North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bernie Nikolai <bnikolai@shaw.ca>]

The answer is YES based on my experiments.  A couple of years ago I plucked
Siberian Crabs from a seedling tree in an area I walk my dog.  It was late
January, and the fruit was frozen solid, and had been subjected to -40F.  I
took out the seeds, floated them in water overnight, then put them in 10%
household bleach/water solution, and rinsed them off with water that had
been boiled.  I then put them in damp sand that had been sterilized with
bleach and rinsed well in a plastic bag in the basement fridge.  In about 60
to 70 days the seeds had "tails", and I got nearly 100% success and no
fungus in terms of sprouting.

By the way, according to a friend in Siberia, Ranetka is the generic term
for ANY seedling that has Siberian Crab as one parent.  They usually take
the extreme hardiness from the Siberian Crab, and have small inedible fruit,
and make great rootstocks in cold climates.  The Ranetka seeds Lawyers
Nursery in Montana sells come from the Ukraine, and are simply Siberian x
Domestic apples.  Lastly Lloyd Lee, 90 year old fruit breeder here in
Alberta, says after years of testing, his best rootstock is Dolgo Crab
pollinated by Siberian Crab.  This would also qualify under the Russian
definition as "Ranetka" Crab.  I know there is a specific crab called
Ranetka here in North America, but to the Russians, it is simply any apple
with 1/2 Siberian Crab in the immediate ancestry.  The vast majority of the
seedling, well over 90%, are very hardy, almost as hardy as Siberian or
equal in hardiness to Siberian, more vigorous than Siberian, with better
graft compatibility with most apple varieties than Siberian.  From what I've
seen, Ranetka (Siberian x Dolgo or any other hardy apple), is by far the
best apple rootstock in really cold climates (ones that hit or get colder
than -40F in winter).
Bernie Nikolai
Edmonton, Alberta
zone 2/3

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ernestplutko@netscape.net>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 8:34 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Ranetka Crab seeds


> I have six Ranetka Crab trees grown from rootstocks. I planted the
rootstocks about ten years ago and the trees are at least 20 feet high.
Ranetka is perfectly hardy here on the Minnesota-Ontario border and I never
seen the slightest sign of winter injury. Thr apples are bitter and vary in
size between the trees from about 16 millimeters to about 36 millimeters.
All apples on each tree are about the same size. The apples hang on the
trees all Winter and birds start eating the apples in late Winter. I
collected seeds yesterday and put them in the refrigerator on wet paper
towels in a plastic box. I am wondering if apple seeds will germinate after
hanging on the tree in 40 below temperatures. I have easily germinated
Ranetka seeds from apples taken in the fall and kept in the refrigerator.
>
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