How often does it happen that you receive some scion wood and only years
later do you find out it was not labeled correctly?
I'm going to mention Richard Fahey's name right up front because I'm not
going to say anything bad about him. If (If!)he sent one mislabeled
scion out of all the ones I ordered, well, he's only human and I really
have no problem with that. I've never met him in person but all of us
who are actually members of Nafex know of him from his articles in
Pomona and his ads offing scion wood for sale.
I have only paid for batches of scion wood maybe 5 times in my life. At
least 2 of those times were orders from Mr. Fahey. I'm very grateful to
him for taking the considerable time to maintain all those fruit tree
cultivars and for taking even more time to offer scions from those trees
to the public. I know he's not the only one doing this but his list is
quite impressive.
Now to my point. One of the cultivars I ordered was Arlet (AKA Swiss
Gourmet). I had some question about its hardiness but I had high hopes
for it and I grafted it as a new top to an existing tree. What I get
does not resemble the Arlet apple I tasted that made me want the apple
in my yard.
The Arlet apple that I tasted years before was grown hundreds of miles
south of here, so I knew there could be differences. What my tree
produces are small to medium, solid red, firm apples that ripen very
late. I let them hang on the tree into October after all my other apples
are picked and they are far too hard to eat. What ever they are, the
cultivar is very productive and I grafted it too high up to hand thin
them. A bad combination! They store until spring when they become barely
edible because they are still very firm and tart.
I ordered Arlet scion wood from a different source 2 years ago and if
those new Arlet branches produce the same fruit, I will be very
surprised. With a little luck, I could get the first fruit from the new
grafts this season.
Any comments? Have others experienced similar situations?
Steve in the Adirondacks ... who finds it impossible to ask a question
that is short and to the point!