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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] In Defense of Big Apple Trees

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  • From: "Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] In Defense of Big Apple Trees
  • Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:20:14 -0600


Well, I think I have to go along with Alan on this one.  It wasn't little dwarf trees that inspired me to want to grow apples.  It was all those nice big trees 30-50 years old that I kept encountering that dripped fruit all over the ground.  My kids ate a LOT of dried apples while they were growing up.  I was sending their lunches to save money when I found out they were trading their dried apples for all sorts of sugary desserts.  The other kids went hog wild for them, whereas my kids had never tasted most of the commercial stuff they were being offered in exchange.  One large tree behind a house we rented had tart apples that were incredible dried.  Sweet apples are ok dried, but tart ones are the best. 
    Now my son up there in Olympia WA talked about all the bushels of fruit he got from the trees already on his place when they bought it.  I imagined huge trees along a long driveway.  It boggled my mind when I actually saw them.  They were trimmed like 6-8' diameter table tops on chunky M9 rootstocks.  He says he's let them grow more naturally.  Seems like he said something like 30 bushels this year.  So I can see that that too would be inspiring, but there's nothing like them around here.  Especially here, on the Highland Rim, I've nearly forgotten what happy apple trees look like.  We do see them when we go up on the Plateau, but nothing like as big as they got over in the Tenn Valley.    Donna



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