Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.
Trail (aka Bilodeau) Crabapple Bareroot
For the most up-to-date information see Claude Jolicoeur's website here!
History: This particular iteration of Trail, previously referred to as Bilodeau, has a bit of a messy history. A Trail crabapple tree was mislabeled at a Quebec nursery in the 1980s and sold to an unknowing customer named Claude Bilodeau who thought he was purchasing a pear tree. Later on Claude Jolicoeur, well-known Quebecois cider-maker and pomologist, took a cutting from this tree and found that the fruit (definitely not a pear!) was excellent for making cider. Since it was still a mystery what the original variety was, the crabapple was named Bilodeau by Jolicoeur after the owner of the tree - only for Paul Kron from the University of Guelph to confirm that it was actually Trail via DNA testing in 2022. The Trail crab was bred at Ottawa from a cross of Northern Queen x Rideau, it was selected in 1913 and introduced in 1920.
Why We Grow It: Despite the confusion, we are regardless happy to have this apple in our catalogue! This bittersharp cider apple has excellent cider-making qualities and, unlike most crabapples, is also great when eaten fresh or made into jelly!
$56.50
Unit price perOut of stock
Fruit Traits:
Recommended Use:
Fruit Size:
Storage:
Harvest: September - Early
Cider Class (if applicable):
Tree Traits:
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4
Soil Preferance:
Flowering Time:
Bloom Colour: White
Pollination Requirements:
Sun/Shade Requirements:
General Growth Habit:
Overall Disease Resistance Rating*: Medium
*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.
