North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[sherwindu <sherwindu@comcast.net>]

Antonovka is supposed to come true from seed but in a conversation with
someone at St. Lawrence Nursery today, they prefer to graft an Antonovka
from one of their control trees because they worry about genetic purity
and variations that might show up.  I personally would not grow
Antonovka
for the fruit, but my Russian neighbors grew up with that apple and have
some kind of attachment to it.  I'm just trying to encourage them to get
something grafted on a dwarfing rootstock, especially if they have to
wait
several extra years before they see any fruit.  St. Lawrence also claims
that the tree only grows to about 15 feet and can be held to 10 to 12
feet
with pruning.  I'm not familiar enough with standard trees to argue
these
points, but I feel they may not be correct.