Native Hunter Fruit Tree List

Mennoniteman said:
Right, crab's pollinate everything. But I was looking for a regular apple that pollinates Yate's and they are not listed on any of the charts with any other apples.
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Because it is somewhat of an obscure variety you aren't going to find as much information on it as with highly commercialized varieties. However, Wildlife Group lists Arkansas Black, Hewes Crab and Dolgo Crab as pollinatiors for Yates. My guess is that 95% of all the apples out there that flowers when Yates does will pollinate it.
 
End of 2019 Update
A few people have asked me about updating this list. Shown below is the revised list after 2019. This shows my successes, failures and items still under evaluation.Keep in mind that something which seems to work at one location might not do well in another.

Apples: The following will give you a pretty wide variety of drop times and good disease resistance. These are proven varieties in South Central KY without spraying. Don't plant just any apple in KY unless you want to be spraying and babying them to keep them alive. Get the wrong apple and you will never have any fruit on it without constant life support.
  • Liberty - Outstanding DR. Late Summer.
  • Priscilla - Outstanding DR. Incredible eating apple. Mid Summer.
  • Arkansas Black - Good DR. Late Fall.
  • Dozier Crab - Good DR. Late Fall.
  • Yates - Possible the best deer apple. Starts slowly dropping late October and goes into December some years. Great DR. (2020 Edit) - will mention that in most years a high percentage of apples will have dropped by Mid November. End of drop period seems to depend a lot on the weather. Outstanding apple in all regards.
  • Betsey Deaton - Minor to moderate CAR but great cropping. Mid Summer
  • Black Limbertwig - Outstanding DR. Late Summer to Early Fall.
  • Black Oxford - Good DR. Late Summer to early fall.
  • Horse - Good DR. Early to mid summer.
  • Bevan’s Favorite - Very dependable. July dropping and good taste for early apple.
  • Margret (aka Striped June) - Very dependable. Very tart and small. June ripening.
  • Callaway Crabapple (good DR and good Crops, but fruit doesn't drop without shaking tree)
  • Dolgo Crab from WG - Good DR and heavy crops but most apples rot on tree. Need to shake like Callaway.
  • Eliza’s Choice Crabapple - Big crops that need shaking like Callaway and Dolgo to get apples to fall. No disease.
  • Summer Champion - Good DR. Great early eating apple. Moderate crops.
  • Myers Royal Limbertwig - Huge Red apples. Tart. Mid to late summer. No signs of disease. Heavy cropping.
  • Freedom - Looks good after two seasons of fruiting. Seems very DR. Late summer.
  • Caney Fork Limbertwig - Not as clean as other limbertwigs listed above but good deer apple. Fairly late dropping.
Other Apples that could possibly work – need more time to evaluate
  • King David - Looked good for a while in 19 but apples dropped too early. Keep watching a while.
  • Sundance (just recently planted – need time)
  • Brushy Mtn Limbertwig (Has shown moderate FB but bears big apple crops. Still Watching.)
  • Terry Winter (not great so far. Lots of apples rot on tree. Need more time to eval.)
  • William’s Pride (only recently planted – need time)
  • Franklin Cider (only recently planted - need time)
  • Enterprise (only recently planted - need time)
  • Several varieties from Northern Whitetail Crabs still under evaluation. Most looking good but one eliminated so far.
  • Roxbury Russet (slow bearing so far. DR looks good)
  • Old Fashioned Limbertwig (Was looking good, but had to move tree. Small crop last year. Looks DR and clean so far)

Apples to avoid in KY:
  • Goldrush (Gets CAR bad)
  • Winter King (aka Stark) premature fruit fall and rotting
  • American Summer Pearmain (FB and other diseases bad)
  • Mrs. Bryan (FB magnet)
  • Golden Hornet Crab - apple eventually mummify and don't drop.
  • NWC variety of Yellow Delicious - Heavy CAR in 2019. Will Topwork in 2020.
For persimmons, I would suggest:
  • Topworking any existing male trees that aren't too large with female scions that cover a long drop period. For instance, an early variety is Morris Burton and a late variety is Deer Magnet. This is the best thing you can do to get persimmons fast.
  • You can also set seedlings and start having fruit on the females in about 10+ years if all goes well. You can also topwork the males.
  • You can buy grafted persimmons from the following places, but they are high dollar: Wildlife Group, Stark Brothers, Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery, Chestnut Hills Nursery and England's Orchard. Check out their web sites. Look at England's first.

