What varieties are on the top of your list

[Maple River Farm]

What fruit tree varieties are on the top of your list for wildlife plantings and why? For instance apple , pear , plum ect. and what variety of that type of tree. Also what type of rootstock are they on.

 

[Neahawg]

For apples I like b118 and anatova rootstocks though I have a few m111 and 1 m106. As far as varieties I like Arkansas black, mammoth blacktwig, Winesap, Dayton, gala, Yates, and horse to name a few.
Rootstock use for pears has been ornamental pears grown from seed an ohxf97. Happy with harrow delight and have Tyson growing, planted many keiffers and Ayers and at least two moonglow and all have done well. Planted nearly every pear the wildlife group sells this past Dec., And grafted Warren and seckel this year.

 

[Maple River Farm]

For apples I like b118 and anatova rootstocks though I have a few m111 and 1 m106. As far as varieties I like Arkansas black, mammoth blacktwig, Winesap, Dayton, gala, Yates, and horse to name a few.
Rootstock use for pears has been ornamental pears grown from seed an ohxf97. Happy with harrow delight and have Tyson growing, planted many keiffers and Ayers and at least two moonglow and all have done well. Planted nearly every pear the wildlife group sells this past Dec., And grafted Warren and seckel this year.

I was looking at ordering 100 or so B118 root stock next spring .

 

[Neahawg]

B118 is a good rootstock especially in sandy soils, but 100 would be more then I could handle at one time lol.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I was looking at ordering 100 or so B118 root stock next spring .

B118 for sandy soil and M111 for heavier soils. Redfree, Liberty, Galarina, Chestnut crab, Dolgo crab, Enterprise and Arkansas Black just depends on when you want your apple to ripen. Pears Kieffer, Luscious, Sunrise, Nova, and Parker.

 

[Doctorbrady]

Pears and persimmons top the list due to ease of maintenance. OHxF97 rootstock. Kieffers, moonglow, Magness are all good choices.
All the improved varieties of persimmons are great as are "wild" varieties. Some of my favorites include early golden, dollywood, celebrity, and Elmo...but there are many.
Jujubes are also great for low maintenance fruit. I have a few varieties, but just starting to fruit.
B118 Apple rootstock for sure. Goldrush, Liberty, Hewes and dolgo crabs are some of my favorites, but lots of good ones on the disease resistant and antique Apple list. Just plan on doing more spraying on apple trees.

 

[Maple River Farm]

B118 is a good rootstock especially in sandy soils, but 100 would be more then I could handle at one time lol.

Working on a small nursery along with a small orchard . I am surprised dolgo has ben mentioned a couple of times already. I have grown it for years on my place but never seen anyone else grow it around here. It always has a certain % of apples that hang on into winter even though the majority drop late summer.

 

[dogdoc]

I have worked hard on grafting as many native persimmons on my place to scions from heavy producing females. I have grafted a good 100 trees or so. As far as apples I have planted arkansas black, winesap, liberty, enterprise, goldrush, gala, granny smith, golden delicious, red roam, braeburn, dolgo crab, transcendent crab, american crab. Hopefully next year I will have fruit. Most of my apples are on M111 and several of them are seedlings that were started at home and then grafted with a known variety. I am letting a few of the seedlings just grow on their own to see what they produce.

Pears planted are Keiffer, moonglow, orient, wild pear started from seed, and I have some seedlings at home that are Korean Giant that will be planted this fall. Several of my pears were purchased from box stores but most were started from seeds from wild pears and then grafted with known varieties.

todd

 

[Neahawg]

Dogdoc if you were concerned about the type of Apple you may get on those seedlings you could let them grow to about 7 feet then top graft them, you would have a knon variety on top with the seedling Apple variety underneath, then if it ends up being something you like graft it to a tree by itself.

 

[dogdoc]

Dogdoc if you were concerned about the type of Apple you may get on those seedlings you could let them grow to about 7 feet then top graft them, you would have a knon variety on top with the seedling Apple variety underneath, then if it ends up being something you like graft it to a tree by itself.

That's a very good idea. I just decided to let some go because I kinda over did it with the planting. I'm almost tree'd out with all the upkeep and I have another 50 trees at the house that I am working with. I have most of the fruit trees cages and protected. I think with the ones I have at home I am just going to tube since it is so much quicker and let nature take it course. I'm tired of watering these dang trees at home every night during the summer. I like your idea though.

 

[Neahawg]

Merle hawggard has done it before is the only reason I mentioned it. The graft normally really takes of with the root reserves it can pull from as well.

This is a Dayton grafted ontobseedling rootstock. Merle is pointing to the graft so the branches below that will be the seedling Apple tree so maybe we get two good apples but at worst we get one.

 

[Familytradition]

In my home orchard Liberty seems to be the one that will really stand out in wildlife situation. I do basically nothing but trim the tree and it produces loads of apples that hang well.

 

[Fish]

Liberty and goldrush on mm111 and m7 for me. I have many varieties, but if i were planting for deer only, these two would be tops. There are, however, other DR resistant varieties i haven't vetted yet. And i will add that i have a handful of crabapples that i wouldnt be without. They are from seed, so no commercial production of them.

 

[James P. Bipps]

Liberty, Enterprise, and Honey Crisp apple trees. Dolgo and Siberian crabapple trees.

 

[Buckly]

I have Liberty and Enterprise but also like the Wolf River for my Northern climate. Mostly on B118 and M111.
I also have Dolgo crab on M7 and B118. Being from NY I have several Cortland on B118 also. I'm pretty much done with apple tree plantings as I literally have hundreds of wild apple trees also but, I am adding a couple Chestnut crab next year.

 

[Native Hunter]

Top Pears I have sufficient history with:
Kieffer
Moonglow (tree form is not great, but completely bullet proof on DR)
Ayers (best eating pear of all)
Senator Clark
Galloway
Warren (I think it is, but still need a positive ID. It looks like Warren and Warren is proven over and over by many growers).

Top Apples I have sufficient history with:
Liberty
Priscilla
Yates
Striped June (Margret)
Black Limbertwig
Betsy Deaton (heavy cropper but leaves never look good during season)
Brushy Mountain Limbertwig (can show FB pretty bad. Best grown as a full sized tree. Heavy cropper.)
Milam
Bevan's Favorite
Old Fashioned Limbertwig.

The ones above are proven beyond the shadow of a doubt for me. I have several others that I feel will be proven to me in a couple more growing seasons. I also have others that are just local varieties that you won't find commercially, so not mentioning them.

As others have said, rootstock is dependent on soil and other growing conditions.

 

[willy]

Liberty and Hewes are the best of around 10 apple varieties I have planted. They have good amounts of fruit on even after I had a crushing late freeze that did in every other fruit tree I have as far as production is concerned.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Looks like I may be on the right path.....I have Kieffer and MoonGlo pears, and Enterprise and Arkansas Black apples. Plan to add another 3-4 varieties this spring as well. I don't plan on having a HUGE variety of trees, but want a "respectable" amount of diversity!