The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Three-year-old espaliered apples

Apple blossom

Those of you considering variety and rootstock selection for apples might get a kick out of some numbers from our three-year-old apple espaliers. These trees were all grafted by me in April 2014, then they were set out into their forever homes that fall. Here's the data:

Apple espalier

Based on this data, I suspect that M7 rootstock isn't quite cold hardy enough for our farm, at least not if I plant up against the hillside where very little winter sun hits. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if the M7 Winesap is an early bloomer because of its rootstock (as opposed to the Early Harvest, which is noted for precocious bearing).

Honeycrisp, if I recall correctly, was hit hard by cedar apple rust last summer. I think I meant to pull the tree out, actually, but it was granted a stay of execution until this year. That's a variety problem not a rootstock problem, and despite how much Mark loves the apples, I wouldn't plant a Honeycrisp again in a no-spray orchard.

The other varieties seem vigorous and happy. Maybe next year, even those on MM111 will bloom!



Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


Nice! Have you had any problems with Cedar Apple Rust? I've had tons and someone suggested getting pears instead. Then the extension service said pears get rust as well. I put in two pears, two plums and, based on one of your online references got a combination red and golden Delicious. The last doesn't appear to be doing as well as the others as it's just now starting to leaf out, but it is early in the season.

Which one of your experiments do you think you'll continue and which do you think you'll kill other than the ones that are already dead?

Comment by Nayan Mon Apr 17 12:52:21 2017





profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.