Crab Aples from seed

[Matthew]

A start on these has taken place today , with so many trunks I will end up scrapping anything that looks ordinary saving time and space for the better material .

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With 5-6 different varieties I will need to sort out area's for each and plant some of the developed material into planter bags for sale , some has been and more will be grafted with other varieties hoping to produce a few double and triple grafted specimens .

Cheers Alpineart

great work Alpine . I have found that the purple leaf variety I have grown in the ground before is very hit and miss with its rebuding. I have 3 out of the ground this year in training pots just trunks so I hope they pop where I want them

[alpineart]

Hi Matthew , mate most of the reds here have been propagated from that single little trunk you gave me all those years ago when you moved down here .. The original plant is still in its pot the trimmings both root and branch are where most of the good reds come from .

I have found the root cutting superior for back budding however the other branch cutting appear to be fairly reasonable , I do hack them back hard every year and during the grow season and like everything's else here Rustica Plus is the preferred fertilizer . The orchard growers up here cant be wrong .

I have been using the trimmings from those and the original red for grafting onto other stock , hope they work out .

Cheers . Alpine

[alpineart]

These are some of the root cuttings from the Plant Matthew gave me .

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All have good movement some of which was wire in during the first season , 1 is a root cutting with a graft attached . These are awaiting a hack and chop

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, not with a hammer or axe as some suggest but not with trimming scissors either , they will be planted into bags or put back into a grow bed ,there will be plenty of root cuttings produced this season again .

Cheers . Alpineart

[alpineart]

Here is some more of the developing trunks that have been potted up

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, large enough to be shohin when branches are developed and refined .

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The original tree on the left from Matthew which has donated all the branch , seed and root cuttings , it has been in a pot all its life , the middle tree is a seed grown from the original several years old , it along with the original trunk will have the apexes layered off this season . The last trunk is a root cutting a couple of season old , a ground grown twin trunk . I still have quite a few Reds to be placed back into the grow beds before starting on the heritage stock .

Cheers . Alpineart

[alpineart]

These are growing very well considering the flowered and fruited in winter I'm surprised they have the energy so early to do it all again

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The grow bed is a little slower than the potted material

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but who's in a hurry .

Cheers .Alpineart

[Pearcy001]

Hey Alpine, I think I remember reading somewhere that crabapple only fruit when they are around other crabs, is that correct? Mine has begun leafing out now but no flowers as yet.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[alpineart]

Hi Pearcy001 , some crab apples along with other species are self pollinating , the red one here flowered without any other crab apples and the fruit had viable seed , that doesn't mean it is self pollinating there could be any number of tree's next door or around the corner .

From the fruit of this red I started off the journey into various varieties types of crab apples here , then the root cutting's were used to produce more tree's then cuttings and layers have also been taken . These 2 will have open pot layers set this season .

It is recommended the you have 2 tree's unless you know for sure it's self pollinating .

Cheers Alpine

[Meagi]

Like the second one from the end nice chunky trunk .

[Meagi]

Like the triple trunk something you don’t see often in these

[alpineart]

Hi Meagi , mate there are plenty of different configurations here , the new grow beds are now full of trainers

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.

Cheers . Alpine

[alpineart]

This was part of a topic at last nights club meeting .I didn't complete the task until this morning with the ring bark and wire tourniquet method used

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. Its an open pot layer , both have had a selective trim

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and its back on the bench . I'm hoping to produce a shohin trunk be it single or twin to challenge Shibui at next years show , might have to enter a shohin pot plant this year . I have a few small trainers but nothing well defined so rather than waste the apex a layer is a worthwhile prospect .

Cheers . Alpineart