My club, Midwest Fruit Explorers is putting on a show this weekend at the Morton
Arboretum in Lisle Illinois (off of highway 88). Hours are 10am to 4:30pm on Oct 15
and Oct 16. Parking is $7, but our show is free,
and you get to see the Arboretum, as well. We will have over 100 varieties of apples
grown by our members on display. There will be other fruits, berries, and nuts too.
There will be a demonstration of a working cider press.
Our knowledgeable members will be there to answer all questions on how to grow
these interesting things in your back yard.

Sherwin D.

I've learned that location is very important to growing apples. I will
never get good apples from my trees because they are in my back yard
instead of a hill somewhere.

James wrote:
I've learned that location is very important to growing apples. I will
never get good apples from my trees because they are in my back yard
instead of a hill somewhere.

What's the problem with your yard? Too much shade? Poor drainage? A lot
of back yards can grow pretty good apples.

Someone used to have an apple show a bit north of here, up near the
Canadian border. They managed to have about 100 varieties to show and
they would cut a little slice of most of them for tasting. Then you
could vote on your favorite top 10. It was great fun.
The trouble was that more than half of the apples were brought up by
someone's relative who grows a bunch of varieties in Pennsylvania. My
personal favorite was an apple that was originally named Arlet (and
still called that by most people). It was given the name Swiss Gourmet
as a marketing ploy to try to make it competitive on the mass market.
(I've still not seen it in a store yet.) Anyway, that was a great
tasting apple. I obtained some scion wood and grafted it as the top of
one of my trees. Well, it's not great up here. Not very edible at all in
fact. I'm trusting that the scion wood I used was the correct variety. I
would never guess it was what I tasted years ago as grown in
Pennsylvania. I'm not having much luck with my Honey Crisp either. Other
varieties known to be good in the north are much better.

Steve (in the Adirondacks of northern NY)

If soil drainage is your problem, there are some workarounds for that. You
should amend your soil with sand and mulch to encourge drainage. Add peat
to the soil if it is very heavy with clay. I just picked over 300 apples today from
my semi-dwarf Hudson's Golden Gem in my yard, and my ground is as
flat as you can get. I get pretty good results from my other 15 trees, as well.
I'm not trying to brag or make you feel bad, but make you aware that unless
you live in a very unusual place, you should be able to grow fruit in your
backyard.

Sherwin D.

James wrote:

I've learned that location is very important to growing apples. I will
never get good apples from my trees because they are in my back yard
instead of a hill somewhere.

Steve wrote:

James wrote:
I've learned that location is very important to growing apples. I will
never get good apples from my trees because they are in my back yard
instead of a hill somewhere.

What's the problem with your yard? Too much shade? Poor drainage? A lot
of back yards can grow pretty good apples.

Someone used to have an apple show a bit north of here, up near the
Canadian border. They managed to have about 100 varieties to show and
they would cut a little slice of most of them for tasting. Then you
could vote on your favorite top 10. It was great fun.
The trouble was that more than half of the apples were brought up by
someone's relative who grows a bunch of varieties in Pennsylvania.

In our case, all our apples on display are grown by our members, most of
whom live in a 50 mile radius of the Arboretum.


My
personal favorite was an apple that was originally named Arlet (and
still called that by most people). It was given the name Swiss Gourmet
as a marketing ploy to try to make it competitive on the mass market.
(I've still not seen it in a store yet.) Anyway, that was a great
tasting apple. I obtained some scion wood and grafted it as the top of
one of my trees. Well, it's not great up here. Not very edible at all in
fact. I'm trusting that the scion wood I used was the correct variety. I
would never guess it was what I tasted years ago as grown in
Pennsylvania.

Actually, we are selling some apples we get from an orchard in central
Indiana. We did a pre-tasting selection of their apples to decide what
would taste the best. Actually, we liked the Arlet enough to order a
few boxes, but it wasn't the best apple we tasted. The apple is not
extremely sweet, but we thought it had a good flavor nevertheless.
The Arlet is a medium to large apple with bright red over rich yellow
background color. I'm not sure where you bought the scion, but there
are at least four nurseries on the West Coast that sell this tree.

I'm not having much luck with my Honey Crisp either.

