I live in deep south Texas and we are semi acid here and extreme heat here also ( so anything low chill). If any1 knows what rootstck would be best I would appreciate it.
Just tell me how much it would be for it.
Thx

http://www.cumminsnursery.com/

David-A few years ago I gave the apples a shot at my place. I went with the low chill apples (Anna, Dorsett golden,etc) and they just would not produce for me. Made nice trees but they just would not produce. The only one I have left (only because it's out of the way) is the Dorsett Golden and it make 3 to 6 apples each year. All the other ones I turn into BBQ wood.

So for me, its just not worth spending the time and money on them. Also I would think in you place it would be about the same results.

Selkirk

I'm curious as to why they haven't produced for you in Houston? Houston is a 600 chill hour area and that is way more than enough for Anna, Dorsett, and some of the other low chill cultivators. It has to be something your doing because there are many people growing apples farther south than you are. I would give it another try and find out what is going wrong. Could you be more specific as to why they aren't producing (Example: Scab, Fireblight, Cedar apple rust, not setting fruit, aborting fruit, etc.) If the trees are blooming like they should but not setting fruit then that means they aren't getting pollinated more than likely. Are they in too shaded of a area? Are they getting enough growth each year? You said that you only have one tree left and its only setting a few apples thats because 99% of apple cultivators require a pollinator. Just off the top of my head the only truely self fertile apple i can think of is Grimes Golden. Good Luck[/quote]


Couple of things here.

I grow most of my stuff in Matagorda TX. Which is about 100-150 miles southwest of Houston.

From past trial and error, I found that trees with 250 chill hours or less works best for me. I will push it up to around 300 hrs if I really like something, or someone in my area is having luck with them.

Trees were very healthy without any problems. Other than production. The Dorsett production was not any better when the Anna was thirty feet away from it. Trees were planted in full sun.

The Anna and Dorestt Golden are listed for low chill 250-300hrs and some sites list them as self-fertile, but best with a pollinators (each other).

After mine failed, I talked to some of my growing friends. None of them had much good to say about them.





For those in Houston- using 600 hours for Houston can be misleading. Its such a large area with allot of micro climates (inner loop, souther most area, etc) that chill hours vary allot. You might get 600 on the north side and down to 300-400 on other sites.


Selkirk

This is the email I got from the link from above
David, your apples will be faced with 3 major problems:  1) summer
heat; 2) high pH; 3) the cotton root-rot pathogen.

If your particular site carries the CRR fungus, then I have no
rootstock suggestion.  Every apple rootstock we tested with Texas A&M
proved susceptible.

The old Malling 7 rootstock is the most tolerant of high soil
temperatures and is fairly tolerant of the alkaline soil.

Pink Lady, Sundowner and Mollie's Delicious are best suited to your
low-chilling conditions.  We still have one lone tree of Mollie's
Delicious on M.7; we have Pink Lady on M.7;  Sundowner we have only a
few very small (5/16") trees on Geneva 11.  We have no experience with
G.11 in your area.  Fuji and gala will probably work for you.  Granny
Smith should make it (but we are sold out for next spring).

//Jim


What do you Guys and gals think he would recommend?