Some Historic Apple Cultivars. 10.26.2020

 I decided to review some of the historic apple cultivars in my collection.   By Historic, I loosely mean anything at least 100 years old, although some are a bit newer.  The basis is finding images of them in the USDA Pomological Website (required attribution statement:  U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705).  Of these, only Macoun is 20th century, having been introduced in 1923.  I think Macoun is also the only one of these that was part of a research program, the others having been discoveries by apple farmers over the centuries.  As before, I edited the images for size and clarity, but kept original annotations.  In some cases, if the info is not on the image, I added the artist and date.

 Jonathan.  This is a nostalgia apple for me, having been one of two apple trees that I grew up with in my parents' back yard, in Southwestern Illinois.  The history of Jonathan is a but murky, either originating from cider mill seeds in Connecticut in 1796, or as a seedling of Esopus Spitzenberg in New York in 1826.  When I taste these apples, I still think of them as the classic apple that I remember from so long ago.  It's interesting to think that I'm tasting something that is, as much as possible, unchanged from before the time that my paternal ancestors emigrated from a Germany that wasn't even Germany yet, in the later 19th century.  Of course, there is genetic drift, effect of modern training of tastes, and terroir (effect of local soils, weather, environment on flavor), but that Jonathan flavor is still there.

Duchess of Oldenburg.  I'm interesting to see how this one turns out.  Recent post, different image from the USDA Pomological Watercolors website.

Porter.  I've only had one harvest from Porter.  This was in the first group of grafts that I did from Fedco Scion, in about 2013.  This yellow apple has a delightful, fruity flavor.  According to New England Orchards, Porter originated in Shelburne Massachussets in about 1800; was described as one of the best of yellow fall apples, but ripened over too wide a range of time, and was too tender to ship   According to Tom Burford's Apples of North America, Porter was "one of the great pie making apples of America, and was endorsed as such in early editions of the Fannie Farmer Cookbooks".  I added Porter as a cultivar for my mini orchard using a graft from my previous multigraft, because the flavor is one of the nicest on that tree.  Porter is described as moderately disease resistant, which is important.  Porter ripens in Late Summer.  Porter is also named "Yellow Summer Pearmain", and is the only tree in my orchard with that "Pearmain" designation.  It's not clear what "pearmain" means, although it might designate some pear-like qualities.

 

 Black Oxford.  I added Black Oxford to the mini orchard last winter and have not had a chance to taste it.  Tom Burford in Apples of North America describes Black Oxford as originating around 1790, on the "farm of a nail maker named Valentine, in Paris, Maine".  Burford states that Black Oxford is moderately resistant to the major apple diseases.   Fedco states that "Black Oxford is almost black, and is useful for late ciders and pies....Best eating late December to March, but we’ve eaten them in July and they were still quite firm and tasty. They get sweeter and sweeter as the months go by. Good cooking until early summer."  I think my mini orchard is a bit dominated by earlier ripening apples, so this seemed like an interesting choice.  This was once a popular apple in Maine.  

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Gravenstein.  I think this is one of the very best apple cultivars.  Gravenstein was originally either a Danish apple, or was a gift to the Duke of Gravenstein in Denmark from Italy, in 1669.  Hard to imagine, this apple has been grown for 350 years.  How many people have enjoyed its flavor?  Rowan Jaobson describes Gravenstein in his Apples of Uncommon Character as crisp and cidery, and as the first great apple of the year.  Gravenstein has been a favorite in Sonoma County in California since immigrants from Crimea brought it there in 1812.  Gravenstein is the national apple of Denmark.  In my garden, this tree bears heavily, then skips a year, which makes the crop all the more anticipated.  I'm not sure whether I should just leave it as a semidwarf  tree in the front orchard, or have a graft of Gravenstein in the mini orchard as well.  I'm leaning towards the latter, since that is where my focus has moved.  Plus I can be more easily diligent about thinning fruit, which might help with the biennial bearing.