If you are talking about production, my young Honey Crisp only had
about 6 apples this year. The tree is only about 6 feet tall, so I am
expecting that the apple count will increase with the coming seasons.

Other
varieties known to be good in the north are much better.

If crispness is a big thing, Honey Crisp is a great choice. There are
apples with better flavor available.

Sherwin D.



Steve (in the Adirondacks of northern NY)

sherwindu wrote:


Steve wrote:
..........................
...................................
My
personal favorite was an apple that was originally named Arlet (and
still called that by most people). It was given the name Swiss Gourmet
as a marketing ploy to try to make it competitive on the mass market.
(I've still not seen it in a store yet.) Anyway, that was a great
tasting apple. I obtained some scion wood and grafted it as the top of
one of my trees. Well, it's not great up here. Not very edible at all in
fact. I'm trusting that the scion wood I used was the correct variety. I
would never guess it was what I tasted years ago as grown in
Pennsylvania.


Actually, we are selling some apples we get from an orchard in central
Indiana. We did a pre-tasting selection of their apples to decide what
would taste the best. Actually, we liked the Arlet enough to order a
few boxes, but it wasn't the best apple we tasted. The apple is not
extremely sweet, but we thought it had a good flavor nevertheless.
The Arlet is a medium to large apple with bright red over rich yellow
background color. I'm not sure where you bought the scion, but there
are at least four nurseries on the West Coast that sell this tree.


Your description of Arlet sounds like what I remember. What I am growing
doesn't seem the same at all, but I also don't think it is ripening
properly. I have no idea if the scion was wrong or if Arlet just doesn't
ripen up here.
I obtained the scion wood from Richard Fahey. You certainly know Richard
if you are a member of NAFEx. As far as I can tell, he is well organized
and wouldn't sell the wrong thing. I could be wrong. It's probably safe
to talk about him here since he doesn't use electricity, let alone
computers. ;-)



I'm not having much luck with my Honey Crisp either.


If you are talking about production, my young Honey Crisp only had
about 6 apples this year. The tree is only about 6 feet tall, so I am
expecting that the apple count will increase with the coming seasons.


I grafted it as a side branch on a tree with other varieties on it. That
branch isn't big enough to produce much but it produces less that I
would expect.
The worst thing is that every pest loves that variety! Normal apple
pests but also Japanese beetles. We are just now building up to a hefty
population of Japanese beetles around here. I noticed the beetles on
that apple tree. They were eating ONLY the Honey Crisp leaves! Not a
single beetle on the entire rest of the tree but a dozen or more on the
Honey Crisp branch.
Actually I have Honey Crisp grafted on 2 trees and I haven't had a good
apple yet. The ones I have tasted were pretty bad. They are supposed to
be a good northern apple too. Same source for the scion wood.

Steve

Steve,
Are you on any kind of spray schedule? If not, it is just asking for trouble. I have
heard people say it is hard to grow Honeycrisp, and they are susceptible to disease,
but I have had no trouble with mine. With your kind of problems, I would be suspicious of a problem
with watering, fertilizing, etc. Are you having problems with
all your fruit trees, or just the ones you mentioned? You might be better off just buying a small
Honeycrisp on dwarfing rootstock, and go from there. I have been able to make several apple trees
grafting them onto rootstock. However, my success rate with grafting apple scion onto an existing
tree with say a bud graft, have
been very poor. Might be my technique, but I have much better luck doing that kind
of grafting on plum and peach trees.
You don't mention what kind of trees you are grafting onto. Is it possible that you
are getting fruit from a branch of the original tree, and not the scion? Check the
graft again to confirm that it is really coming off the scion.

Sherwin D.



Steve wrote:

sherwindu wrote:


Steve wrote:
..........................
...................................
My
personal favorite was an apple that was originally named Arlet (and
still called that by most people). It was given the name Swiss Gourmet
as a marketing ploy to try to make it competitive on the mass market.
(I've still not seen it in a store yet.) Anyway, that was a great
tasting apple. I obtained some scion wood and grafted it as the top of
one of my trees. Well, it's not great up here. Not very edible at all in
fact. I'm trusting that the scion wood I used was the correct variety. I
would never guess it was what I tasted years ago as grown in
Pennsylvania.


