paul ogel

Can you use duck tape to deter the voles? I ran a strip of duck tape up apple seedlings and then folded the tape lengthwise to cover the stem. First time trial in long grass in a ditch this year should work. You may need to open the top of the tape at budding time. Also can you space the pots apart to make less cover for the mice. If damage happens under snow, pack the snow down when the snow is about 3-12 inches deep -pack a large area about 3 to 6 feet around the trees. This works well, but you need to redo the packing down snow in the spring when the snow is going away or when the packed snow softens so mice can use it for cover again. If the pots are standing it should help deter them also.

I like what you presented and i hope local fungi help my apples provide extra minerals to me.

Few appletrees are compoletely without blemishes on trunks. Those marks do not look bad. I believe you would see large fast growing branches and twigs go lack suddenly while in leaf with fireblight. As for poor fruit, apple fly maggots in the fruit can ruin the taste or make it somewhat bitter and pithy. Clean up fallen fruit to lessen the apple fly problem. It is possible that you may not get good fruit after grafting either. I have one healthy tree that gives poor fruit and even on the grafts i put on that tree. Going to take a graft from one of the bad grafts and see it it ruins a new tree. It looks like you dont have much to lose.

Veronica I know what you are talking about. I will post something on the forum this summer if i find them again. They are easily zone 3 hardy, but in a garden they are like quack grass. If you helped them start in a dry thin grassy area like a road side bank, so they get sun and not smothered out, one could like their perennial habit. Maybe a orchard ,if sunny enough. Like many hard to control plants they can be hard to establish were they need to be. In their natural habitat they seem to behave nicely.

Marilyn, I would give it a try. About the worst would be you might get variation, like different ripening dates for some trees. Most apples come from hybrid crosses. But with botany there seems to be conflicting rules That seed tree probably is not too complex, because it fruits without a pollinator. I would expect a similar ripening time though with little to lots of variation in other traits, depending on the parents of you seed source tree. By all means try it. I only have experience with open pollinated trees in an area. I believe that those hybrids crosses can bring back old varieties, wild ancestry, as well as exciting new apples.
I dug up a red leafed seedling apple under a seed grown Transparent apple. The pollen parent was likely a flowering crab with pea sized apples. The result is a golf ball to tennis ball sized apple with pink flesh and almond extract flavor.

There is a way for people to start own root apple trees. I live in a clay soil in zone 3 WI. I have taken a bear root grafted apple tree like you buy, and planted it sideways in a trench so i could cover the roots and the truck. The limbs were twisted so they were in the dirt with only the small twigs sticking out the soil about 1 ft. You need some part of the last seasons growth in the soil. Sometimes a rock or some turned over sod is needed in the soil and standing upright. Maybe some kind of mulch like wood chips would keep the weeds down. A shady moist area would help rooting. Next spring check for twigs that have grown a root and cut the twig below the root and plant as soon as the frost in the soil does not stop you. You may need two years if the rooting has not started the first year. Compacting the soil around the twigs might help also. You now have a variety on its own root. That root maybe slow to gain vigor. Winter trimming the top might help. Planting deeper and keeping the top very straight will help. Some varieties have poor root systems that allow the tree to tip. Some will grow very strong roots as that is there character to due so. Now any one can start a new tree from your own root tree from a root off your own root tree. You need a small root pencil size and up to about a foot long. A root from the main trunk and from as high up as you can find one helps. Store that root in a bag with plenty of dirt about 50 degrees for about 4 to 12 weeks or until it starts to grow a shoot. I store the root horizontal and keep the ground almost dry but not damp. I do not allow direct sunshine but indirect light on the root end sticking out of dirt some.Keep the bag sealed with a air space in it. Prevent dehydration and fungus. Plant out when sprouts start growing stems not roots. Plant upright if possible, keep watered and light shade, mulched, prevent weed competition. Any sprouted stems from the own root system can be started after frost is out of the ground, even if the sprout comes off the large roots without roots of its own. Cut the sprout stem as close to the main root as you can get, plant it about 9 inches deep keep cool and shaded and well watered most will then grow roots and grow strongly. THIS MAY NOT WORK IN ALL REGIONS OR MAY NEED TWEEKING.

Yes that is a pear. I am from zone 3 WI. It looks like it was wanted at one time because it looks like it was topped three or more times to try and widen it out. Pears can grow very upright like forest trees. The leaves look somewhat like a siberian pear that i have grown for a hardy root stock. I have one that produces a crisp pear that sometimes ripens. The pear is large sometimes up to a pound and shaped like a Bartlett pear. Maybe the tree has a small fruit that you will have to use for juice, perry or wine. The tree might be self fertile. The large pear I have, some years has to be canned when it is harder than a potato. Maybe it is the cold summers here or the amount of shade it get from other trees or the daylength plus lack of sunshine in the fall. I think yours has some asian pear in it. Enjoy your pears.