My co-worker has a crab apple tree in their front yard and they put up a trail camera on it. They've been getting several deer in every night. It makes me think I should consider planting a crab apple tree(s) on my hunting grounds.

I have around 300 apples of various kinds on my 80 acres. The little ornamental crabs are favorites for the grouse but ALL the wildlife benefit from them. Marten even have a sweet tooth and enjoy them. There were probably 200 Robins in the crabs by the house today. I try to plant at least a dozen new trees every year and I am getting "volunteers" from the squirrels packing them away.

Don't overlook pears. Dad's got photos of deer, raccoons, groundhogs, turkey, opossums, fox and coyotes eating pears.

Don't plant Callery Pears, they spread like crazy!

Only birds eat those and are how they spread. A real nasty invasive weed.

The eating pears are the ones deer like.

yes crap apples are great for wildlife

I have 6 Dolgo Crab apple trees , the fruit is 1 1/2” - 2” and the deer love them. Also they were just whips when I planted them and started bearing fruit after about 4 years.

I have a crab apple in front of my blind. Does fawns and small bucks hit it all day long. I planted a dozen of the apples recently. Hopefully they grow next spring. My tree produces every other year real heavy.

That's Awesome

I'll try to find a couple that deer like and get them ordered for my hunting ground

Try to get the variety of crab apple that is native to your state. For you guys that have a bunch, if they have been there forever, you should make sure to get seeds. There is an Apple group going around trying to find the older apple varieties from the 1800s. One of the times they went to this one off, regarded as not likely because of how far away from everything it was. This farm also had clear cutted a bunch of stuff, well they went and wouldnt you know ole farmer saved that apple tree, some super rare variety they were able to get seeds from. Just cool thinking about it.

I have both wild apple sized apples and wild crabapple sized apple trees on my farm. The squirrels and deer get most of them because they grow on slippery steep slopes, in thick brush. The different trees produce fruit that varies widely by tree. Most of the fruit is tart and dry and ranges from green to yellow when ripe. On most of the trees, the fruit is ripe sometime between the middle of July and thevmiddle of August.

I had one wild tree I liked the fruit on better, that had yellow apples with around 50% of the apple tinted red. The fruit would ripen around the middle of July. Unfortunately, it blew over. I was hoping it would throw some suckers, that would grow up, but it didnt.

Next year I plan on adding the tart wild apples to cider, if I can harvest them okay.

Keith

Dolgos are the easiest to grow and they do it quickly and are cheap, buy the 5-7' size fence them no fert the first year then every year thereafter...better fence them or deer will browse the new growth off. Crabs pollinate most every variety of apple tree. I plant a half dozen mixed varieties every year among my wild apple trees so they produce Sept. until January. Keiffer pears are the best in northern climates for deer, little fungus or rust quick growers BUT PLANT THEM ONLY IN THE FALL OR VERY EARLY IN SPRING!...Yeah I have an orchard that produces fruit for the market

I have several flowering crabs in my yard and the wild turkeys but the dozens are eating on them every day, crapping all over everything and just being a general nuisance.

I saved crab seeds this year....I tried sprouting some in the fridge between damp paper towels.no sprouting

Couldn't you just plant them in the ground?