North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[tanis grif <tanisgrif@yahoo.com>]

[If multiple drafts tagged along, this is the final version.]


This is a long post for the amount of scionwood I have from any one tree, but 
I hope it helps to share some worthwhile trees. I admit I haven't harvested 
yet, intending to work from NAFEXrs' replies. If this list would help someone 
on the Facebook group, please share.

Know that my scionwood is usually thinner than the recommended "pencil 
thick". I've found parafilm is a good graft wrap for pieces which wouldn't 
hold up to rubber electricians' splicing tape. Know also my flavor preference 
is for more sour than sweet. I like the sweet-tart richly flavored, but find 
some of the Russets too sweet. When I share "perfect" flavor apples, the 
recipient usually mentions in either delight or diplomacy that they 
appreciate a zippy apple.


NAMED KNOWN CULTIVARS (For these, you could probably purchase better scions 
elsewhere)

Luscious pear, Chestnut Crab, Pound Sweet, and 2 slightly different Tolman 
Sweet-- one with subtly better flavor, but the other keeps better. I also 
still have the Snow/Fameuse tree which I intend to remove. It matches the 
sweeter & poorer keeper version of the Snow descriptions.


FORGOTTEN NAME CULTIVARS (Collected from yards & orchards)

A summer apple with better texture and flavor than my others, also stores 
better, med size, red stripes over yellow ("R's Best"); 2 Sept ripening 
similar sweet-tart, med size, mostly red, good fruit but my most insect- & 
disease-damaged ("EB" & "OR"); One of the McIntosh offspring, better flavor 
(more sour) & better storage; 2 similar salvages from a cider orchard, med 
size, red, lots of tart juice ("M41" & "M74"); Also from the cider orchard, 
the last tree in the sweet block, actually more sweet-tart, larger, red & 
yellow ("M.sweet"); Only one Russet this year-- the Nov ripening, greenish 
fruits wider than tall, very short stems, resinous/piney flavor, tree needs 
early branch-training & careful pruning so as not to fall apart after a 
couple heavy crops; Nice Bartlett-type pear, hardier & better flavor, Sept 
ripening, poor storage but makes some great apple-pear sauces.


CHANCE SEEDLINGS (Local finds, and some Beautiful Arcade seedlings)

2 different summer apples-- one in the large-soft-sour group, but better than 
many ("BAT"), and a 1 1/2" yellow apple-crab which usually flowers but has 
good crops infrequently, sour, best used for drying;
Other apple-crabs--"Yellownut" compares to Chestnut but more yellow, more 
tart, and hard as a rock; "Old #6" sour, round, for pickling; "BAC" & "BAP" 
are 1 1/2" red, rich but more sour than sweet, make a flavorful red sauce 
(with skins), they have apples when most other trees have poor years; "Fence" 
is a sweeter crab, on the neighbors' side, and I haven't gotten permission 
yet.
Flowering crabs with edible berries-- one with red berries, flowers, & fall 
color, the other with pink berries & white flowers;
Regular apples-- 2 Yellow Del types, one has a pineapple flavor, neither gets 
CAR; a sweet-tart, crisp, Sept ripening thin-skinned yellow with a rosy cheek 
("Lowville" which I've previously shared); a sweeter yellow, harder texture 
("Dunn"); a Greening type, not great, the tree kept mostly because it's a 
drought-tolerant semi-dwarf; a milder flavored red, not great, that 
flood-tolerant tree which I'm still not sure if own-root or topworked; and a 
likely Red Del seedling, smaller, more striped, more tannins (for cider 
blending?)


DISCARDS (Like the Snow tree, the plan is removal.  Anyone want scions first?)

3 large-soft-sour summer apples-- 2 yellow & one red; an Antanovka seedling 
which makes sweeter mostly yellow apples (flavor sim to Tolman Sweet, but 
softer texture, shaped more like Red Del, but the stem ends split like 
MN447); an apple-crab with beautiful appearance but horrible flavor, looks 
great in a fruit bowl but how do you politely warn people not to taste them?

If you've read this far you deserve to know I have some small trees that need 
homes:  Seedlings, topworked seedlings, topworked M7 & EMLA7.  At best they 
are nursery 2nds quality, difficult to justify the shipping cost (especially 
those which have grown large enough they'll be damaged in digging) but I 
might be able to deliver in southcentral WI.

Tanis Cuff, s.WI, still winter