Macoun.  I haven't tried this one yet.  It's one season out from grafting on mini dwarf rootstock.  Macoun is an early effort (1923) by NY State Experiment Station to create a planned hybrid apple, McIntosh X Jersey Black.  It may have some disease and insect resistance. 

King David.  Discovered in an Arkansas fence row in the late 1800s.  Possibly a cross of Jonathan and Arkansas Black.  I like this apple, which I have on a two multigrafts.  I'm thinking about making it a more prominent member of my orchard by regrafting to replace another cultivar. 

Sutton Beauty is one of two cultivars that I grafted during grafting class at the Home Orchard Society class in about 2012.  It appears to be on a dwarf rootstock.  I multigrafted the tree, but might revert it to fewer varieties because this is such a good apple.  According to Burford's Apples of North America, this apple originated in Sutton, Massachussets in 1757.  This is an excellent mostly sweet, not much tartness at all, crisp, juicy, historic apple.  Each year I look forward to tasting some of these excellent apples.   This apple is described as moderately resistant to most apple diseases, other than fireblight.  On the same tree, I have Airlie Red Flesh, which gets quite a lot of scab, while Sutton Beauty does not have any blemishes.

 

Grafting Progress Report. 3.21.16

First bud break on grafted ginkgo tree.  3.21.16

 This is one of the ginkgo trees that I grafted 2.2.16.  At this stage, growth doesn't prove the graft took, but it does show it's alive.  Considering about 7 weeks have passed from the graft, I'm thinking they have taken.  More new growth, especially vigorous, will make me more confident.

I don't have a pic, camera battery died, but the pear grafts from about the same time, also look good, with larger bud growth.

In addition to the apple grafts from Fedco last week, I added more today.  These came from this weekend's Home Orchard Society scion exchange yesterday.  From those, I grafted -

Red Airlie apple, which is sold in stores with the trademarked name "Hidden Rose".  Inside of the ripe apples is pink.  According to reviews, these apples are slower to brown after slicing.  Flavor is considered good.  Late ripening.

King David, apple.  I looked for this one via Fedco, they didn't have any this time around.  Thought to be a hybrid of Jonathan and an unknown, possibly Arkansas Black or Winesap, 1893, apple looks more like Arkansas Black.  Very resistant to fireblight. 

Dolgo Crabapple, because crab apples are considered good pollinizers for other apples.

Hawkeye, considered the original Red Delicious, before Red Delicious underwent multiple generations of sports giving us the famous beautiful, cardboard tasting apple.  Hawkeye is said to be the true "Delicious".

These are all the apples varieties my little trees can handle for now.  If some turn out to be duds, I can prune them out and let others take over.  The multigrafts should all be self pollinating, and each branch should give at least a couple of pies, or a few bowls of apples, which is all I want from each variety.  For me, it's like a collection, I see something interesting and add it.  The cost is minimal - $5 for scion at Fedco, or free at the scion exchange.

The new scion from this year, assuming they take, will need 2 or 3 years to produce fruit for a taste.

I also grafted the following, yesterday and today:

Onto the Stanley European plum, a plum labeled as "Red Washington European Plum".  I grafted that one as a polllinizer for better or more fruit production on Stanley.  If it's a good plum, that will be good too.  I don't have more info on this plum.

Male Hayward Kiwi - to pollinize the no-name kiwi that has been growing for 3 years in my arbor.  I didn't want to buy an additional plant, not knowing if it would help.  Kiwi turns out to be very soft wood, hollow with a pith.  The wood was also delicate, fell apart easily.  I needed several tries, and in the end it was not clean.  The kiwi sap is syrupy.  It might take.

I grafted three grafts of Petite Negri Fig from home, onto the extra Dominick fig tree at Battleground, to see if I can get a good start of this fig without growing from cutting.  Fig wood is also soft, and fragile, with a central pith.  These might or might not take.   I had stored the scion, well wrapped, in the refrigerator to keep it dormant until the understock started growing.  The figs are all producing buds now.

