managing old native apple trees

[farmerdoug]

Sd,  Was the apples on your old tree yellowish green?

It sounds like a tree that my mom planted here at our place.  It is called 'Northern Greening'.  The apples ripen late and will hang on the tree all winter if something does not eat them first.  The apples are sweet and crisp.  I really like them.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Doug, yes they were. And in good years they were quite big. I would make sauce from them, if I didn't already mention that in here.

[farmerdoug]

SD,  That definitly sounds like the Northern Greening.  My mom says they are the best cooking apples we have.  I like them because they are sweet and crisp.  I like a crunchy apple.  Ours get big almost every year but I do prune it too.  Unfortunatly around here they have to be sprayed to many apple trees in this area.  Not as many as the west side of the state but still a big apple orchard area.

You will have to try and get another or maybe graft one.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

https://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/northern_greening_variety.aspx

[farmerdoug]

SD,

Our tree produces apples that are yellow with a hint of red but otherwise the apple sounds the same.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Mines the same as yours Doug. Don't know, sometimes people mix up names to. ;)

[SwampDonkey]

Sutton beauty may be similar Doug. One things for sure, most of the old varieties can't be got around here. Every time I go to the nursery, it's all new cultivars.  : Seems to me something that is 200 years old, must have been pretty good. ;)

[farmerdoug]

It is possible that the variety has changed in time between here and old England too.  I know that the Nortern Spy as my mom and others remember is alot different than the ones that come from the west side of the state now.  Of course it could be the 'Jackson&Perkins rose syndrome' also.  If you look at their catalog you will find roses from other places under a new name to give them an exclusive branding if you know what I mean. :

Now my mom did order the trees from a catalog years ago so their name may not have been right.  I will now at sometime look through the old variety catalogs to see if I can recognize it. ;)

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Go back to that site I posted and there is a link at the bottom of the first page that has more images. I do remember that mine has some specs in the skin.

[farmerdoug]

SD,

The pics in the second row look just like it.  When I said a red tint it is more like red specks that get a little bigger the more frosts on the apples.  The flesh is very white also.  The apples on the tree have great holding power.  The birds, rabbits and deer love eating them right off the tree so I only pic the best and leave the rest for nature.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

This is where we've bought many fruit trees and shrubs.

http://www.cornhillnursery.com/retail/retail.html

Here is another.

http://www.scottsnursery.nb.ca/tree-nursery-fruit-trees.asp

[farmerdoug]

There is a guy I have met that has an apple orchard of ten acres.  He collects cutting from different varieties and grafts them on to his trees.  The last I heard he had over 450 different varieties in his orchard.  I think he would be a good place to find alot of old varieties.  He is always looker for more too.

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, but we can't transport rooted trees back and forth across borders. I know one fellow that had someone fence in a small patch in his woodlot for a new variety of apple. It's in an area far north of any commercial apple orchards.

[Onthesauk]

We have a nursery out here where you can walk through in the fall and taste the apples, note the ones you like and he will graft those for you.  You pick the tree up the next year.  I haven't been there, but have had other nursery folks tell me that he can ID any apple grown, just bring him in a ripe apple.

[Phorester]

For renewing old abandoned apple trees you might also try your State Game Department.  Since these things are good for wildlife, the VA Game Commission put out a brochure a few years ago on rejuvenating and managing trees found around old homesteads and abandoned mountain orchards.