Using Crab Apples as Maritime Windbreaks?

To preface, my little farm is about 800 meters away from the ocean. They grow black pines all along the coast here, so a large amount of salty wind gets stopped at the coastline, but I've done soil tests under the microscope and have seen salt crystals in the soil in my plot.

I'm currently in the process of creating a living windbreak on the North side of my plot (the one exposed to ocean winds) and have considered adding in a couple of crab apple trees (Mainly to increase the chances of my regular apple trees pollinating, but also because I wouldn't mind a homemade source of apple cider vinegar).

There's a good deal on "Gorgeous", "Lemoinei" & "Dolgo" variant crab apples near me, and I was wondering which of these might be suited for purpose/if any at all. This is one of the least maritime tolerant plants I'm considering in my windbreak layer on paper, so I would love to hear about people's experiences here.

Hi Alex, I can't comment on which of the varieties of the varieties will be better for you there. Can you find anyone locally growing them?

Apples generally seem fairly tolerant of salt spray - you'll get a bit of windburn and tip dieback I expect.

famous Bardsay apple

source
bardsay apple

Mine have all done fairly well, depending more on soil depth and rootstock than exposure - they do tend to blow over in my soil, but I tend to a more vigorous rootstock as my soil is so poor and shallow.
I got random hedgerow crabapple seedlings for my windbreaks (mixed species) with the intention of grafting more successful apples onto them. If you do that (or just sow apple seeds!) planted rather close togther, you will get a mixture of characteristics in the trees and can cull (or let die) the poorer ones.

Hi
Rugosa roses are salt tolerant; some strains grow to 2 m, and fruits are comparable in size to crabappples.
Not useful for apple pollenation though.
cheers Doug

I would think apple would be a poor tree to plant. I live on an island with strong winds too and understand how windy it gets Oceanside. (We have about 3 gales per week in the winter)

But apples trees do not have good root structure. It doesn’t matter if you have thin soil or soil to a depth of 5 feet, apples just don’t put down deep roots.

For a good wind break you might want to look at Spruce or white Ash. That puts down a tap road nearly to hades. Jack Pine is another hardy wind tolerant, salt tolerant tree.

Crab apples are surprisingly tough near the coast in my experience. The salt spray will scorch some leaf tips but they bounce back fine, and the blossom overlap with your eating apples is worth it on its own. I'd probably go with something on a more vigorous rootstock though if wind is the main concern, gives them a better chance of anchoring properly.

Thanks for all your input everyone! I think I'll still include it somewhere in the plot, but likely avoid using it as a windbreak as I don't want it blowing over in a storm...

Currently looking at seaberries and feijoa interplanted as an alternative.

Thanks for your help everyone!