Flowers on Ember Plum.  3.21.16

I did a whip and tongue from Toka.   That was also stored in the refrigerator, well wrapped.  I used one of the Hollywood Plum own-root starts as understock.  I want a spare Toka.  It's a delicious plum, a vigorous pollinizer, but the existing tree appeared to have some canker last year.

This leaves a male scion for the hardy kiwi, and a persimmon scion, "Chocolate" to add to either Saijo or Nikita's Gift.  From my readings, persimmons are difficult, and take best if the under stock is already growinbg actively.  That will need to wait a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Native Plum Seedling in Bloom, 4 years old.  3.21.16

From grafts done last year, Ember and Hanska plums are now blooming.  They are later, compared to the Asian plums.  One Ember plum is a free standing tree, grafted March 2015 onto Hollywood rootstock.  The seedling plum, taken from what I think are native American species plum tree, is just beginning to bloom for the first time.  This tree is 4 years old.  It has been raining a lot, so I don't know if they will pollinize even if compatible.

More Grafting. 3.21.15

Image of Ember Plum from Starks.

Ember Plum Scion.  3.21.15

 More grafting.  The plum rootstock is Hollywood Plum grown from cuttings last year.  Hollywood is a hybrid of Prunus cerasifera, which I think makes it a variation of Myrobalan which is used for rootstocks.  I didn't know what to do with the plum saplings so no waste if it doesn't take.

Ember Plum is one of the scions from Fedco, arrived Thursday.  I kept in fridge in plastic with wet paper towel, just 2 days.  The scion looks healthy.

Some photos were too blurry to use.  I did whip and tongue, but the photo that showed the whip and tongue together was too blurry.

Wrapped in Parafilm.  It's more awkward than polyethylene, still not sure what I think about using parafilm.  At the top of the scion, I melted the parafilm using a match.

I don't know if I have the finesse to do whip/tongue on plums which are more delicate than apple and pear.   If it doesn't take, it's my fault, not the scion which looks healthy and viable.

The rootstock Hollywood plum has grown about 1 to 2 inches of new growth, with healthy leaves.  I don't know how that will affect take of graft.  Impression is it is OK for rootstock to be growing, but scion needs to be dormant.

Matching size of scion and stock.  3.21.15

Diagonal cuts.  3.21.15

Fedco gives description of Ember as "(Prunus salicina Shiro x P. americana South Dakota #33) U Minn, 1936. Medium-sized roundish-conic slightly pointed mostly red-blushed fruit with a medium bloom. Rich yellow juicy sweet flesh is very firm and meaty but tender. Recommended for cooking and fresh eating. Tastes and looks like an apricot."  Since I have so much trouble growing apricots, maybe this will work better.  Stark's image of Ember does not look like apricot to me.

Final Graft.  3.21.15

Redfield Apple Scion.  3.21.15

Redfield Whip and Tongue.  3.21.15

 The Redfield apple is a red-leaf variety that is red and white inside the apple.  The young wood inside the scion is also colored with streaks of red.  The flowers are pink and the leaves appear to have reddish color as well.  Japanese link.

orangepippin.com gives Redfield as "Parentage: Wolf River x malus pumila niedzwetzkyana Originates from: United States Introduced: 1938 Developed by: New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, NY " and states not for fresh eating, juice is red.  Might be good for apple sauce and pies.  Other sites state Redfield is good for cider and jelly.

This went onto a scion that I forgot to label, has good roots and starting to grow at the top.

I think this rootstock was from the old Yellow Delicious semidwarf but could have been a minidwarf from removal of prior suckers from Jonagold.  Either is OK.  A little better scion/stock match compared to the last grafting attempt.

I wasn't sure if the parafilm was tight enough, so added rubber band.  Obviously I'm still no expert.

Final Redfield Apple Graft.  3.21.15