My son works with fish and wildlife and has been at the E.E. Wilson wildlife refuge near Corvallis, where he says the place is swarming with apple trees. The park is the site of the old military Camp Adair and apparently when it was razed to make the park, apples in the area spread all over and there are many seedling trees. I was wondering if anyone has done much exploring of those trees. My son said the trees are as thick as a forest in places and are loaded this year.
This was news to me, even though I live in Corvallis; only about 6 miles south of there - but before I got around to getting out there to check it out, happened to talk to a friend who's been into apples for 30+ years; and he also told me about the apple trees out at the former Camp Adair! But he also used to be very interested in finding abandoned local homestead orchards and identifying the apples, so he warned me that there were only about 3 or 4 varieties in the Camp Adair area; though there were lots of trees. I was heading out that way to run after work anyway, and decided to go a bit farther and check the wildlife preserve out; it'd been years since I'd been in there. It's at least 2 or 3 square miles, and most of the buildings are gone; but most of the foundation piles & streets are all still there; so it's easy to get around - the police used to have a driver training course set up in the back part of the refuge. A bicycle would be the best way to explore, since there's quite a road grid; when they built the camp they even rerouted the railroad to give it more room! I saw apples as soon as I turned off of Highway 99W into the central road crossing the refuge; then stopped and parked in one of the refuge entries, knew it was a good sign when as soon as I got out of the car I noticed apples laying on the ground right next to the car:)
So I took a bag with me and headed into the south side of the refuge to run, but didn't make it far; kept stopping to look at fruit trees; they are everywhere!! I tried to count, but without a click counter was impossible; way more than hundreds, and likely more than a thousand on the refuge from what I saw. Bad news is that while they're plentiful, almost none are really desirable varieties - if I remember right, my friend said that they are mostly Ben Davis, Golden Delicious, & Maiden's Blush; if I've got that right; also a reasonable number of pears but lots fewer of them, and only 2 or 3 kinds. My friend told me that many of the trees were just what was there prior to the camp being built in the early 40's I think; the government confiscated the land from the farms that had been there before, so there were almost certainly orchards and fruit trees there before the camp - and many of these were just left there, if not in the way of a building or road. He also said that some of the farm buildings were left for a while, and used for target practice; sure didn't make the former owners very happy!
Many of the trees I saw seemed to be old original trees, though there were also many younger seedling trees; most of them with lots of blackberries around them! However, enough are right next to pavement that it's possible to walk or ride a bike right up to them while avoiding the blackberries that mostly surround them. I picked about 20# from various apple & pear trees, I'll take them along when I see my friend in a few days to see if he can confirm my guesses as what's what! Sure could make a lot of cider from everything that's out there, if you wanted to brave the blackberries to pick them:) Also saw a few likely peach and cherry trees, though without fruit I'm not enough of an expert to know for sure.
Dave, Corvallis Oregon
lotus026@yahoo.com
That has to be a pretty old orchard if it has a lot of Ben Davis and Maiden Blush. Ben Davis was mainly a winter storage apple, and Maiden Blush was used mostly for making dried apples. Both went out by the early part of the 20th Century. Those trees could likely be at least a century old.
[quote="lotus026":c1ggxwbr]A bicycle would be the best way to explore, since there's quite a road grid[/quote:c1ggxwbr]
That is the truth! My wife and I spent 6 days systematically going up and down all roads and side streets this fall, cataloging all sorts of apples, and when the apple seemed worthy for some reason, we took scions for grafting in spring of 2008.
Not only do you have to deal with blackberries out there, but the poison oak seems to live right around each apple tree (in many instances) that is worth anything! To get a scion, you gotta be real careful or you will come down with poison oak rash!
So far we have come up with around 43 that we think are pretty good, including in that group around 10 that have a extra-unique features.
One crunched like Gold Rush, and tasted about the same, altho it was olive drab in color.
Another was yellow with red flecks, very sweet, mild flavor. I would like to have a limb of this on my property.
Another had an anise taste, and was scab free, so we took a scion.
There was the cutest little red crab that was totally prolific. I envisioned making quart jars of spiced pickled apples with this one. Snagged a scion of that!
We even found one that had black skin and red flesh. Almost missed it entirely as it is very hard to see. That scion is in the fridge.
More yellow ones with interesting tastes, lots of reds and yellows with terrific crunchyness. We had a GREAT time! And feel quite enriched with all these scions resting in our special fridge.