Actually, we are selling some apples we get from an orchard in central
Indiana. We did a pre-tasting selection of their apples to decide what
would taste the best. Actually, we liked the Arlet enough to order a
few boxes, but it wasn't the best apple we tasted. The apple is not
extremely sweet, but we thought it had a good flavor nevertheless.
The Arlet is a medium to large apple with bright red over rich yellow
background color. I'm not sure where you bought the scion, but there
are at least four nurseries on the West Coast that sell this tree.

Your description of Arlet sounds like what I remember. What I am growing
doesn't seem the same at all, but I also don't think it is ripening
properly. I have no idea if the scion was wrong or if Arlet just doesn't
ripen up here.
I obtained the scion wood from Richard Fahey. You certainly know Richard
if you are a member of NAFEx. As far as I can tell, he is well organized
and wouldn't sell the wrong thing. I could be wrong. It's probably safe
to talk about him here since he doesn't use electricity, let alone
computers. ;-)



I'm not having much luck with my Honey Crisp either.


If you are talking about production, my young Honey Crisp only had
about 6 apples this year. The tree is only about 6 feet tall, so I am
expecting that the apple count will increase with the coming seasons.

I grafted it as a side branch on a tree with other varieties on it. That
branch isn't big enough to produce much but it produces less that I
would expect.
The worst thing is that every pest loves that variety! Normal apple
pests but also Japanese beetles. We are just now building up to a hefty
population of Japanese beetles around here. I noticed the beetles on
that apple tree. They were eating ONLY the Honey Crisp leaves! Not a
single beetle on the entire rest of the tree but a dozen or more on the
Honey Crisp branch.
Actually I have Honey Crisp grafted on 2 trees and I haven't had a good
apple yet. The ones I have tasted were pretty bad. They are supposed to
be a good northern apple too. Same source for the scion wood.

Steve

sherwindu wrote:
Steve,
Are you on any kind of spray schedule? If not, it is just asking for trouble. I have
heard people say it is hard to grow Honeycrisp, and they are susceptible to disease,
but I have had no trouble with mine. With your kind of problems, I would be suspicious of a problem
with watering, fertilizing, etc. Are you having problems with
all your fruit trees, or just the ones you mentioned? You might be better off just buying a small
Honeycrisp on dwarfing rootstock, and go from there. I have been able to make several apple trees
grafting them onto rootstock. However, my success rate with grafting apple scion onto an existing
tree with say a bud graft, have
been very poor. Might be my technique, but I have much better luck doing that kind
of grafting on plum and peach trees.
You don't mention what kind of trees you are grafting onto. Is it possible that you
are getting fruit from a branch of the original tree, and not the scion? Check the
graft again to confirm that it is really coming off the scion.

Sherwin D.

Well, you're right about the first thing. My spray schedule is hit or
miss at best. I only have 4 apple trees and two of them have multiple
grafts. I haven't been very serious about them in the last few years.
Every year I intend to be good and follow a reasonable spray schedule
but the first thing I know, other things have taken priority and I've
let pests get established. I am very aware that this is a problem.

My other fruit trees have done well over the years but you have to
remember that I live in a location where the winters are quite severe.
Several nights in the minus 30s is normal and minus 40 isn't all that
rare. Dwarfing root stock is best avoided. My plum trees are several
years old and are declining now. I actually didn't get any plums this
year. I have grafted a couple of young plum trees which should come into
production, maybe next summer.
As far as watering and fertilizing... Watering is rarely required. Rain
just comes and the grass is good and green all summer. Fertilizing is
what ever the lawn gets which isn't much. Grass clipping mulch around
each tree. If anything, my trees put out growth that is a little too
vigorous. In contrast to the inedible Honey Crisp apples, I got some
really nice Red Baron apples this fall. Big, beautiful, perfect and
quite edible. Some were from one of the trees that also has a Honey
Crisp graft.

By the way, there's no doubt about the grafts. I know exactly where they
are and they are tagged too. My multiple graft trees are on edible
apples that are extremely hardy. One is on Rescue apple crab (a small
but very edible apple) and the other is on a Norland (which by the way
has Rescue as one of its parents).

Steve in the Adirondacks of northern NY