AKApples

10/25/2026

https://youtu.be/Gg4yxGoPPxc?si=WQqZ_z2yhYS2zfkx

This short video is from a few years ago, but the story and work of The Lost Apple Project is very fascinating and important, preserving history. What stories these old apple trees could tell….and what they have found is living on in many other people’s orchards now.

Currently growing three “newly discovered” apples here in the orchard. One I’m very encouraged by is Sary Sinap. It’s going into its third winter here, healthy, and growing well. It’s supposed to be a very early ripening apple which is great news for Alaska. So far passing the hardiness test.

David Benscoter, apple detective: "It might be … Here, let's stop r...

10/17/2026

The new seedling trial area also doubles as a winter over area for seedlings and grafted trees. Everything stays here until spring. These are a mix of this year’s seedlings, grafted seedlings, and grafted known apples (to be put up for sale next year).

The colored flagging denotes which rootstock they are on with each tree’s information written on them. The bright green flagging at the end of the video are this year’s seedlings that are still on their own roots. In March many of these will be cut and grafted to rootstock. Notice the large variance in growth between the seedlings.

10/12/2026

Apple seedlings are showing great diversity even within the same seed/pollen combinations. Those that have released their leaves will most likely be grafted out next year.

10/12/2026

There is a huge amount of diversity even with the same seed and pollen parents. One thing I look for this time of year is what seedlings have turned color and released their leaves for winter. These will make good candidates to graft next year as they are showing signs of hardening off. Those that are still not releasing leaves easily will probably be passed over.

Below are some examples of the vast differences even within the same seed/pollen parents. Descriptions under photos.

10/11/2026

Extracting seeds from Rescue apples. Disinfected in peroxide, air dried, then refrigerated until ready to plant.

10/11/2026

Rainy days are good for seed extracting…..plenty of overripe Rescues giving up seeds and seeing the light.

10/08/2026

Trailman OP 24-1 apple seedling has been grafted to both G41 and G890 rootstock. Very vigorous growing 30” and 28” this year. Looking forward to what apples it will produce someday.

10/08/2026

One of the seedlings I’m excited about I’ve shared on occasion before. Trailman OP (open pollinated) 24-1 was grown from seed in 2024. It has Trailman as a seed parent but pollen parent is unknown, but most likely from a good tasting apple in the orchard.

Ever since it has been growing, the leaves have shown reddish traits. Possibly this could lead to some reddish in the flesh, time will tell.

Earlier this year I grafted it to both G41 rootstock and G890 rootstock. Both were kept in pots throughout the summer with G890 being planted in the seedling trial rows this fall.

Both grafts exhibit Trailman’s normal vigor with G41 graft growing 30” and G890 graft growing 28” this year. A pretty good amount of growth for our short, cloudy, rainy summer! If they match this growth next year they could possibly be close to 6 feet tall by end of summer 2027. I’m also happy to see that the growth is pretty consistent between the two rootstocks.

They are hardening off well for winter and I’m excited to watch what this new variety does. Descriptions of both under the photos.

10/05/2026

These apple seedlings have my attention as they are dropping their leaves and preparing for winter. 5 of these are crosses I made while one is an open pollinated seedling.