Available February & March yearly
ORDER SCIONWOOD
Open pollinated seedlings:
Scorpio Crab - Wickson seedling, late season, cherry sized yellow crab, sharp acid, anise, clove
Snouts Perfect - Brown Snout seedling, hard dry tannins, low acid, mid/late season
Pleiades - Porters Perfection seedling, similar to Porters but with stronger hard smoky tannins and less
acid, late season
Spica - Porters Perfection seedling, honey, nutty, soft tannins, sweet, late season more like a blend of Golden Russet and Porters, without the russet.
Wild seedlings:
Gnarled Chapman - Large partially russetted, late season bittersweet, low acid, mineral chalky tannins, light green apple with rosy blush!!, beautiful!! Strong growing upright tree, not precocious
Redbyrd Bitter - medium to large sized bitter sharp, mid season, drops when ripe, plentiful pleasant tannins and acidity
Searsburg Cherry Bomb - early mid season ripening, bright red cherry sized apples, very unusual orange flesh, bright sharp acid, weaker growing spurred crab type tree. Absolutely clean of foliage blemishes with no spray!!!!, possibly one to cross with in the future.
Steam Mill Crossroads - mid late season, medium vigor, extremely hard plentiful earthy tannins, you can’t eat this without a serious mouth pucker. Possibly a shy producer, not sure yet.
Ashcroft Bittersharp - Tasty, crispy higher acid eating apple. Nice sized fruit with beautiful glowing orange blush. Lower in tannin but still there if desired for cider.
Curry Road Bittersharp - mid sized later season large crab with good acid and tannin. Not a fruity zingy type crab but more earthy and spice.
Texas King Crab - from Texas Hollow state forest in Hector NY. This is a earlier season source for sharp acid, it gets mealy when ripe do not do good for eating but great for early season cider pressing. Strong growing upright tree, beautiful yellow apples with a very distinct and unique calyx.
Email Eric at redbyrdorchardcider@gmail.com for more information, see what is available and to place your scionwood order.
$5/stick + shipping, pay by venmo or check.
Wild seedling apple trees grow well around us in New York. We find them everywhere, in forests shaded by towering hardwoods, in abandoned fields transitioning from cropland to brush, and especially along hedgerows. Over the years of finding, collecting, fermenting and grafting these trees it has become more and more apparent that their value is not only a complex component to cider but is a valuable gene bank for disease resistance. Every year we graft new selections and increase the “collection” in our orchard. Some of these trees were grafted 10 years ago and are showing us their production habits in a cultivated orchard setting. Some seem diminished and not as interesting as their “mother tree” once the young tree comes into bearing. Others seem to have their flavors intensified and in some ways focused which may be a product of what the culture of cultivated, pruned trees standing in straight rows reveals. This is interesting and really shows the influence of terrior and the distinctive values of an old tree with deep roots or a tree pruned and planted to maximize sun exposure. So far, these grafted trees mirror the disease resistant traits shown by their thriving wild parent.
We hope these "new" varieties can make their way to cider apple orchards all over the country. That would make us very happy.
Our orchard is under low input management so disease susceptible varieties have been weeded out. These open pollinated seedling and wild seedling varieties have been trialed in our orchard and work for us under this low management system. All of the above varieties are considered to be disease resistant and suitable for a no spray or minimal spray orchard.