Spring grafting cannot come quick enough. But it will be a blast when it gets here. 
Gee, I'm impressed! I was just intending to do a quick pass through, and ended up spending several hours, most of the apples I saw were mostly about 3 different kinds - but I was so overwhelmed with how many there were, that I stopped checking out individual trees - besides; I was dressed for running! Think a bicycle, tough pants, gloves & clippers would be good to enable reaching the trees through the brambles! Did you take good enough notes on the varieties you found that others could use them to locate the trees? I'd sure be interested in checking out the ones you located next fall, will be at least a year probably before my 2 new trees planted at my moms bear fruit:) And will be starting a half dozen new trees this spring for my GF's new place, as soon as she finds land near Corvallis.
Dave
lotus026@yahoo.com
As a longtime member of HOS, finding, cataloging, duplicating and distributing lost variety’s make me proudest of this organization. We’ve members who’ve scoured Oregon and its adjoining states, from hobbyists to mail-order nursery owners looking for just what you’ve described here. Sure, some varieties, or cultivars may be well known; but perhaps, like my oldest Gravenstein apple tree, they may also be the ‘parents’ of newer sports commonly propagated for their shipping ability, shelf life, color and size - having lost many of the best attributes of the original trees.
My question (before loading up my bike and clippers): have you noticed any disease..?
I’ve Anthracnose and Arial Crown Gall so bad I no longer bring scions to our spring exchange… Spread by pruning, if not airborne, infected scions are how both came to my place… Has anyone noticed either of those diseases at this location 
Anthracnose: http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/dise ... ecordID=36
Arial Crown Gall: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3301.html
Once told they were viruses… the above sites describe both as bacterial..? I can believe Anthracnose is bacterial, but crown gall appears systemic… but ‘they’re the experts’ – and worth avoiding.
Thanks for the warning Viron. Altho I was not specifically looking for disease, it could have been present. To be on the safe side I think a thorough soaking of my scions in Daconil is in order, plus grafting each to a seperate rootstock, no multi-trees, no 43-in-one trees!
There was one tallish apple tree associated with hundreds of beehives at Camp Adair that I just could not get at unless I would be willing to spend what looked like 4 hours chopping my way thru blackberries and poison oak to get at. The only reason this tree stands out, in my mind, is because it was loaded with large, dark red apples, that looked disease free from many feet away. The bearing branches were totally pointed to the ground, it was so fully loaded. It might be biannual bearing in this case. They didn't look all gnarly as some apples do when heavily scabbed. I may go back for a scion of this, or maybe I should just be happy with the scions I extracted already!
Update: found another 7 kinds of wild apples (50 total for this winter), not in Camp Adair, pointed out to me by a couple of devoted long-time apple fanatics. I am definitely going to have to cut down some doug firs to make room for so many new trees. I will grow them in a garden row for this summer, but after that they gotta get a permanent position.
I have tried to interest various other land holders with the prospect of a free orchard, but nobody seems that interested in growing food these days.
PF - Love your enthusiasm! …Watch out – you, too, may become one of those “Apple Fanatics!â€
Sounds like a fine way of handling possible disease; if keeping it to themselves.
Reminded of Himalayan blackberry picking as a kid, your desire to get to those dark-reds has me going… How about an aluminum extension ladder (if you’ve a truck or rack to get it there)? Extend it from as close as you can get to the tree, letting it fall toward it - with the plan of falling short of the tree. Then walk / surf your way across/over the B-berries and PO (poison oak)… With long-handled loppers you could partialy 'clear a path.’ But stay clear of the PO resin on the ladder after dragging it out… Just a thought ~ cause I’d Have to have a cutting from that tree - if only due to the difficulty of getting to it!
I Really should look at this forum more. I just spotted this topic yesterday.
It just so happens that last fall Joanie and I (HOS ID Team members)were invited to be part of a group that was invited by the military, to check out an old orchard that's on the Camp Adair shooting range. We've been mapping the trees, 38 of them, and identifying the apples, pears and plums. The orchard hasn't been tended since at least '41 or '42 so it's in pretty rough shape.
