My Top 5 Crabapples
- Thread starter Fish
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Fish
Well-Known Member
Glad you enjoy, Seabee. Im having fun sharing.
Fish
Well-Known Member
November 26 and this Puckernugget crabapple is holding about 20% of its fruit. I didn't get back to check my other grafted Puckernugget, but this one is the original and probably a good idea of what to expect. We've had multiple frosts and a light freeze. The apples are getting "pruny" on the tree.
No doubt that whitetails will gobble them up as they fall though..... with food choices becoming less and less, they won't pass up a wrinkled piece of fruit.
This crabapple is not one of my top 5, but it's an interesting tree. I named it Rudolph because it will have bright red apples in the month of December. And they are hard as a brick.
Rudolph gets enough sun to produce fruit. But the only fruit I get from this tree with little exception is on this one branch! And the fruits just don't fall. They are literally applesauce in red bags mid-winter..... still hanging.
I will continue to evaluate Rudolph in the years ahead. Maybe I will find reason to propagate it. If the fruits fell, this would be an incredible late season crabapple tree.
No doubt that whitetails will gobble them up as they fall though..... with food choices becoming less and less, they won't pass up a wrinkled piece of fruit.
This crabapple is not one of my top 5, but it's an interesting tree. I named it Rudolph because it will have bright red apples in the month of December. And they are hard as a brick.
Rudolph gets enough sun to produce fruit. But the only fruit I get from this tree with little exception is on this one branch! And the fruits just don't fall. They are literally applesauce in red bags mid-winter..... still hanging.
I will continue to evaluate Rudolph in the years ahead. Maybe I will find reason to propagate it. If the fruits fell, this would be an incredible late season crabapple tree.
DrDirtNap
Active Member
Very interesting thread Fish! Any chance your Rudolph crabapple could be a Dolgo?..or Calloway? I have both and mine don't fall from the tree very easily unless I shake the tree.
I know you've had several ask already but I would sure like to get some scions from your Lemon Drop and Puckernugget trees. I could trade you Dolgo or Calloway or persimmon scions. Thanks.
I know you've had several ask already but I would sure like to get some scions from your Lemon Drop and Puckernugget trees. I could trade you Dolgo or Calloway or persimmon scions. Thanks.
Fish
Well-Known Member
Thanks! I am sure we can work out a scion swap..
Rudolph is from seed, so no relation to any named varieties that i know of.
I can shake Puckernugget and get them to fall. I know we like them to drop naturally though.
I can shake Rudolph with a dozer and i doubt they would break loose.
Fish
Well-Known Member
Here is a look at Puckernugget on Dec. 20. Just a guess, but I would say about 20% of Puckernugget's apples are still on the tree. They are getting rather ripe too.
They still have some juice to them.
But they smell like fermented apples at this point.
I shook the tree and dropped a lot of them. I don't think whitetails will turn their nose up to them at this point in the season. Still, they didn't completely drop like Lemondrop did. But, Lemondrop has been done for a few weeks.
They still have some juice to them.
But they smell like fermented apples at this point.
I shook the tree and dropped a lot of them. I don't think whitetails will turn their nose up to them at this point in the season. Still, they didn't completely drop like Lemondrop did. But, Lemondrop has been done for a few weeks.
Fish
Well-Known Member
Me too, LLC. Probably the #1 tree out of the original 100 seedlings. Lemondrop had a sibling, Gumdrop (my name for the tree). Gumdrop carried loads of mint green apples, but dang if it wasnt a fireblight haven. Had to cut it down.
Fish
Well-Known Member
I think it all started on these seedling crabapples. Some of them were a disaster. Before i really knew what i was looking at, it had infected all of my orchard trees to some extent. I finally got smart and took action.
Where did it come from originally? Who knows. Guess a bee carried it in from some infected tree somewhere. I remember looking at the trunk of one of my dwarf apple trees one spring wondering what that brown ooze was seeping from the cracks. Big trouble!
Where did it come from originally? Who knows. Guess a bee carried it in from some infected tree somewhere. I remember looking at the trunk of one of my dwarf apple trees one spring wondering what that brown ooze was seeping from the cracks. Big trouble!
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
This is a nice thread Fish. It had got me thinking a lot about not buying apple trees. I mean 5 % acceptable makes for each tree being very costly in terms of labor and time as well as money spent and time gone by. A 5% acceptable rate is pretty low but not really that surprising. We might all be better off trading trees or seeds or fresh pollen with each other. First of course we all need to come to a mind that we can create our own trees from our own stocks and then we would be in position to trade with each other.
Fish
Well-Known Member
Thanks Chainsaw. 5% is low. Many of those trees produced good fruit, but i could not let disease go unchecked with the orchard close by.
The one that killed me to delete from history was a tree i dubbed, Trout's Red Speckle. That tree had red, orb shaped fruit that were very good eating and the size of silver dollars. But my goodness the thing melted down each summer from fireblight. Sad to say, it became smoking wood.
Interestingly, the Indiana state nursery no longer sells seedling crabapple trees.
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Fish
Well-Known Member
Rickey, believe me, you and everyone else can graft an apple tree. Not a difficult thing to do. I am much more alert to what is infecting my trees now than i was 6-7 years ago when fireblight first showed up. I let it go and paid dearly.
No harm experimenting with seedlings. Educate yourself on what fireblight looks like (really easy to identify) and keep an eye out for it. Grafting resistant varieties will save you some headache, but i dont think any apple is immune to fireblight.
Fish
Well-Known Member
As many broken branches as i have, they must be pretty hammered.you ever see any "wobbly" deer after eating several of the fermented crabs
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Fish, I love this thread!
Have you pruned these trees or just let them grow? I know I have a few crabs planted and I have pruned them this year. I have several planted only about a year or two old.
What type of spacing do you give them?
Have you pruned these trees or just let them grow? I know I have a few crabs planted and I have pruned them this year. I have several planted only about a year or two old.
What type of spacing do you give them?
Fish
Well-Known Member
Thanks Buckhunter!
Kind of a convoluted answer, but here we go. Yes, i do prune them. But not as detailed as my orchard (fresh eating types) trees. Crabapples will make you bleed!
. I focus on cutting out branches that shade others. Not much snipping work.As for spacing, i planted the trees originally on 8 foot centers. It was cool seeing all the different growth patterns of the trees. Some were dwarfs with purple leaves. Others were vigorous and green leafed. But 90% of them either had diseases, or pea sized fruit.
I gassed up the chainsaw one winter a few years ago and dropped every other tree. This put my spacing at 16 ft. And gave me some great smoking wood.
Many of the remaining trees were grafted over to dessert apples, like Liberty and Gala. Others were grafted to one of my favorite crabs, like Lemondrop and Puckernugget and September Sun and.... aw heck, you get the point.
I cut scionwod from Lemondrop today. I stood back and admired that tree. Its a biggun.
