Apple (malus sp.)
grafted trees - one-year whip 16-32" (grade A)
We love apples! We're excited to offer this array of heritage, wild, and local selections.
RESOURCES:
U of Minnesota Extension - Growing apples in the home garden
Cornell - A Grower's Guide to Organic Apples
ATTRA - Apples: Organic Production Guide
VARIETIES:Ashmead's Kernel: Classic English dessert russet. Excellent for sweet and hard cider. In cultivation since early 1700’s
Crimson Crisp: Disease resistant cultivar bred by Cornell. All of the crisp juiciness of Honey Crisp with a tart, spicy, back-end.
Cox’s Orange Pippin: An English apple regarded by some as the best tasting of all apples. Unmatched for fresh eating and well renowned for sweet or hard cider. Does well in cool, temperate climates.
Dabinett: Disease resistant bittersweet English apple. Used almost exclusively for hard cider. High sugar content and complex enough juice to stand up to fermentation and cellaring. Good for blending with sweeter and tarter apples
Esopus Spitzenburg: One of the oldest named American cultivars. Originating as a seedling tree brought to Esopus, NY by Dutch Settlers. Sweet, tart, juicy, and a good keeper. Some sources claim this as Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple.
Fulton Hill Sharp: A cider apple “pippin”/seedling selected by Scrumpy Ewe Cidery in West Fulton, NY.
Gold rush: Disease resistant cultivar bred by Cornell University. Excellent keeper. We’ve eaten Goldrush in April that tasted as good as or better than the day it was harvested. Late ripening. Excellent for fresh eating and cider.
Golden Russet: The history of this apple is a DOOZEY. There have been several apples to don this moniker. This one is the American Golden Russet, AKA Bullock, Sheep’s Nose, Golden Russet of Western NY. It’s an excellent keeper (5 months or longer in cold storage) and is probably most famed as a hard cider cultivar.
Hamilton: This is an apple we’ve selected from the remnants of an old cider orchard in Delaware County, NY. Late dropping, disease resistant. Tart, sweet, tannic, and an excellent keeper. Late ripening. High sugar content. Good for fresh eating or hard cider.
Hamilton Russet: This tree grows by our barn and is phenomenal. Possibly St. Edmund’s Pippin or possibly a chance seedling. The most flavorful early season apple I’ve ever tasted. Usually begins to ripen in our zone by middle/late August, with full ripening into mid September. Sweet, tart, nutty, juicy, complex, and usually produces a bumper crop of apples annually. Resistant to all common pests and diseases. Extremely vigorous and productive. A real favorite.
Harrison: A New Jersey cider apple from the early 1700’s. Almost lost to history, but thankfully re-discovered in 1976 and again in 1989. At one time this was one of the most widely planted apple trees on the continent. Also makes fantastic baked goods and some enjoy it for fresh eating. Vigorous, disease resistant tree.
Hewe's VA crab: A fantastic hard cider crab apple originating in Virginia in the early 1700’s. Juicy, sweet, and aromatic with balanced tannins, creating a juice that when fermented has been compared to fine champagne. Good for fresh eating as well, though small.
King David: Crisp, juicy apple with a sweet, tart, spicy profile. Moderately vigorous. Great for fresh eating, pies, and blended in hard cider.
Major Harrison's Fedora: A cider apple “pippin”/seedling selected by Scrumpy Ewe Cidery in West Fulton, NY.
Pristine: Disease resistant cultivar bred by Cornell University. Early season. Sweet, tart and juicy. Good for sweet cider, fresh eating, or baking.
Redfield: A red fleshed cultivar used for fresh eating, jelly, or hard cider. Makes a beautiful red-wine colored juice.
Robert's Crab: A “large” fruited crabapple with deep burgundy skin and dark red flesh. Good in hard cider blends, and fantastic as an ornamental due to abundant bright pink blooms in spring and dark, purplish twigs in winter.
Roxbury Russet: Possibly the oldest named American apple cultivar. Originating in Roxbury, Massachusetts in the early 1600’s. Highly flavorful, sweet, tart, juicy and complex for fresh eating. Excellent storage apple, and highly regarded as a hard cider apple as well. Vigorous tree tending to bear every other year. Disease resistant. You don’t get to stick around for 400 years without good reason.
Wickson: Another great cider crab apple. Juicy and aromatic. Vigorous, abundant blooms, and reliable annual bearer. Great for fresh eating, though only about the size of a golf ball.
ROOTSTOCKS:
G890: Disease resistant, productive, fast to bear and well anchored. Creates a tree that is about 60% of “standard” size. Trees may need to be staked for the first several years of establishment, especially if planted in poorer soils.
B118: Extremely hardy, disease resistant and vigorous. Will create a semi-standard sized tree. Less tolerant of poorly drained soils than MM111 but quicker to bear and more cold hardy. Some varieties will begin to bear in 2-3 years after planting.
MM111: Will create a semi-standard sized tree. Well anchored, more tolerant of poorly drained/clay soils than most rootstocks. Prone to burr knots, but resistant to disease. A good choice for poorer soils. Somewhat slower to come to fruition than our other rootstocks.