Fruit Trees

[Black Krim]

Tempting.

https://www.kellynurseries.com/781-e...le#/quantity-1



Pikes Peak Nursery has outdated home page and several links are broken. OUt of business?

Bigelow Nursery looks like wholesale only. All stock very generically listed by scientivis names.

John Gordon nursery--no indications of updates in recent years. A plain systematic listing of a lot of work to bring along a wide range of trees. The information is like an encyclopedia!
http://www.nuttreesnorth.com/

Worleys is local home landscaping--no fruit trees. http://www.worleysgreenhouse.com/ind...home/index.htm

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Black Krim

i would love an apple that takes only 2-3 apples to peel, core and slice!

LOL I think they still have it. ( I think it was Millers that was bought out--by stark. THe two owners were friends, probably because of working in the same industry.)

I read that variety description to day.....possible old 2010 Stark catalog...

These apples were planted in the early 70's from Stark's.

[Black Krim]

looking at 2008 catalog (not 2010 catalog afterall), Jumbo- 2.5# red apple listed but I think there is another one too.

[mensplace]

What I always loved the most about apples was the incredible range of flavors that were totally different from any I ever tasted. A huge loss for Americas. The Red Delicious killed that as the red and gold became the standard. The Japanese changed that. Those of Washington and Jefferson's time enjoyed a huge range of delicious flavors. Shipping changed that and the Black Ben Davis became the standard because it could ship, but it tasted like sawdust. Then came the standards that improved shipping methods reintroduced like the Macintosh. When folks became bored with Delicious the Japanese first experimented with crosses and flavor was reintroduced.

From the sixties on, the ever better methods of shipping brought back American standards as they discovered new ones from abroad. It was a trip to England that opened my eyes. Then I met growers around the world and traveled to places like France, Belgium, and Long Ashton. I reveled in English hard cider, scrumpy and cidre. Then I mourned when Long Ashton lost their fund and watched in horror as their trees were grubbed up.

Next, I met folks all over the U.S. who were dedicated to hunting for and discovered the long lost American classics. The people at Geneva provided me with scion wood for years and NAFEX introduced me to others with a similar passion. I do hope new and younger people will also share the pursuit in the years to come.

[clkeiper]

We did order a "heritage" red delicious from Starks a few years ago. I was excited to ry one that hopefully had flavor as many of my moms generation claimed it was a great apple before the flavor was bred out of them. I was skeptical that they ever had flavor. I waited 3 long years to get my first heritage red delicious apple. I cut the tree down.

[mensplace]

Many of the early Red Delicious were not so delicious, and many were mushy, Just as with heirloom tomatoes some were abandoned for good reason,

[Black Krim]

LOL

Sometimes I like a red delish and sometimes I dont. Needs to be crisp to be worth eating, otherwise its dog food.

Too many other varieties are better. IMHO

THey sure are pretty though.

[Worth1]

Red delicious apples are some of the best apples ever developed.
Ask any goat or horse.
Worth

[berryman]

The old real red delicious apple was called Hawkeye.
Only a few sources for it these days and Starks is not one.

[Black Krim]

A subculture of apple fans often make scions available ---many small orchard companies out there, like Black horse and one in VT, blanking on the name. Discovered them a few years ago when looking for rootstock.

[walt456]

I have an orchard of heirloom apple trees and I've bought most of them from bighorsecreekfarm.com. I chose varieties that would have been grown in my area in the 20's and 30's since I wanted the apples my grandmother would have eaten. I highly recommend Big Horse Creek, but get your order in early as they custom graft the trees.

Funny story, I planted one variety that I'd heard my grandmother talk about a lot. After waiting several years for it to produce fruit, I excitedly picked the first apple. It was horrible. I called grandma and said "if you grew up eating those apples and thought they were good you were hard up for an apple. " She said "eat them, we didn't eat them, we made brandy with them."

The really big apple variety you're probably thinking of is Wolf River.

[mensplace]

You brought up a good point. Many of the apples used for the very best cider are not fit to east. Some are so full of tannin they would make your mouth pucker. Most of the best cider, not the syrupy stuff accepted as cider today, was made from a blend. If you hope to make the best hard cider, get some of the older U.S., British, or French apples. most Americans have never enjoyed a bottle of the finest cidre, applejack. or scrumpy. Hard cider used to be the mist consumed drink in America. In England they would throw a leg of lamb in it to get the fermentation going...an old mooshiners trick as well. Come late spring the leg would be gone..or the possum! Enjoyed lots of great cider behind the barn in England. Kingston Black was the best. Some scrumpy tasted pretty close to vinegar and would take your head off. Once you have had real hard cider you can see what else prohibition killed. Cider and whiskey making was an art form. The garbage bottled today is NOT the same...cider that is.

[Black Krim]

Yes, that's it, Walt!!

Too funny about your Grandmas apple!!! DId you learn to make Brandy???

Mensplace---sad but true. Homemade cider is coming back it seems by the stock aailable at somee outlets. Weather or not it is processed into hard cider, who can say. (grin)

Apples have MANY uses!

I always liked picking the not ripe apples and enjoyed the pucker as a kid out playing in the woods.

I dream of having an apple tree old enough to take a graft from those old trees. One in particular. It was still there 2 years ago. It was matureish back in the 70's. THAT is a tree worth starting from a stick graft. ( ANd to graft to a whip) Just to have the memories as I know my mother will sell the house and no one in the family will get the property----how to split it 6 ways? SHe says we can buy each other out......lolololololol

[bower]

BK, Schumacher's sells Antonovka seed if you want to do some inexpensive grafting by growing your own.

Here's something I bumped into this morning, about using kestrels instead of pesticides in orchards.
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2018/n...onment-impact/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_kestrel

[mensplace]

Black Krim

Many overlook grafting to the limbs of older existing trees..regular or crabapple