Hello, this is my first post here. I'm starting an home orchard in Duvall, WA and I'm choosing varieties. I was thinking about acquiring some scionwood, maybe from Nick Botner's impressive list. I'm also interested in grafting to Pacific crabapple as the rootstock.
I'm especially interested in seedlings that originated in Western Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. I know of a few that I plan to add to the collection:
Chehalis
Wynooche Early
Hudson's Golden Gem
Airlie's Red Flesh (Hidden Rose)
My question is, what other apples originated as seedlings in the Pacific Northwest? I figure these are definitely top candidates as they would hopefully be well adapted to our area, if they managed to survive on their own to produce fruit and be noticed.
Any other top recommendations for apples to plant? I already have Gravenstein, Belle de Boskoop, Red Boskoop, William's Pride, Wolf River, Dabinett (a cider apple), and several crab apples (Sugar Tyme, Evereste, and Prairie Fire)
Thanks!
My experience and what I've heard tell me that malus fusca native crabapple takes Winter Banana but I don't know what else.
There are like 8000 varieties of apples. Most will do well in W Washington. Avoid some, like Pink Lady, Calville Blanc D'hiver that need a lot of heat. Liberty should do well, as well as Akane, and 7000 others.
John S
PDX OR
Thanks both of you -- I'll scratch Calville Blanc d'Hiver off my list. Liberty and Akane are definitely being grown successfully here.
I do also think it's of historical and local food interest to plant apples that originated as seedlings locally, so it's not just because they are likely to be adapted. I plan to attend an apple festival this fall to also pick some varieties by tasting them.
Currently I have planted Belle de Boskoop, Gravenstein, William's Pride, Wolf River, Egremont Russet, and Dabinett (a cider apple). I have room for several more.
Thanks for the info about grafting. I might try to graft onto Pacific crabapple as an experiment, but it sounds like I might not want to put all my scions onto it.
Rolling River nursery in northern California also sells an apple variety called Turtleback, which was found and is named after a mountain on Orcas Island in Washington, so let's add that to the list.
Orcas Pear and Rescue Pear are both from Washington, too.
Gordon, I really think you should be in contact with Greg Giulani. He works a small orchard on Duvall, is a great guy, and has posted before on this forum. I could ask him to post here or maybe give his email (if he consents).
I actually don't know my varieties well, but I work with antique apples in Carkeek Park near Ballard area.....so I am learning.
The absolute best guy to talk to in this area (and maybe even for the Portland area) is Dr. Rob Norton. He made it his life's mission to advocate varieties that do well in our area. He is about 85 years old now and lives on Vashon island, west of Seattle.
Finally, there is a Spring Seattle Tree Fruit show in the Shoreline area on March 24th in the middle of the day at the Sky Nursery. You can buy grafts there and meet some of us. I can supply a link or more details if anyone interested.
For more info, Don Ricks (I live in south Snohomish County) donricks@hotmail.com or simply respond to this post.
Thanks, Don, I'd love to get in touch with helpful people in the area. I think I may have heard about an old orchard at Carkeek park that is being restored... maybe there was some discussion of that on KUOW at some point.
I'm getting myself educated by whatever means I can. I just took an interesting and informative 1-day class on orchard management with Gary Moulton formerly of WSU who is now teaching with the WSU Cooperative Extension ag programs. I learned a lot, it was an excellent class, although he does come from more of a commercial orientation than I have. I think like my orchard is going to be managed a bit differently from the way that he was teaching. For one thing, I am exploring no-spray options. He recommended various organic sprays to control certain pests, but I'd like to just not spray anything. I can tolerate some scab but I'm trying to plant varieties that people say are "scab resistant." However, Gary Moulton also said that even resistant varieties can have bad years.
Hi Gordon,
1. email me if you want Greg's email address.....he gave me permission for that.
2. I had a class in Sultan at Ed's Apples last year where Gary Moulton taught pruning.....it was humbling to realize he knows a lot more than me.....he is also more brutal than I in pruning.....but that is more appropriate when you are commercial and not for the homeowner......in the way of sprays, if you don't want to spray, you should think about:
a. pheromone mating disruptors for codling moth.
b. GF 120 NF Cherry fruit fly bait and traps for the apple maggot problem.
c. Foot sox......an issue discussed very often on this forum.
The GF 120 NF is a spray but it is an "attract-and-kill" that actually doesn't get on the fruit.
3. Poster for Seattle Fruit Society show
(if this doesn't work, try googling it)
http://www.seattletreefruitsociety.com/ ... poster.pdf
4. The Piper Orchard website has a map of the varieties we have.....some of them (like Wolf River) you have already incorporated.
http://www.pipersorchard.org
Idyllwild
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