Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.
Ben Davis Apple Bareroot
History: Once one of the most popular commercial apples in the United States, Ben Davis apple trees were planted across the continent following its discovery around 1800. Due to its firm fruit and excellent keeping qualities, this apple was extremely easy to transport over longer distances which led to its popularity. Once storage and transportation improved, this apple was slowly replaced with better tasting varieties and it is now a relatively rare find. It's also a parent to Cortland.
Why We Grow It: The mellow, sub-acidic, mildly aromatic red fruit is not quite as flavourful as some apples but it stores exceptionally well, lasting into spring. Flavour improves in storage, like many heritage apples. The trees are reliable and heavy croppers, earning them the nickname of 'mortgage-lifters' when they were grown commercially.
$56.50
Unit price per15 in stock
Fruit Traits:
Recommended Use:
Fruit Size:
Storage:
Harvest: October - Late
Cider Class (if applicable):
Tree Traits:
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3
Soil Preferance:
Flowering Time: Middle
Bloom Colour: White
Pollination Requirements:
Sun/Shade Requirements:
General Growth Habit:
Overall Disease Resistance Rating*: High
*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.
