I'm also interested in espaliering them, so I plan to buy the trees as young whips from this nursery: http://www.littletreenursery.com/ I've bought other trees from them before..almost all of them are grafted. The only fault I have found with them is that they seem to be quite slow. I don't know if that is due to poor grafting, or what. Other, larger trees that I have bought from nurseries like Dutch Growers, Lakeshore, etc., have taken off much faster. So that is one reason I am hesitant to buy fruit trees from them..but I don't know where else I can get very young fruit trees from. I love the architecture and practicality of espalier, but maybe I should just can that idea?!

If anyone has experience with espalier: since these aren't dwarf trees, how do you figure out how far apart to space them? The point would be to prevent them from growing taller than probably 6 ft. So most of their growth would be horizontally, along wire supports. Can a apple tree be grown to a certain size and then kept that size, without compromising the trees health? Will the trees simply wind up being smaller naturally when espaliered?

Anyway, comments on anything or everything are appreciated..Konrad, I'm looking especially at you!

That early Mac from you, Beegood was better I.M.O.

Apple trees grow pretty slow in our harsh climate, ..I wouldn't use dwarfing root stock. That might be the reason why your trees didn't grow very much,...on dwarfing stock?

It should work pretty well for a trellis system,..it's just that it needs more care and pruning/training etc. Have branches about a foot apart or a little more, there should be allot of info. on the web.

I'm still eating crisp delicious Norkent apples.
One has to find out,..who is still eating crisp apples at this time around and what are they?

One more apple question - what was the early Mac apple that Konrad was talking about? Does it have a particular name? I know they have a Mac apple at the local greenhouse, but I thought I had heard that they aren't usually hardy here. Maybe they just meant because I live outside of the city climate.

Does anyone grow Prairie Sensation? How do you like it?

What is your best apple for long lasting storage? What is your best fresh apple?

I've been saying this before, but seeing is believing.
Today's picture, Norkent, sweet, crisp with the right amount of acid, these are about as good as any store bought apples. I only keep these because they're the best eating and keeping.

These are as good as the day when picked, I don't think anything else grown in Alberta can beat this one.

Flavor, firmness, crispness, appearance, depend allot by how they're stored, for some reason I hit the check pot this winter. The apples in plastic bag, [picture] held up the best, they were stored in 3 fridges, mine, mother in law and brother in law who stayed oversee for a couple of month, fridge hardly ever opened. The apples in my fridge ended up the worst, apples were all in same bags.

Next year I want to test some in vacuum bags and root cellar,..if finished?

I just send a letter to the head guy from our fruit growing group
to see if members can show pictures and report which one's are holding up best over a long period.

i ordered another 'new' variety with the sensation from the u of s, called 'prairie sun', again a biennial bearer, and it randomly aborts all the fruit at once (another candidate for grafting this year)

sometimes the newer varieties are more of a novelty,
as the genetics are not quite there

i like Konrad's thoughts, and planted a couple of more norkents last year, and a few other proven 'older' varieties

the best eating apples last season were the september ruby
smaller apple, but crisp and sweet
and the 'm360', huge apples (see pic at link)
a little tart with a slight strawberry aftertaste

I don't think we have to worry too much in our climate growing something like this, most get enough acid I think.

The worst one I grew which I had from the sprout farm was a little sweet crab apple which was blaaa...got rid of it.
Can't remember the name.

intotheark,
Nice looking M360!
How does it store,..lets say compare to your Sept. Ruby.

Sept. Ruby is nice when ready but looses flavor and get soft fast.

they were stored in plastic bags (just grocery bags left open at the top)
in an unheated storage room

the m360's were still firm and did not lose much flavor

you are right about the sept ruby losing flavor,
but they did retain their crispness

all in all 2012 was a really good year for us, fruit-wise

thanks again for all your tips Konrad,
it did help us make decisions as to which varieties to plant last year

Not bad but some written doesn't agree with me.