Don't forget Pears: Deer love them and they are easier to grow than apples in KY. They are also faster fruiting than persimmons. My pears look supermarket quality without any spraying, but you have to get the right ones. Grafted pears can also be bought for about 1/2 the price of a grafted persimmon. Recommended Varieties:
  • Kieffer (beware of fake Kieffers...they are toxic like FAKE NEWS;)) - Good Dr and drop into early November.
  • Moonglow - Early Fall. High DR.
  • Ayers - Summer. Excellent eating. High DR.
  • Senator Clark - Early Fall to mid Fall. Good DR.
  • Gallaway (minor Fireblight. Good cropping.) Drops into November.
  • Hunter’s Choice - WG warns of possible FB. I have not seen any. Good late dropper for me.
  • Becton - Late fall dropper and clean growing so far.
Pears under evaluation that look Promising – but need more time:
  • Gate (super clean growing so far) (Planted in 14 and no fruit yet. Blooms Froze in 18 and 19)
  • Mrs. Lanene (same info as Gate)
  • Olympic Giant (Planted in 17. Need more time)
Additional Noteworthy Information:
  • Chinese Chestnuts are outstanding for Deer. They seem to produce great nearly every year. The problem is that they will mostly be done early. My trees start dropping in mid September and are finished by mid October, but the deer will clean every one of them up. They are a high draw.
  • I have some Sawtooth Oaks that drop in November, and honestly even though I love my apples and pears, it seems that nothing else I have draws deer like these sawtooths. I saved some nuts this year and plan on trying to get some of these started in different locations on the farm. These trees grow fast, but I have noticed that getting multiple trees close together is very important for pollination. Keep this in mind when planting them.

I also wanted to mention that we have some great local varieties of apples that are not available commercially, so I have not included them in this list. Hopefully this time next year we can update this list again. Best wishes to all and Merry Christmas!
 
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I have researched Yates but have not found a lot of information about it, especially regarding hardiness. Most simply refer to it as a "southern" apple. Does anyone here grow it in zone 5a or have any insight into it's hardiness?
 
finahol said:
I have researched Yates but have not found a lot of information about it, especially regarding hardiness. Most simply refer to it as a "southern" apple. Does anyone here grow it in zone 5a or have any insight into it's hardiness?
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I have it growing 2 miles from the IA border in MO.


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I want to add to this thread that I have now had 3 trees on B118 to just lay over from wind, but I've never had any problem with MM111 anchoring well. Most of my semi dwarf trees are on MM111, and I am extremely happy about that.
 
BoneCrusher20 said:
When does your yearly update come?? I always look forward to that.
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Sorry but there won’t be one this year. My farm got hit with a historic late freeze that devastated the fruit crop. I did have good fruit at my home a few miles away, but didn’t notice anything that would make me change previous recommendations. My only update this year is that I won’t be planting any more trees on B118 rootstock, because we have had 3 trees to just fall over from wind.

The only thing that recovered from the late freeze was sawtooth oaks. I don’t know how they did, because it killed every leaf on them. A few of the native persimmons also came back and made a tiny amount of fruit but nothing significant.
 
Native Hunter said:
Sorry but there won’t be one this year. My farm got hit with a historic late freeze that devastated the fruit crop. I did have good fruit at my home a few miles away, but didn’t notice anything that would make me change previous recommendations. My only update this year is that I won’t be planting any more trees on B118 rootstock, because we have had 3 trees to just fall over from wind.

The only thing that recovered from the late freeze was sawtooth oaks. I don’t know how they did, because it killed every leaf on them. A few of the native persimmons also came back and made a tiny amount of fruit but nothing significant.
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Dang that is unfortunate didn't realize that...that is too bad. I've had similar experiences w/ B118 up here for sure seems to be lot of leaners on it, would like to avoid that rootstock if i can. Had any experience w/ Blue Hill standard rootstocks Malus & Antonovka been thinking of switching over to some of those for future?
 
BoneCrusher20 said:
Dang that is unfortunate didn't realize that...that is too bad. I've had similar experiences w/ B118 up here for sure seems to be lot of leaners on it, would like to avoid that rootstock if i can. Had any experience w/ Blue Hill standard rootstocks Malus & Antonovka been thinking of switching over to some of those for future?
Click to expand...

I just put my first Blue Hill trees in the ground a few days ago. The roots looked incredible. I’m impressed with Ryan’s knowledge and passion for fruit trees.
 
Native Hunter said:
I just put my first Blue Hill trees in the ground a few days ago. The roots looked incredible. I’m impressed with Ryan’s knowledge and passion for fruit trees.
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Same i just put in rootstock orders from him for first time this year....interested to see how they turn out. Like that he is geared toward hunting fruit trees and not nurseries trying to pass off as "for hunters"
 
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