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apples

Apple tree from seed planted in 2016 has five apples! (updates)

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 year ago

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Well, we're excited...the seed was from a farmer's market apple on the west coast.

We were on a 2016 six week train trip in a big loop from the ozarks and stayed with friends and in hostels along the way, scoping out the fresh produce at each towns market.
This was seed from a newtown pippen but we call it 'the trip apple'

I had several seeds I brought back in cores but only one tree made it to transplant.

It's pushing 20' tall and of course the cluster of apples is near the top!

They seem to be keeping pace size wise with our other apples so there's hope...and if they're duds the tree still stays for sentimental reasons

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Burl Smith

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posted 1 year ago

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5 years from now if my coconut fruits I'll know it's a dwarf variety, if not it'll take 8.

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Judith Browning

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posted 1 year ago

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Hi Burl,
Coconuts! That's pretty exciting

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

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posted 1 year ago

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Three apples still on the tree...found one of the fallen ones.

It's still early for this variety to be ripe and we hear they need a couple months cold storage to develop flavor BUT we tried it anyway and found it surprisingly tastey!
Still immature and a little dry but juicy and flavorful enough now to give us hope for future apples

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

thomas rubino

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posted 1 year ago

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Hi Judith;
That's great your planted tree has apples!
It has been a strange year for apple trees here.
Our Costco multi-graft tree completely died.
Our 100-year-old macintosh tree was covered in blooms until a sudden storm blew in, now it looks terrible with small apples.
Another Costco tree that has never blossomed was also hit by the same storm. It has no apples at all.

And then there is the new tree/trees.
At least 10-15 years ago my neighbor collected all the fallen apples from their trees.
Loaded them into her 4 wheeler and I had her dump them alongside the gate to the pigpen.
As it turned out that year's group of pigs did not like apples! Crazy huh?
That whole pile of apples slowly decomposed with the help of many bees.
A few years ago a friend noticed the "tree" growing there and commented that it sure looked like an apple tree...
This year for the first time it blossomed, at the same time as the others did.
It went thru the same storm maybe 100' away from the others.

It's loaded with large healthy apples this year for the first time!
I have not identified what kind of apples they are, and I have not eaten any yet.
I am waiting for them to ripen up.

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 1 year ago

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Thomas, those apples look amazing! I can't imagine them not being good as they look full size and yellow.

We have a couple grafted apples that are struggling with coddling moth and are not as robust as this one from seed...time will tell.

Your 100 year old tree is fascinating though...not a grafted one that old so originally from seed?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

thomas rubino

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posted 1 year ago

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Oh yes, from seed I'm sure.
This was a several hundred-acre homestead back in the 1920s.
There was another mac tree 100 yards or so up the hill to the north, we think bear poop probably started it.
Sadly when the county bought the 90 acres next to me they literally buried it under 10' of fill... the xxxxers
This mac tree has been broken off numerous times by the bears and literally had nothing but three tall stubs left one year.
It always comes back.

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May Lotito

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posted 1 year ago

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Do your apple trees bloom about the same time? Do you think these apples were cross pollinated by your other trees or they self pollinated?

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Judith Browning

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May Lotito wrote:Do your apple trees bloom about the same time? Do you think these apples were cross pollinated by your other trees or they self pollinated?

I think you may have been asking this of Thomas but my answer would be yes we had three trees blooming at the same time as the one I posted about although it only had a very few blooms.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Jay Angler

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May Lotito wrote: Do you think these apples were cross pollinated by your other trees or they self pollinated?

I just checked on this today, and apple trees need to be cross pollinated. I *knew* this was true of pears and they are close relatives, so yes, if you want apples, but only want 1 tree, I'd suggest you graft a different variety onto the tree with an overlapping period of pollination.

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May Lotito

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posted 1 year ago

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Yes, I am asking about Judith's seedling tree. My unknown apple tree hasn't flowered yet. I am not sure to graft or plant a crabapple or another apple tree.

From the position of the apples, are they from last year's spurs (2022) that grew on the previous year's trunk (2021)?

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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May Lotito wrote:
From the position of the apples, are they from last year's spurs (2022) that grew on the previous year's trunk (2021)?

