), or just grab some in a few buckets after a hunt or two. I'm really interested in a lot of the sweeter type crabs (i.e. edible crabs) for ciders since they are, at least from what I've heard, easier to grow. I'm really hoping that my wild apples end up being good for juicing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

After my last trip to camp to spray and mow around our apple trees, I have to say that the crabs are still doing the best as far as problems. Since the last spray 2 weeks ago, there is no sign of bugs eating, disease problems on the crabs. The regular apples - even with spraying - seem to get bugs chewing leaves, brown spots ( not CAR ), distorted leaves, etc. Not badly affected, but still noticeable. The crabs look like a picture of health. I don't know if they taste bad to bugs, or have some natural resistance to diseases - but we'll take it !!! Chestnut crab planted 2014 is the tallest at 9 ft., ( no fruit yet ), All-Winter-Hangover is producing the best at about 8 ft. tall ( planted in 2013 ). The A-W-H has apples about the size of Ping-Pong balls to golf ball size.

 

[sandbur]

The Chestnut crab that I got from you is going great! So hopefully in a year or two I'll be able to either take some scions (since it's on our hunting property), or just grab some in a few buckets after a hunt or two. I'm really interested in a lot of the sweeter type crabs (i.e. edible crabs) for ciders since they are, at least from what I've heard, easier to grow. I'm really hoping that my wild apples end up being good for juicing.

I will have plenty of chestnut crab scion if you want more next spring.

 

[sandbur]

After my last trip to camp to spray and mow around our apple trees, I have to say that the crabs are still doing the best as far as problems. Since the last spray 2 weeks ago, there is no sign of bugs eating, disease problems on the crabs. The regular apples - even with spraying - seem to get bugs chewing leaves, brown spots ( not CAR ), distorted leaves, etc. Not badly affected, but still noticeable. The crabs look like a picture of health. I don't know if they taste bad to bugs, or have some natural resistance to diseases - but we'll take it !!! Chestnut crab planted 2014 is the tallest at 9 ft., ( no fruit yet ), All-Winter-Hangover is producing the best at about 8 ft. tall ( planted in 2013 ). The A-W-H has apples about the size of Ping-Pong balls to golf ball size.

I have been doing some reading on the Canadian prairie apples and those that are used in Alaska. It sounds like most of those have crab blood in them.
Bernie Nickolai has some comments on growing about 200-300 apples near Edmonton. He feels that the winter sun damages the trees and sets them up for other disease and a shorter lfie span. There seems to be quite a bit of information on fireblight resistance, but not so much on CAR for these trees. Bernie has comments on rootstock. He also likes the idea of painting the trunks white.

Somewhere there was a comment about removing limbs to a 2 foot height from the ground. The new crab apple grafts that I ahve inthe ground are soing to have less removal of lower limbs, especially on the south and southwest sides.

 

[sandbur]

There was a link that Clair Lammers was growing apples near Fairbanks.He had 3 varieties survive -70 and still produce apples. I have not been able to determine which varieties these were. I believe Clair is now deceased.

 

[sandbur]

When you think about it...how did all the wild crabs (wild apples in other areas) get started? Obviously, when we find them we may start giving them some "care," but for those mature examples growing wild for their entire lives...there was no trimming of limbs, no spacing of limbs, no interference of any kind.

Most of those I find tend to bear every other year. With domestication (care) we can get some apples on the off year.