C.R. Maguire

Welcome John. I am just beginning with elderberries. I planted two last year, and lost both.  I live in the Northeast, and they didn't seem to like the location. Is there a recommended number of plants to start with, and/or varieties for beginners? Thanks!

Thanks everyone - such great feedback, advice and comments!

I've started cleaning them up a bit, three trees so far.  I'm just cleaning the dead stuff and allowing some air and sunlight up through the center for right now. I'll trim back the height when it gets colder.

I've searched the trees and am unable to find a graft line anywhere.  It may just be that they have grown over it in a way that my untrained eye can't recognize it easily, or perhaps they are old enough to have not been grafted.

I've found around here that people like to know the variety of apple for cooking purposes.  It just simplifies it for me, since I know it will come up.  I like the idea of 'heritage apples' though.  Our goal is to have heirloom varieties and heritage breeds on our farm as much as possible, so if they do fall into that category it would be helpful to know. I'll attach some pictures for fun, in case anyone is interested. The tree is one I've just finished cleaning up - it looks so much better already!

I watched "Permaculture Orchard" and got some great tips from Stefan Sobkowiak - especially on companion plantings, care & feeding, and caterpillar traps.  That's my next step.

All the best,
Colleen

Good day, everyone!
We recently purchased an older farm property that had been largely ignored for many years. As we began cleaning up the fields, we discovered a number of large old apple trees (and one random pear) around the perimeter of the property. Many of them are actively fruiting, but between lack of care and the dry weather, the majority of the apples are misshapen, damaged or on the smaller side. They still taste good though!  

I read through some of the other posts about recovering and reviving older trees. There's some great info there!  I'd really like to recover them if possible.  If not, I will graft newer trees onto the existing root systems.

My question is - how can I go about identifying the type of cultivar? I've tried contacting our local Extension office, and they just sent me a fact sheet and said good luck. I've determined there are at least three varieties, but there may be more - it's hard to tell. Is there a site or book somewhere that will help me to identify them?  We are in Central Maine, so that limits the options a bit I know....but I'm especially interested to see if they are some of the old varieties.

Thanks!
C.