More Apple Harvest. 10.24.2020

 Almost all of the apples are harvested.   Some are a little too late, and no longer full flavor.  I didn't get much of an early variety harvest this year, and missed some of the ones that did.  The thing about gardening is, each living thing has it's own time and season.  While there is flexibility, you have to read the signals that nature provides.

Anyway, there are still lots of apples.  This is from the columnar type, Scarlet Sentinel.  These are certainly not "Scarlet" apples, just a blush of red.  They may not be fully ripe yet.  They have a nice flavor, mildly sweet, not  much sourness.  Nice apples, no scab at all.  This tree had no care other than pruning lower branches out of deer range, and no watering  at a this year.

Mixed apples from the front yard.  The Greenish ones are GoldRush.  They are late ripening, known for keeping a long time.  The others are a mix of what remained, some Rubinette, Queen Cox, and a couple of others.  The basket is from the Jonathan / Jonared / Others apple tree.

This is a mixed box.  The scabby ones are Airlie Red Flesh.  The others are a mix of Baldwin, Opalescent, Sutton Beauty, and a few others.

Apple Grafting. 3.14Not a p.15

Materials for grafting.  3.14.15

First cut, with pruners, to approximate size.  3.14.15

 For Pi day- 3.14.15 -  I grafted a little apple tree.  To begin life for a pie. 

This scion came from an aged apple tree that hangs over my back fence.  I do not know the variety.  It must be 55 years old - it looks it.  Maybe older. The tree gets no pruning, no spray, and no thinning.  As a result, the apples are lumpy and small and wormy.  The few that escape that fate are tasty.  It may be a while before the Fedco scion arrives - if ever.  I have one M27 - minidwarf - rootstock left over from last year, so decided to construct a new little tree, from scion, taken from a branch, from that apple tree.  Once in my hands, it will be pruned, and apples will be pampered, so maybe will be bigger, and not lumpy or wormy.  That is the plan.

This time, instead of polyethylene strips, I used parafilm.  It's easy to buy through Amazon.  I don't know that parafilm is any better than polyethylene.  If no strips are available, it's easy to cut strips from plastic food bags, which is free and recycled and easy.

Parafilm does make a good air-tight-looking seal.  I don't know if it stretches quite as tight.  Maybe.

The rootstock was larger diameter than the scion.  As long as the cambium matches on one side, the graft should take, and fill in the other side.  Apple grafts are pretty forgiving.

Second cut, with knife, for whip matching.  3.14.15

Cutting the tongue.  3.14.15

Fitting the graft together.  3.14.15

 Forgot to use macro setting for first few photos.  The rest are more clear.

I tightened the parafilm so the bent cut edges matched.  I did not draw out a long tail on the ends this time.  Last year when I did that, they curled away from the graft and needed to be cut off.  The church window that remains will fill in, on its own.

On one side due to size mis-match.  3.14.15

It's OK if it doesn't take.  Prior experience tells me it might.

Meanwhile, the whip-and-tongue grafts I did on one-year-old columnar trees a couple of weeks ago, have swelling terminal buds.  That's better than dead terminal buds.   If they take, the bottom branches will have red apples, the next ones up will have yellow apples.  If next year is good, a third tier of another red could be added.  That would make for a couple of unusual trees.

Wrapped with parafilm.  3.14.15

Apple change of plan. Disease resistant, multigraft order. 1.19.14

Image source:  Wikimedia commons.

I emailed Raintree and requested a change of my order.  Initially I ordered a crab apple, Prairie Fire.  Later I found the same variety and bought it.  I thought I would let the order remain, for a second one of the same variety.  Then, eating some more apple pie, decided to change the order.

I emailed them and they were happy to oblige.

The replacement order is for a multigraft, disease resistant varieties on M106 rootstock.  M106 should result in a moderately vigorous tree roughly 10 feet tall.  Fine for my little orchard, especially with pruning.    Raintree says a bit bigger, 12 to 15 feet.  Either size is OK.  Probably no concern for planting pollinators, given it is multigraft.  Choices are 3 of...  Queen Cox, Belmac, Rubinette and / or Pristine.  One will be missing - their 3 in 1 are 4 in 1 that had one graft fail.   I did that with an Asian pear and am happy with that.

By going with disease resistant varieties, there should be less frustration in the future, and no need to spray.  At least, that's the plan.

Later, I could graft on other varieties.  This looks like a good start.

Anxious for the order to arrive.  Probably in a month.

Got the little Honeycrisp / M27 back into the ground.  This time it will have support - required for trees on M27 rootstock.  That was my mistake before.  The next question is what to graft onto the second stem.   This tree will probably only grow 5 or 6 feet tall.  This site lists Liberty as an option.  Easy, since we have a Liberty tree to supply scion.  Minnesota lists Jonagold among others.   I thought Jonagold was pollen sterile.  In fact, Spokane site states Jonagold is a nonpollinator.  Maybe graft on a Liberty scion, plus add another small M27 tree, such as Jonared.  Jonathan was my favorite, growing up in Illinois.


Next change - I ordered a dwarf Jonared from Starks.  I have not ordered from them before.  Jonared is a sport of Jonathan, redder skin.  Origin, Penashtin Washinton, 1934.   Jonathan originates 1864.  So this is a true heritage variety.  Not great in the disease-resistance department.  Parentage, seedling of Esopus Spitzenburg, which coincidentally is one of my grafts from last year.  Also the pollen parent of Karmijn de Sonnaville (1949), which I also have in the Vancouver yard.  Karmijn is also a self-sterile triploid, that can't pollinate others.

From Raintree on pollinizers - editing out the trees I don't have or haven't ordered this year.  Most should overlap.  I don't have data for Prairie Fire Crabapple, which should pollenize any of the listed varieties, if there is bloom time overlap.  From OrangePippenTrees.com - "The prolific blossom also makes most crab apples excellent pollinators for all other apple and cider-apple varieties - they typically produce five to ten times more pollen than a typical apple tree. The blossom is also usually more long-lasting than that of normal apples, and spans several of the mainstream apple flowering groups. Crab apples are naturally precocious and will often start producing blossom and fruit in their 2nd or 3rd years."

Early-Mid Season =  Pristine, Scarlet Sentinel, Liberty
Mid Season = Jonagold,  Golden Sentinel, Belmac,  Spitzenberg,, Karmijn
Mid-Late Season = Honeycrisp

Italic = self sterile, requires pollenizer and is not a pollenizer for others.