Apples IDed so far: Tompkins King, Baldwin, Yellow Bellflower, Jonathan, Ben Davis, Roxsbury Russet, Winterstein, Blenheim Orange and Bullock? There were several more trees that didn't have fruit and a few we haven't figured out yet. One is a very fine late apple that keeps pretty good and watercores, I think it must be a common old commercial sort, but not one we know yet. (and I forgot to have Dave get me a scion:(
Joe Postman was working on the pears, I don't know how many he figured out. Most of the pears were seedlings. Lots of plum seedlings many of which were very tasty, only a couple were original trees, one of them is the biggest I've ever seen. Several walnut trees too, and lots of elk tracks and poison oak and stickers everywhere. We had a great time!
The military so far wants to preserve the site and is deciding the best way too proceed.
And now you guys have got me all excited to go down and poke around the wildlife refuge! This realy is a terrible affliction, Thanks A Lot
No, you're just lucky that all you've been dealing with are the few trees at the shooting range!! At least you can count them, I thought about trying to count the ones at the former Camp Adair; but my best guess was at least a thousand fruit trees and maybe many more than that.....enough to be overwhelming:) Though at least you found some plums, I kept looking but never saw anything other than mostly apples and lesser numbers of pears. And your list of varieties agrees with what I'd been told; that there were large numbers of trees but that what was represented were mostly either old commercial ones or seedlings.
Guess I'll have to go check out the shooting range next fall to see the plums!
Dave
[quote="lotus026":hqf5egws]It's too late!! I was just talking with him on the phone for a couple of hours tonight, and he already is an "Apple Fanatic"! I'll confirm it for sure tomorrow when I go visit him to collect some scionwood:)
Dave[/quote:hqf5egws]
Sadly, Dave is right, I have a bad case of appl-itis, no cure known and it is terminal.
Welp, I started grafting today. Not as fun as I thought it was going to be, as I am kneeling on cold ground, and my feet keep going to sleep. My hands get cold. And my scion wood is not very well matched in diameter to my uniform stocks. But if I get a side or two to match using whip&tongue, I got 'er made. I am making certain to paint the whole scion with Doc Farwells glue after wrapping. This keeps the moisture in. Drying is our enemy! And the rain we are getting (off and on) is the enemy of fresh glue. So I am having to cover the glued grafts with buckets and things to keep the glue from washing off. Once it dries, nothing but the strongest acids and solvents can dissolve it. I have a jacket that has 6 year old Doc Farwell glue on it in spots. No amount of Tide or washing machine action will get that glue out!
I have several pink apples from the E.E. Wilson wildlife refuge. One reminded me of Pink Lady, as it was large, pink, hard, and sweet-tart. (sounds a bit like apple-porn doesn't it?) Now I do not remember which one it was, as there are perhaps 5 that match that description on my masking tape labels. Oh, well, put them all on Antonovka and let nature sort them out. Note to self: next time put more descriptors on the tape-tags. 
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Plumfun: “Welp, I started grafting today. Not as fun as I thought it was going to be, as I am kneeling on cold ground, and my feet keep going to sleep.†-- As fascinating as it is - like a lot of things, it eventually becomes work…
“I am making certain to paint the whole scion with Doc Farwells glue after wrapping.†– Then you’ve created a strong ‘cast,’ just keep an eye on it. I did the same (as usual) with some cleft graft’s last season; eventually slitting down through it (between the clefts) to allow for expansion. There’s a fair amount of aftercare with grafting, the initial graft is only the beginning.
“I have a jacket that has 6 year old Doc Farwell glue on it in spots. No amount of Tide or washing machine action will get that glue out.†– Me too! That’s why I always ‘dress down’ for the occasion; it’s basically latex paint, water-soluble - until it dries… I give everything two coats, but rarely graft in ‘iffy weather.’ I admit, grafting in the sun on a Spring day makes it a lot nicer experience … if you can swing it 
Update on the Wilson apples: they are all growing now. A couple remained dormant longer than the rest, but they have now all woken up and many have put on several inches of growth courtesy of their new Antonovka rootstocks. These are all in a straight garden row, spaced about 8 inches apart, meant to grow only one season where they are. They will need more room in following seasons. Being in a straight row makes watering with a hose-wand very convenient. This will become apparent to the reader as paragraph 4 is read!
