liabobia; I'm sorry I don't recognize your apple variety, but if I were to hunt for it, I'd start with the earliest of varieties - assuming those are what would consistently ripen in Alaska?

"How do you clone an apple tree?" You don't really want to 'clone them.' I've heard it said that you can propagate apples from 'cuttings,' but you'd loose the necessary rootstock that is far better at withstanding (and often used for 'dwarfing') harsh soil conditions. Rootstock, which is often a thorny primitive ancestor to the 'modern' fruiting cultivars, is what you graft your desired variety to. You can of course graft it to an existing tree as well, same idea, only bigger 'rootstock.'

"Should I get professional help to graft it?" Had you been 'down' here on Saturday, and the HOS Scion Exchange, you could have paid $3 to have 'one of us' graft it for you... You'd have had to buy the rootstock, $4 or so - plus the price of admission, but for the additional $3 (the scions, or desired variety were free) - have had a tree! I know you can mail-order rootstock, but I'm not sure about the possibility of sending 'your' scion wood to a nursery that 'custom grafts,' and them sending you back the finished product..? Anyone know of such a thing?

If you've a large enough community, you might put out a request for a local grafter - but don't hold your breath... Here's my Self-sufficient-Alaskan advice: you will have to save some 'wood' from the apple tree you described, as well as come up with one rootstock per desired tree. When you prune your tree, take the one year old 'sucker shoots' (growing strait up) and save about 8 - one foot pieces (wrapped in damp newspaper and twist-tied in a bread bag) in your refrigerator. Take the rest and start practicing the slanting cuts you're gonna need to 'splice' those parts together. Search online (there are plenty) for a site that shows how to make a 'whip & tongue' graft (it may also be called other names..). After your rootstock arrives, practice some more, then do it to both scion and rootstock, wrap with 'whatever,' plant in a garden location, and tell us what happens - or doesn't.

In your case, it sounds as if you could give away as many trees as you come up with - I'd order 5 or so rootstocks (look for a bundled price break), and whittle away! After grafting more trees than I could keep track of yesterday at the event mentioned above - it's hard to 'make' you do it yourself ... but isn't that the Alaskan cost of admission - but be careful " title="Wink" />