My seedling apple trees are bearing!

[Terri]

Well, SOME of them anyways!
I got these as rootstock, intending to graft them over. Alas, every graft failed! I got my parents to demonstrate, they have done it at home, they failed. I signed on with the local extension service to be called when they started a new grafting class, they never called.

So, now I have wild apple fruit!

One dwarf tree is LOADED! A GREAT bearer! Fruit tastes WIERD, not really like an apple at all! I HATE it!

One good bearer has TASTY apples, but it is a crab apple and they are 1" to 1 1/2 inches across.

One tree has only a few apples on it, but I am a little excited because the apples are beautiful and taste like golden delicious. They are yellow with a bright apricot blush: very unusual. They are not very juicy, but there IS a drought on and many of my trees are showing signs of stress. And, a golden delicious apple is GREAT when picked just ripe and eaten immediately! The ones in the store are ALL stale and ruined! Eat a Golden delicious right away or don't eat it at all! Like sweet corn, their shelf life is non-existant!

A FOURTH tree is so-so in flavor but it might make a good baker. It isn't good, it isn't bad, it is just an apple. Perhaps it will do well when baked in a pie crust with lemon juice and sugar. We shall see.

[james dilley]

Can we say Apple Cider??

[minnikin1]

How long did it take for them to bear fruit?

[Terri]

Alas, I do not remember, and they were 2' seedlings when I got them! I think I paid $25 for 25 trees, and half of them have died from cedar rust over the years. I have had them for PERHAPS 10 years?????

If I had to do the fruit trees over again, I would just buy in the late spring when the hardware store and big lot trees go on sale. I got some dwarf peaches this spring for $6 each, and they will bear next year.