Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Mother Apple Bareroot

History: Mother was first officially introduced to the world in an 1844 edition of the "Magazine of Horticulture." We know it came from General Stephen Gardner's farm in Massachusetts in the US but do not know any other details about its origins. It faded from popularity in the US during the 1900s but remained popular in the UK.

Why We Grow It: Mother produces medium-sized apples with yellow skin that turn deep red where exposed to the sun. This crisp, juicy apple is sweet with hints of pear and vanilla making it an excellent choice for fresh eating. It is also a popular option for baking pies! The fruit stores well, the blooms are tolerant of late spring frosts, and the tree tends to start producing at a young age. It is also susceptible to several common apple diseases, but we believe its other qualities outshine that fact.

$56.50

Rootstock:
Size:

10 low in stock

Fruit Traits:

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, baking

Fruit Size: Medium

Storage: Keeps until January under refrigerated conditions

Harvest: September - Late

Cider Class (if applicable):

Tree Traits:

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4

Soil Preferance: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam. Prefers average to moist conditions, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring. Generally quite adaptable to different soil conditions.

Flowering Time: Middle

Bloom Colour: White

Pollination Requirements: Partially self-pollinating, this variety will produce some fruit without an apple tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habit: Moderately vigorous with an upright and spreading growth habit, tends to start bearing at a young age, blooms tolerant of late frosts. Very resistant to apple scab but susceptible to powdery mildew, canker, cedar apple rust, and fireblight.

Overall Disease Resistance Rating*: Low

*this rating is combined with our experience growing in our test orchards combined with already available information on the cultivar.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

Our grafted fruit trees are graded into two categories, and the size includes the rootstock:

  • 50-80cm grade: Smaller trees that may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree according to industry standards. This size may include trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
  • 1m+ grade: Trees that are over 1m tall, some may have no branches and others may have light feathering or a few established branches 

Please keep in mind, bareroot trees appear small if you are unfamiliar with them. Size can vary year to year due to weather conditions and every single variety has a unique amount of vigour (some varieties naturally are smaller and some bigger, much like humans -and when you propagate hundreds of varieties, there certainly is variation). While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth. Therefore you may find some conventional nursery stock larger in comparison. 


Why plant small? It's best to transplant a tree when it's young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and after a few years bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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