Combination apple trees consensus

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by Precious, May 10, 2017.

  1. Precious

    Precious New Member

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    Hi everyone, I am wondering what the consensus is for combination apple trees? Are they the way to go or are the old fashioned methods of fruit trees still the better choice?

    My goats destroyed some of my apple trees that I had had for a few years. One of them was stripped naked of it's bark and is basically dead. The other apple tree had it's bark stripped naked too but miraculously it is still blooming full with flowers 2 years after the fact. No fruit though and not close to any neighbours enough for someone elses tree to pollinate mine. So I was thinking of getting a combination apple tree in the hopes that it will fulfill the pollination times for the recovering one.

    thanks for any comments,
    Sarah
     
  2. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    If you have limited space, a combination apple (or any fruit) tree is a good way to get a range of varieties. For many years I've had a couple of apple trees that included several additional varieties that I grafted, and they have worked very well. The only potential problem that I can think of is that you have to prune judiciously to keep more vigorous varieties from dominating and shading out less vigorous ones.
     
  3. Precious

    Precious New Member

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    Okay thank you. I am not limited in space but thought that the staggered blooming of a combination tree might give me a better chance of pollinating my recovering one.
     
  4. Precious

    Precious New Member

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    Just like to say a thank you to everyone that gave advice on my apple tree pollination problems. I had apple trees that I had bought (from my uncles nursery) and after about 5 years of waiting for apples to grow on them my goats busted into my garden and decimated one of the apple trees and the other one is a miracle survivor. But it was blooming really well, even if it had most of it's bark eaten off it, for 3 seasons after the damage so I left it be. I finally got a combination apple tree last spring and my old apple tree grew lots of apples!!! And guess what i found out after the old apple tree produced? They had both been the same variety!!! Parkland, both. When I bought them the tags on them said one was Parkland and the other was a Heyer. :) So now we at least have found out what our problem was and I am over the moon about it lol!

    Again, thank you everyone for your time.

    Sarah
     

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