2023 - General pruning, cut back vigorous Gray Pearmain. Quite a lot of fireblight & tip blight strikes in tree - cut out as I noticed them. Moderate crop, dropping end of August. Apples picked up as they dropped and put in current sauce or cider. Not a huge amount but appreciated.

#2 - Last year's graft growing well. 

2022 - April cut off one fairly large top tier limb, pruned back others plus some uprights. Fairly open structure. Discovered a fairly large possibly sunscald spot on south side of trunk. Possibly from reduced elm shade as the elm was dying. Sprayed with Neem oil and comfrey/spinach solution. Tree appears healthy. Had some blossom/tip blight (many trees did this year) - pulled off when found.

Early May cut down the dying elm directly south of Splitter early spring. Went from about 3 hours of good sun to 6 hours! I'm surprised it could ripen any fruit before. Full of blossoms end of May. Had a light crop of fruit.

Plus, fruit for the first time on the Gray Pearmain graft! See Gray Pearmain for notes.

AND, what I'd been calling Hoholik again had fruit, four large healthy apples, definitely not Hoholik (see that page for more info). I finally scrounged through my old notes and sure enough, I had another scion that year, from an old tree in a nearby old orchard of the Tebo homestead. My notes said we'd grafted on a seedling but it died. No notes that we'd grafted also on the Splitter tree but obviously we had as we did no other grafting that year. Of course, the names have little meaning to anyone but me, and they aren't the variety names anyway (which I don't know). But knowing the sources and history behind the original tree gives the apples more interest to me other than just another apple. So I've added Tebo apple to my growing list of apples in my orchard.

#2 - Late winter I cut a scion to graft elsewhere, curious to see how it might be different. End May grafted to a12 seedling se of hangar at ~ 4 ft, tall scion. Grew fine, ~3" top and some other leaf growth.

2021 - Moderate spring pruning, quite a few uprights plus some top. Looking good. All grafts doing fine.

2020 - Tree doing well. Light fruit set. Picked up as they fell. By September 21 I had a small basket full, stored in the root cellar. This year it got its rightful due - as a very good fruit - by being at the right place at the right time - in the cellar when no other apple was prime for eating. October 8 I cut one up and, wow, it was very good! I'd hit it at its prime, juicy, with a nicely balanced tart-sweet (enough sweet) and very good flavor. Very good fresh eating. Apparently they do best to store awhile for best flavor. From previous years I know they don't keep long but now they have a special place as fresh eaters after Norkent and Beacon are past, and before Haralson is ready. Yay Splitter!

And yet that wasn't all. There was another apple, just one, on what I thought was what I had named Hoholik after the original farm family who planted (or allowed to grow) the mother tree maybe 100 yrs ago (see Hoholik page for story) grafted several years ago. This graft produced one apple this year (and three last year). A very nice 6 oz healthy pretty apple. However, the apple didn't look much like the original (which was a green/yellow with just an occasional blush patch), nor like last year's apples. These have a lot of red, moderately crisp, moderately juicy, moderately flavor. No Wow but a decent eater. Did we graft some other scion that I don't remember???

2019 - 9/16 Light crop but nice. Dropping (or blown off) one or two a day. Very nice. Picked last ones 9/28 Total ~peck. Start eating mid Oct, good texture, juicy, sweeter than Dudley. Healthy fruit, healthy tree.

First apples on Nutting and Hoholik (now Tebo - see 2022) grafts (see individual variety notes).

2018 - Very little pruning. Filling in, moderate growth, nice shaped tree, healthy. Light crop of very nice apples, medium size, green w/red stripe/spash, almost russet feel skin, white lenticels, tart/sweet very good flavor! Dropping early Sept, squirrels/chipmunks got some. Picked ~12. Mid Sept picked rest - 12#. Saved 6 to eat fresh, sauced rest. Early Oct getting rubbery in root cellar. Like these apples. No more grafting. Quite shaded by elm immediately south & sw.

2017 -  Pruned mostly low branches and bring down top. Doesn’t get a lot of sun (in shade of elms) but nice shaped healthy tree. Later than rest to leaf & bloom. Light bloom 6/5. Light crop, decent med-sm tart-sour (but not as sour as Sasha & Front Yard fruit), green w/ lt red striped/blush. Dropping some mid Sept, many yet in tree. End Sept last apples drop. Later apples nice tart/sweet flavor, different than Dudley’s tart/sweet. Ate last stored apple 10/30, getting slightly softer. Good flavor, texture, juicy, mildly crisp, nice eating. No more grafts; let rest of tree original.

2016 - Cut out significant amount to open up and shape, cut out around grafted branches. Full blossoms! Small but nice set fruit, medium size. Lot low on tree so deer got most. 2 more dropped 8/31; 2 left in tree. Last one 9/2. Good growth, some suckers.

2015 - Doing well, pruned for shape and height.

2014 - Cut back & thinned top. Produced 2 apples.

GrayPearmain - Grafted 2013 on south side. All of last year’s shoot winterkilled (hard winter). Two shoots grew on prev. years section (thankfully).

Copyright © Susan Robishaw