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Post by Sandbur on Jan 30, 2019 15:15:14 GMT -6
You will be battling hardiness up there. You need advice from someone with experience in that area. I grew up about 80 miles south of there. Our souls are light and get droughty in that area. Apple trees are tough to grow there. That’s where a large pile of wood chips would help. Let them rot down and provide mulch that’ll give nutrients and hold water longer for those trees. When Kooch has his land cleared they may have a chipper and they could leave him a large pile. I was fearing drought for a period last summer. About dozen trees had 3-5 layers of cardboard placed around them with an occasional dog food bag as a partial weed barrier. Then covered with six inches of wood chips. Some rats did next in the wood chips, especially with trees that were producing and dropping apples in the cage.
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Post by benmnwi on Jan 30, 2019 15:26:40 GMT -6
My soil is sandy as well, so I put a bunch of leaves and grass clippings around my new trees. Any weeds, sticks, branches, etc. that I pick up in my yard also go around my apple trees. I don't know if it makes a big difference or not, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems. You definitely need aluminum screen around the tree trunks though since thick mulch seems to draw in mice and voles. When the leaves, grass and sticks rot down they make a couple inches of new topsoil around the trees which is a good thing in light soil.
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Post by nhmountains on Dec 13, 2019 10:54:16 GMT -6
Well bad news I guess. I heard from the Colorado Orange people. DNA tests of their mother tree show that it is a York Apple. Does that mean the original Colorado Orange was a York or does it mean the tree was mislabeled down through the years? Not sure but, it shows that you should label your trees with tags so they don’t get mislabeled for future generations. Update I received an email from Montezuma Orchards saying the genetic fingerprinting matched it to York Imperial but, the DNA testing said it was an unknown variety. It was a grafted tree and not a seedling. They went to Colorado State University archives and the apples they brought matched the waxed apple they had in their collection and the four historical paintings that had been done of the fruit so they are now 98% sure this is the Colorado Orange. The graft I’d done on a tree at my camp in 2018 has grown well and I have a few growing at home that’ll get placed in an orchard some where next spring.
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Post by biglakebass on Dec 13, 2019 11:11:38 GMT -6
Another apple fact that just blows my mind. I wish I could begin to wrap my mind around how all this works.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 13, 2019 13:17:39 GMT -6
Well bad news I guess. I heard from the Colorado Orange people. DNA tests of their mother tree show that it is a York Apple. Does that mean the original Colorado Orange was a York or does it mean the tree was mislabeled down through the years? Not sure but, it shows that you should label your trees with tags so they don’t get mislabeled for future generations. Update I received an email from Montezuma Orchards saying the genetic fingerprinting matched it to York Imperial but, the DNA testing said it was an unknown variety. It was a grafted tree and not a seedling. They went to Colorado State University archives and the apples they brought matched the waxed apple they had in their collection and the four historical paintings that had been done of the fruit so they are now 98% sure this is the Colorado Orange. The graft I’d done on a tree at my camp in 2018 has grown well and I have a few growing at home that’ll get placed in an orchard some where next spring. That seems contradictory to me? I'm assuming if C.O. isn't the same as Y.I., it must be at least related somehow?
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Post by nhmountains on Dec 13, 2019 13:41:23 GMT -6
Update I received an email from Montezuma Orchards saying the genetic fingerprinting matched it to York Imperial but, the DNA testing said it was an unknown variety. It was a grafted tree and not a seedling. They went to Colorado State University archives and the apples they brought matched the waxed apple they had in their collection and the four historical paintings that had been done of the fruit so they are now 98% sure this is the Colorado Orange. The graft I’d done on a tree at my camp in 2018 has grown well and I have a few growing at home that’ll get placed in an orchard some where next spring. That seems contradictory to me? I'm assuming if C.O. isn't the same as Y.I., it must be at least related somehow? Yeah for the past year I’d been under the impression they had done dna and it showed as YI. The letter today seemed like the dna came back different from other known trees. So I have no idea what genetic fingerprinting is compared to dna. I forwarded you the email. Regardless I hope it’s a great tasting apple and does well for the deer on my land.
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Post by nhmountains on Jun 24, 2020 14:02:41 GMT -6
My frankentree will have its first Colorado Orange Apple’s this year. Smitty’s Seedling graft is on the right side.
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Post by nhmountains on Aug 9, 2020 4:36:10 GMT -6
My first Colorado Orange apple is coming along nicely. Starting to get larger, putbon sone color , and the shape is different from most of the apples I have. If you look closely a Smitty’s Seedling graft is the stem that has the orange tape on it. It’ll have fruit next year.
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Post by kabic on Sept 18, 2020 16:04:58 GMT -6
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Post by smallchunk on Sept 20, 2020 9:46:34 GMT -6
I read that too, pretty cool!
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Post by nhmountains on Apr 7, 2022 20:49:21 GMT -6
That seems contradictory to me? I'm assuming if C.O. isn't the same as Y.I., it must be at least related somehow? Yeah for the past year I’d been under the impression they had done dna and it showed as YI. The letter today seemed like the dna came back different from other known trees. So I have no idea what genetic fingerprinting is compared to dna. I forwarded you the email. Regardless I hope it’s a great tasting apple and does well for the deer on my land. The update is they have contacted me out of the blue and are sending new scions that they think are the Colorado Orange so I’ll be grafting again soon.
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Post by smsmith on Apr 8, 2022 7:06:42 GMT -6
Yeah for the past year I’d been under the impression they had done dna and it showed as YI. The letter today seemed like the dna came back different from other known trees. So I have no idea what genetic fingerprinting is compared to dna. I forwarded you the email. Regardless I hope it’s a great tasting apple and does well for the deer on my land. The update is they have contacted me out of the blue and are sending new scions that they think are the Colorado Orange so I’ll be grafting again soon. It's pretty cool that they contacted you in order to get you the "right" scions. Waiting to taste new varieties seems to take forever here.
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Post by nhmountains on Apr 8, 2022 17:50:04 GMT -6
The update is they have contacted me out of the blue and are sending new scions that they think are the Colorado Orange so I’ll be grafting again soon. It's pretty cool that they contacted you in order to get you the "right" scions. Waiting to taste new varieties seems to take forever here. The previous scions produced apples in 2 years. The first time, I waited for it the apple to ripen and something got it first. Last fall, I picked them early and they weren't very good. I believe they were found to be York Imperial. So I'm guessing a couple years. I'll graft to existing trees for now instead of rootstock.
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Post by smsmith on Mar 24, 2023 18:08:50 GMT -6
Yeah for the past year I’d been under the impression they had done dna and it showed as YI. The letter today seemed like the dna came back different from other known trees. So I have no idea what genetic fingerprinting is compared to dna. I forwarded you the email. Regardless I hope it’s a great tasting apple and does well for the deer on my land. The update is they have contacted me out of the blue and are sending new scions that they think are the Colorado Orange so I’ll be grafting again soon. You may have posted somewhere before but I missed it. Were your new C.O. grafts successful?
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Post by nhmountains on Apr 11, 2023 6:51:42 GMT -6
The update is they have contacted me out of the blue and are sending new scions that they think are the Colorado Orange so I’ll be grafting again soon. You may have posted somewhere before but I missed it. Were your new C.O. grafts successful? Sorry Stu. I didn’t see this. No I screwed up and didn’t have time to graft them before they dried up. I was busy with the father in-law in the hospital and recovery during that stretch.
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