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Part of the
south end of our farm used to contain several rows of nursery stock
that was planted by the previous owners. Most of the trees
had not been maintained, so we removed them earlier this year to make
more room for vegetable crops and our berry patch.
But one
of the rows contained apple trees, probably grown as grafting stock. Two
years ago (in 2004), we harvested some of the apples to make juice,
and were surprised at the wide variety. Having read The Botany
of Desire by Michael Pollan, which taught us how varied apples
can be, we decided to preserve the row of apples for another year so
we could evaluate them further. 2005 turned
out to be a poor year for apples everywhere, so the apple row got another
year's reprieve.
These apple
trees were really a mess. Most of them had multiple trunks,
and we couldn't tell which trunks would bear fruit. Earlier this
year we cleaned up many of the extra trunks and pruned them to help
them along, and so they didn't look quite so neglected.
2006
was a good year for apples, although these didn't fare as well as
the other apple trees on our farm. Despite
this, and since this was the first year we actually paid any attention
to them, we decided
to document their performance so we could compare it in future years
and decide if any of these trees are worth keeping. Below
are photos of the trees and their fruit (if any), along with our comments.
Stay tuned
for next year's observations!
| (Click images to see more detail.) |
|
ID
|
Photo
|
Fruit
|
Comments |
|
1
|
|
about 40
 |
Small yellow/green apple with red blushing as it ripens. Very
tasty, somewhat tart, lots of juice. |
|
2
|
|
none
|
|
|
3
|
|
none
|
|
|
4
|
|
< 10
 |
Round red apples with firm/tough skin. Less juicy, not quite
as tart. |
|
5
|
|
none
|
|
|
6
|
|
none
|
|
|
7
|
|
none
|
|
|
8
|
|
< 5
 |
Small green "Delicious" shaped apple with red streaks and tough
skin. Tart but fairly juicy. |
|
9
|
|
1
 |
Large green apple with red blush. Crisp, sweet, and juicy. |
|
10
|
none
|
|
|
11
|
none
|
|
|
12
|
|
none
|
Beautiful fall foliage. We suspect this is the root stock. |
|
13
|
|
1
 |
Small round dark red apple with white dots. Sweet and juicy. (Note
to self: we need to cut off the root stock sprout, which is the smaller
trunk.) |
|
14
|
|
none
|
|
|
15
|
none
|
|
|
16
|
none
|
Dead - remove. |
|
17
|
|
5
 |
Small round pink apple. Sickly sweet - not
tasty. OK
for juice. (Note: we need to cut off the root stock sprout,
which is the south trunk.) |
|
18
|
|
none
|
Nearly dead. |
|
19
|
|
< 10
 |
Small, very attractive, nearly black apples. Very juicy. Tastes
like a Red Delicious, but not much flavor. |
|
20
|
|
none
|
Root stock - need to remove. |
|
21
|
|
--
|
A mystery tree! |
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