Thanks, folks. My choices so far have all been from local nurseries catalogs.... there's not really anyone there to talk to this early so I'm just catalog shopping. I know people on my road grow all manner of Magnolias (saucer and star) but they're mostly people with professional gardeners, so just the fact that they look great in the neighbors yard doesn't mean they're right for me :) I did notice some of the nurseries catalog entries noted "very disease resistant" Malus varieties, so perhaps thats due to the cedar rust. I'll have to look into that. We have two very old, very overgrown, very tall crabapples in another part of the yard: what does cedar rust look like? Ammelanchier looks great! Love that it has fruit and fall color, too. It might be a little big for my space, but will investigate further... thanks for the idea!

I too was very interested in these apples. I thought about it for a while and eventually decided that I should stick with (for now) apples with a know track record for eating quality. Eventually I may try to fit some into my limited space. In the course of researching this, I put together this spreadsheet of info from the .gov site. It covers the 12 varieties which Cummins offers. #11 looked most interesting to me (reasonable size, semi-hard to firm, 2nd highest brix). #7 also looked interesting, though it was listed as very susceptible to fireblight. There seem to be a few drawbacks- 1.) Many of the apples are quite small- I'm guessing that a 50g apple isn't much bigger than a large crabapple. "Normal" apples seem to average around 150g. 2.) The only disease resistance information relates to fireblight- nothing about scab or cedar apple rust. I did see from another article that many of the apples found there do have resistance to apple scab (27% per the article). 3.) Many appear to be tip-bearers- not a deal killer, but not good for small spaces. Some potential benefits- 1.) Interesting to see if they really have insect resistance in our environment, as they seem to in Kazakhstan. 2.) Some of the apples are reported to have strange flavors not present in normal domesticated apples. I'll definitely want one (or more) someday; if I had unlimited space, I'd put a few in now. For now though I'm going to watch and see which ones do the best for others and what useful crosses can be made. If anyone has any personal experience, I'd love to hear it.

It's a moot question now---I stopped at the local nursery yesterday and they had just received their order of crabs. There were four good looking Prarifires on the pallet so I loaded them up and took them home.

Hello Zcabn 7. I read your post yesterday with interest, but refrained from responding because I have little to offer. But rather than let the thread drop I thought I'd say something, anyhow! Some interspecies grafts are possible- and here's a link from some examples posted by Joereal elsewhere on this website. Maybe it will help. Good luck. I hope you get some follow-up. I'll be following with interest. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg040243193993.html?23489 Yours, M