Apple inventory

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:20:15 GMT

Looks like the current survivors are:

The two original trees, maybe one of the bigger crabs (?Trailman?) and a transparent (or could be Lodi I guess) on dwarfing rootstock (they're 10'ish) and the original tiny-fruited fragrant crabapple (maybe Purple Prince, looks like it comes true from seed)

Antonovka, Goodland on antonovka, and September Sun on antonovka.

Three Zestar!s, a State Fair, and a Gloria on bylands rootstock (I honestly don't know what they use, and I guess I'll see if it survived its first winter in such a brutal dry/freeze-without-snow introduction).

One Ashmead's kernel on B118 in the lawn. This one's struggling between root competition from the spruces and having been nibbled by geese. Gonna give it some love. This apple and golden russet are, incidentally, my favourite apples I've ever tasted.

A row on B118 by the pigpen: Dexter Jackson, Ashmead, and a very happy-looking Frostbite.

What I'm looking at this year, I think all on 118 (most other rootstocks I've experimented with don't seem to have survived, and antonovka is hard to find):

-the dessert crabs Chestnut, Trailman, and Centennial

-the early apples William's Pride, Wealthy, and Norkent

-another instance of my favourites: Frostbite and Ashmead's Kernel. If my legacy is one surviving Ashmead's Kernel somewhere on the property that escapes all other changes, my life is complete.

-the later storage apples Hudson's Golden Gem and Sandow. These may not ripen in time here, but I suspect by the time they're old enough to fruit we'll have enough heat most years for them anyhow.

-Sweet Sixteen, an apparently excellent Frostbite/Wickson relative, also in the later category.

-I want a Wolf River but I can only find one on B10 rootstock, which is heavily dwarfing. Now I could get it and graft it onto a seedling rootstock later if it survives, or I could wait till next year. It's Angus' favourite apple and I'd love to be able to grow him a bag of them. The Hardy Apples book by Bob Osborne says B10 should be hardy enough and I haven't tried it yet so it might be a good experiment? And I could put it under the powerline to the house, as a tiny tree that might be a good spot for it.

For my seed experiments, I have the following:

-Seed from the transparent-ish and big red crab on my property. There's a miniscule, very fragrant-flowered crab on the property too. There are other apples in the neighbourhood but none super close, so I expect most of this seed will be a cross of these three (apples cross-pollinate and do not usually self-pollinate, so I can expect most-to-all to be crosses of some kind). These are obviously all hardy and well-suited to my area. Transparent is one of the earliest, hardiest, most recommended apples.

-Seed a friend sent from his Arkansas Black tree in Revelstoke. No idea what other trees are around but they should be reasonably hardy.

-Seed from commercial Lucy Glo apples I saved last fall.

-Seed from skillcult that's been stratifying. He has much warmer winters than I do, so I don't expect all the open-pollinated ones to survive the winter. The open-pollinated mixed seeds were cheap, though, and I've stuck to hardy parents where the parents were known so something good may come of some of them:
*Open-pollinated Wickson
*Twang x Jujube
*Sweet Sixteen x early blend pollen
*Sweet Sixteen x red flesh pollen
*Muscat de venus open-pollinated
*Open-pollinated red flesh mixed
*Open-pollinated early apples mixed
*Open-pollinated October apples mixed

-Seed from skillcult I haven't stratified yet and just received a bit ago. Same principle: either very cheap open-pollinated seeds with a smaller chance of surviving here, or 1 to 2 hardy parents with a much higher chance. Trailman, for example, is super hardy and crossing it with my faqvourite golden russet is ultra exciting. These seeds haven't been stratified though:
*Open-pollinated Williams' Pride
*Open-pollinated Wickson
*Trailman x Sweet Sixteen
*Trailman x Golden Russet (!!!)
*Sweet Sixteen x Wickson
*Sunrise x Wickson
*Sunrise x Cherry Crush
*Sunrise x Cherry Cox
*Open-pollinated Chestnut crab
*Open-pollinated Amberwine
*Mixed open-pollinated apple seeds
*Chestnut crab x Wickson
*Trailman * Wickson

-I have a stash of seeds sent from a friend in high-elevation states, a bunch of them are next generation from Oikos and have a strong focus on hardy crabapples. I will add them to this inventory when I inventory them. They are unstratified too, so like the second round of skillcult seeds they will probably go into the fridge in peat this fall and I'll sprout them in the spring.

Note: I heavily recommend the Hardy Apples book by Bob Osborne.

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Apple inventory