I don't know since it's too tall to see up close and I haven't been paying attention to individual branches. The only flowers were on that branch up top though.
I suspect it is spurs on wood from 2021?

How old is your tree?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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posted 1 year ago

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My seedling apple tree is in the third season. I am observing the pattern It's branching and shaping so maybe the knowledge will help with pruning decision later on.

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Judith Browning

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posted 1 year ago

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That's a lovely tree! So glad you posted pictures

Now you've inspired me to pay more attention to it's growth and look for fruiting spurs. I remember picking apples with a friend who said to carefully pick as that's where next years fruit will be...I was careful but was never quite sure what she meant?

We have not decided about pruning since once begun there's no going back.
The top is already out of reach though and yours looks like the same straight up growth.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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Judith Browning wrote:

We have not decided about pruning since once begun there's no going back.

Totally agree and here is the example on the apple tree.

This lower branch grew into the path so I casually shorten it in the first winter. It did continue to elongate on the end but somehow the reduced apical dominance caused the lateral branches to develop instead of staying as short spurs. And those are the only two that grew sideway and crossed with the others. Now I have to trim them away.

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thomas rubino

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posted 1 year ago

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Well, the consensus is our volunteer apple tree is a golden delicious!
How cool is that!
Large, and super sweet, with a blush of red when ripe!
They do bruise if they fall.

There is nothing like a fresh apple off the tree!

For all your Montana Masonry Heater parts (also known as) Rocket Mass heater parts.
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Jay Angler

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May Lotito wrote:This lower branch grew into the path so I casually shorten it in the first winter. It did continue to elongate on the end but somehow the reduced apical dominance caused the lateral branches to develop instead of staying as short spurs. And those are the only two that grew sideway and crossed with the others. Now I have to trim them away.

Living in deer country, they're very good at pruning trees! Exactly how and when you prune can be a factor.

Things I was told by experts (but that doesn't *ensure* accuracy as their goals aren't always permie goals):
1. Prune in the summer, particularly if the plant has fruit on it, to discourage it responding with a lot more growth. It will respond by putting its energy into the developing fruit.
2. Never prune 'this year's growth' as that stimulates the tree to go crazy (like when the deer browse them...)
3. Make the cut just distal of a weak side branch/spur.

It would be interesting, May, if when you prune back those side branches, you do so with those 3 points in mind, and see if the tree responds calmly? (and report back to us?)

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Jay Angler

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thomas rubino wrote:Well, the consensus is our volunteer apple tree is a golden delicious!
Large, and super sweet, with a blush of red when ripe!

Yes, but if the fruit didn't fall, my Muscovy couldn't harvest them... In my climate, the tree produces mid fall, and the fruit is decent for cooking with, so that's a handy thing also as the weather's cooled off enough that "The Baker's Guide to Home Heating" kicks in. However, the tree's on the neighbor's property and the Muscovy normally stay in our field... except when apples entice them elsewhere. The neighbor insists he doesn't mind, and actually throws fruit over the fence, which of course, just encourages the ducks to go to the source!

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May Lotito

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Hi Jay, thanks for tge info. I read about that too: when an apple tree start to produce, a branch will divert energy to the fruits and will be less vegetative growth. Experienced grower knows how to prune a tree to maintain the size and get it productive too.

This apple is my second seedling tree, the first one is a peach sprouted in 2020 and produced in 2022. I was impressed how a small intervention done to a young tree can have a big impact later on.

I am expecting the apple tree to keep on expanding 4-6 ft in diameter next year, the outer branches may bend down to almost touch the ground. I mostly just observe now and will prune when the tree is more established and I will know more about fruit trees by then.

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Judith Browning

Posts: 8921

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 6 months ago

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And this years apples on the "trip" apple (newtown pippen from seed)!

Spraying with raw yogurt whey once a week since bloom...seems to be preventing the insect damage and fruit fall that we had last year.

The cicada egg deposits have definitely weakened stems though.

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

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posted 6 months ago

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Wow, it's so loaded this year! The apples are already turning color, are they an early variety?

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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May Lotito wrote:Wow, it's so loaded this year! The apples are already turning color, are they an early variety?

From what I've read they are a fall variety so I'm hope they hang on for the summer.
We ate them in September in Monterey.
They were a green apple as I remember but from seed we could be getting some variation?

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"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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