apple trees

[bqz]

Question,I have noticed that some of the apple trees seem to have yellow rusty looking fungi on the leaves ,they are kind of spotted and round.
,is this caused by early frost?I asked this question in gardening also,

[FourDeuce]

Sounds like you might have cedar apple rust.

[Bluebonnet]

Sounds like cedar apple rust to me. It does't show up every year, but when it does it can really do a number on susceptible varieties. Fortunately there are varieties that are resistant.

Bluebonnet

[FarmerCop]

i wondered the same, happened to mine too


thanks

[NickieL]

never grow ceders near your apples!!

I learned that from my mailman/farmer friend who delivers my mail...he has an orchard of very rare and unique old apples, and reportedly even has a Johhhy apple seed tree. Just for fun I took one of his apples he gave me, something called Ruxbury Russet, and saved the seeds and sowed them. Now I have 5 baby trees that may or may not be very interesting eventually but I figure if nothing else, crab apples make jelly and sour apples can make cider, right?

[KCM]

I am very curious, How do you grow an apple tree from seed?

[NickieL]

You save the seeds from the core, put them in a baggie with seed starting mix (peat and perlite) that is damp but not wet and put them in the fridge for 2-3 months. Set the baggie somewhere warm and keep an eye on the seeds, they sprout pretty quick. When they do, take them out and pot them up.

[KCM]

Aren't all apple trees that are for sale commercially actually grafted onto other root stock?

Why the difference? Will a seed grown apple tree be inferior to a grafted apple tree?

[woodsrunner]

Originally Posted by KCM

Aren't all apple trees that are for sale commercially actually grafted onto other root stock?

Why the difference? Will a seed grown apple tree be inferior to a grafted apple tree?

For an apple to reproduce by seed it must be polinated by a different variety. Thus every apple seed is a hybrid. With very rare exceptions they will not be true to the parent variety. But, that's where most new varieties came from. To get a true variety, you graft a known variety onto a seeded rootstock. The roxbury russets mentioned wouldn't have been roxbury russets if grown from seed. Easy solution though is to get prunings from the parent tree and graft them. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

Now I feel like I finally justified that semester of orchard science over 20 yrs ago!

[KCM]

Originally Posted by woodsrunner

For an apple to reproduce by seed it must be polinated by a different variety. Thus every apple seed is a hybrid. With very rare exceptions they will not be true to the parent variety. But, that's where most new varieties came from. To get a true variety, you graft a known variety onto a seeded rootstock. The roxbury russets mentioned wouldn't have been roxbury russets if grown from seed. Easy solution though is to get prunings from the parent tree and graft them. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

Now I feel like I finally justified that semester of orchard science over 20 yrs ago!

I find this to be extremely interesting, and will now pursue further education on the subject.

Thanks.

[NickieL]

Yes, I knew that they will likely not be roxbury russets--

Just for fun I took one of his apples he gave me, something called Ruxbury Russet, and saved the seeds and sowed them. Now I have 5 baby trees that may or may not be very interesting eventually but I figure if nothing else, crab apples make jelly and sour apples can make cider, right?

For me it is just an expiriment. I was thinking of grafting them on dwarfing rootstock from Reintree nursery but I may jsut grow them in big pots instead. Might get something interesting, as all he has are antique and rare apples to cross with. Every seedling is growing diffrently. I find it very interesting.

[bqz]

Bluebonnet Sounds like cedar apple rust to me. It does't show up every year, but when it does it can really do a number on susceptible varieties. Fortunately there are varieties that are resistant.

So is there anything I can do or simply let nature run its course and wait for next year?

Note: we have a large hill of cedar trees about 200 yds.from all the
fruit trees.I mean acres of them!

[Jennifer L.]

Apples are generally self fertile AFAIK. There are some varieties that are triploids that have to be fertilized by other trees, but your basic apple tree will set fruit with it's own pollen. Unless I'm totally nuts and I don't think so!

[QuiltingLady2]

You save the seeds from the core, put them in a baggie with seed starting mix (peat and perlite) that is damp but not wet and put them in the fridge for 2-3 months. Set the baggie somewhere warm and keep an eye on the seeds, they sprout pretty quick. When they do, take them out and pot them up.
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Thank you! I've always wanted to know how-to do this.