About the Antonovka rootstocks: They came from Raintree, and looked just fantastic. In fact, maybe a little too fantastic, as there was generally far more extensive root system on the stocks than I was willing to put into the ground. So I pruned the actual roots quite generously, saving the severed roots in a pile. They had a yellow look to them. I covered the collected pile of roots with a large garbage can lid to prevent them from drying out and sprinkled them with a little water whenever I thought about it, which turned out to be every other day or so. The neat thing is, the root-pieces are now all trying to grow shoots and leaves! Wonderful! So I potted up around 40 of them yesterday into one gallon pots, using junky, spent, potting soil that has just been looking for a use. I will do more of these until I either run out of 1 gallon pots, or junky soil, or come to my senses. 
I added some forest duff and some molehill/gopherhill soil to this mix to extend it, etc. I had a bunch of grapes expire in pots, so that potting soil is also being recyled to the apple rootlings. Anything and everything goes into that soil mix! Even a little sawdust.... I bet these stocks, fed well over the summer, will form the basis of next years grafting session, And next winter, when I examine the potted stocks, there will be plenty of opportunity to prune roots with the goal of propagation in mind. I left one of the in-ground Antonovka's in a virgin, ungrafted state for this purpose as well. I may just make a habit of not using any roots for propagation that could be potentially infected with virus due to grafting.
The main reason I did not plant all these apple roots in garden rows is because my garden has been accumulating various rootstocks, trees, odd graftlings and such, and these "projects" already threaten to consume a quarter of the 60 x 90 plot. So I decided "no more garden space" to my trees for this year. We need to grow veggies too!
Here is a fun tip for people with apple volunteer seedlings all over their garden: Early in the spring, before they lose dormancy, move them into a row if you are going to use them for grafting. This year I made the mistake of leaving them wherever they were in the garden (random composting locations) and grafting where they were already growing, thinking that the undisturbed root system was really "best". Ha! Now I have to remember where they are all at. Sometimes I almost accidently step on one, or drag a hose across a few, or forget where several more are for watering purposes. I can see that it's going to evolve into a nightmare caring for all these randomly located seedlings who each sport some precious graft. They most certainly will get moved next winter. No more of that nonsense!
Viron, you inquired about bulls-eye rot (anthracnose). On the Wilson apples, I actually did discover a couple of scions that had it. I am glad you alerted me to this disease, as I have never encountered it till this winter. I immediately recognized it from my wintertime studies of it and was sure to avoid grafting any of it inadvertantly to the stocks. Hopefully I have not introduced it into my area.
Now I am looking forward to a nice deer-free summer!
Plumfun, you’ve got it bad! That’s great -- I’m interested in how your potted ‘virus free’ (Antonovka) rootstock cuttings / starts progress... And what a wonderful description - had me smiling the entire way – right up to those darn deer…
I’ve often wondered if commercial nurseries ‘fear’ our propagation fairs or free distribution of scions? When considering viral transmission – I doubt they ‘fear’ us at all… But if we were to produce mass-quantities of virus-free rootstock … better consult the attorneys..?
Just a few days ago my kids asked why ‘we’ couldn’t propagate rootstock the way it’s done by a local grower..? Mounding a ‘Mother tree’ was the method I’d described to them. Just didn’t know how much room I’d be willing to devote to those mounds … as you stated, “We need to grow veggies too!†…But if all that was necessary to start viral free rootstock, of any kind (baring plant patents) - your method sounds quite doable! If loads of it!
Likely a decade ago I passed up buying a very large and expensive book that was described to me as the ultimate in propagation … maybe I should have splurged, though it would likely have gotten me into all kinds of problem projects, too! Just this spring I grafted over a plum rootstock yard-sprout that had amazingly avoided the mower last year. Actually, after a couple mowings, I purposely left it … now I’ve yet another multiple-variety Asian Plum!’ …which now needs further protection from the deer. If I only had some cozy limited space in town, with no deer (if there’s such a place?), there’d be (or have been) limitations to my madness -- though I’ve seen some wild stuff done in tight places; example: Joe (un)Real!
Anyway, keep us posted on those rootstocks – and if we’ve any Attorneys … speak up
A note about these so-called Antonovka stocks: Evidently they are all coming from Lawyers Nursery in Montana. I cannot seem to get them to commit one way or the other to pure-bred seed. So I am assuming they are open pollinated, meaning they could be only half Russian Antonovka. Quality would be just excellent for Oregon, but it could be a crapshoot in Alaska or Yukon Territories!
Now, did anyone besides me check out the Camp Adair apples last fall? I did, due to missing about a quarter of them last year. Got some pretty interesting findlings too!
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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