I am searching for some crab apples that might stay true to form like Dolgos. If anyone has any crab apples especially if they know the variety they have and would be willing to mail me some seeds I would greatly appreciate it. These will all be planted for wildlife. I have some Fuji scion that I could offer in trade or peach or pears.

I didn't know any apples would stay true to form through seed?

When planting for wildlife with fruit, it does not really matter if they stay true to form

When I plant apples from seeds the apples will vary from pea sized to golf ball sized. The deer, grouse and turkeys don't care, they like them all. The quality that I am TRYING to master is to propagate the trees that hold the apples all winter and provide a winter time food source. The others fall off the trees and are gone in 2 weeks. This time of the year I am on the hunt for apples too just for the seeds. I pick lots of them from the ditches and abandoned farms. I would guess I have somewhere around 300-400 growing on my place now and they DO alter animal movement. Mice in the winter are my biggest enemy but I enjoy getting them to grow in places they shouldn't and the blossoms in the spring are amazing. Here in the early spring the apples will start to leaf out before anything else. I walk in the woods and can often spot a young apple from 25 yards away. I flag them, blaze the surrounding trees with orange paint and then either cage them or thin around them when they are 5 feet tall or more. It is cheap entertainment.

Not the same, but I've had good luck with Ornamental Apple Trees, Fruit's not as large, but they won't spread like crazy and form "Jungles".

The place where I live now came with 3 ornamental crab apples. As near as I can tell, the main criteria for these is the color of blossom in spring. The white blossoms make best fruit for crab apple jelly. Pink blossoms 2nd, and a tree that may have been grafted onto a bud root stock has red blossoms, solid red round fruit, red bark and reddish green leaves.

The deer and wildlife eat all three........but aside from the fruit low enough to nip from the tree, they all have to wait until a hard freeze when fruit turns brown and will start to drop off. Sometimes they ferment on the tree. Have seen flocks of wax wings show up then, along with deer and possums at night. Drunks.

But if a guy wanted to plant a bunch just like them, easiest way would be to buy some semi dwarf root stock and graft them. As many as you wanted.

Dolgo is one variety of crab that is supposed to grow well from seedling and represent itself fairly well. Also from my reading, the rootstock of Dolgo crabs grafted onto any apple supposedly produces a decent wildlife apple tree. I started observing the numbers of paw paws and persimmons that grow well and dont produce fruit and wanted to improve those through selective grafting. I desire more apples out in the wild as I know they are huge wildlife attractants. Am watching a few older trees this fall to observe how long the apples persist and amounts produced and will attempt to graft off them this coming spring. Seeds of crabs though such as transcendent and dolgo both are supposed to reflect parent stock.

antonovka apples are another that grow true to seed and another to check out is annurka

For what it is worth, I ordered bare root apple tree stock from an outfit in Wisconsin. I only ordered 40 but with tax and shipping they ended up less than $5 each. Just something to consider.

If you just want seeds from any type of apple, check with places that press cider. The presses don't smash the seeds. The remaining cakes of pressed apples have thousands of seeds in them.

Keith

I think we're all waiting to see how this goes for you, if it goes well I suspect thousands will be sold from Tman alone next year, Paul should get a commission

If they are as good as he says they are, I am going to order 400-500 myself. A guy can just never have too many fruit trees.

St Lawrence nursery in Potsdam ny sells trees with Antonovka root stock fairly cheap …..I have planted 20 so far and am starting to get apples now after 5 or 6 years ….

The Extension office where my daughter lives brings in windbreak trees and shrubs. She picked up a 3’ Dolgo whip for $7.

Place a call to the Hort agent see if they offer it in your area and when you have to place an order.

They had Dolgo, Red Splendor and plum tree whips.

Our extension and county office does nothing like that. When I was up in ND we also sold trees out of the SCS office.

I checked on that nursery in Wisconsin and sure enough no delivery to Missouri other than east St. Louie........

PM me your Address

i have crab apple seeds from 2022 in the freezer I'll send you.

Scott

I have planted crab apples whole and just the seeds. Neither grew. Must have done something wrong.