Joshua Hotz

So my original idea, which would be more work and the tree wouldn't have a tap root was to take cuttings off of the largest straightest growing wild apples I could find then graft them off to a semi standard or standard rootstock. Let the graft heal then bury the the graft union below ground level to enable the root growth of the original scion. Letting the cutting effectively be on its own rootstock if I can't find any suckers to harvest.

However the idea of seeds seems promising. Realistically I could see gathering all of the apples off of these wild trees then just planting as many seeds as I have. And culling the trees that branch out lower on the tree

The plot of land I am looking at has some mature trees on it but a fair amount of light is still reaching the ground. I guess it shall just be trial and error finding the right amount of light to give the trees to keep them growing but not making it ideal for them to sucker and waterspout.

David Wieland wrote:

Joshua Hotz wrote:Was looking through the hardwood section at my local exotic hardwood store and saw they were selling apple for 20$ a board foot.

That price shows that there is a market for apple wood but that it's in very limited supply. I've never seen any apple furniture, probably because it's hard to get suitable boards. As a woodworker, I know it's much easier to work with wood  that has fairly straight grain and no big knots.

I agree which is where I could only really see this as a viable idea if I can get the trees to grow straight.

I guess one question would be does anyone know how much an apple tree grows in diameter in a year?

I have found a handful of apples that seem to be growing fairly straight for 30ish feet on a property I hunt, and I know I am allowed to take all the cuttings I want. So I might start an attempt with those

The coppicing idea is a good one. I have been doing this to a bunch of wild apple trees in that same property, though most of the reason for that was I needed to clean up some shooting lanes.

Looks like I'm going to have to cut into some of these trees and see if the suckers and water sprouts they have sent up will have any large effect on the quality of the wood. Worst comes to worst I end up with some smoking wood.

The interplanting of the apples with conifers is a great idea, hadn't thought about that. Was originally planning on over planting the apples into a tall spindle kind of spacing then thinning out as required. As my stool bed should be in full production next year.

And thank you for the link to the tall trees post, hadn't seen that one.

Was looking through the hardwood section at my local exotic hardwood store and saw they were selling apple for 20$ a board foot. Got me thinking if there was a rootstock or a variety of apple that we could grow in more of a hardwood timber setup rather than for pure apple production.

Does anyone know of an apple that essentially grows tall enough to make something like that viable?

Most of the seedling apple trees I have access to seem to send off to many suckers and water spouts to keep up on.