Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Rhode Island Greening Apple Scionwood

Scionwood is not a tree, yet!

Scionwood, or scions (pronounced 'sigh-ons'), are the young, one-year shoots you graft with in order to propagate a variety. If you want to propagate a Gala apple tree, for example, you would graft with Gala scionwood!

We collect these scions from trees in our test orchards and are happy to be able to offer rare/heritage varieties!

For more information on scionwood and grafting, click HERE!

History: Rhode Island Greening emerged around 1650 where it was grown from seed by a Mr. Green near Green's End, Rhode Island. Mr. Green owned a tavern and often gave scions from the original tree to his customers, although the tree eventually died from the demand for scionwood. The name was originally the descriptive 'Green's Inn apple from Rhode Island' and later shortened to 'Rhode Island Greening.'* This apple was commonly grown in New York and is still quite common today. 

*Fun fact: The Ontario ghost town Unopark got its name in a similar way. It was originally founded by Richard Parker, Mouse's ancestor, and the name is a shortened version of 'You know the Parkers?'

Why We Grow It: This apple's long-lasting popularity is due to its reputation as perhaps the definitive American pie-making apple. The large, dark-green apple is too tart to be eaten fresh but is great in pies and holds its shape well when cooked. It also produces nicely in our test orchard, producing large, blemish-free fruit despite it's generally poor disease resistance.

$8.50

Propagation Material:

16 in stock

Fruit Traits:

Recommended Use: Cooking, Fresh eating

Fruit Size: Medium-large

Storage: Keeps until April when stored in cool, humid conditions

Harvest: October - Mid

Plant Traits:

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Flowering Time: Middle

Pollination Requirements: Triploid or suffers from poor quality pollen, cannot pollinate other trees. Requires a pollinator of a different apple variety that blooms around the same time in order to produce fruit.

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

General Growth Habit: Vigorous with a spreading growth pattern, compact size, slow to start producing fruit and tends to produce every other year but has good crops when it does. Susceptible to scab, canker, mildew, fireblight, cedar rust, and bitter pit, but grows well in our test orchard despite these susceptibilities.

Shipping: Scionwood can be shipped anytime in the spring, although we generally recommend that customers receive their scionwood by mid-April at the latest to ensure it arrives dormant. We can hold it longer if customers accept the risk that the scionwood may start breaking dormancy after this time.

Pickup: We will notify you as soon as your scionwood is ready. We recommend picking it up as soon as you are able and storing it at home.

Click HERE for tips on storing scionwood!

CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Each scion will have at least 2-4 grafts' worth of material and ideally will be approximately 12-18" or 30cm+ long. Since we specialize in so many varieties/species, there will be natural differences in growth habit and vigour so some varieties may be shorter or thinner. We will provide the best quality we can, within natural restraints.

If a scion is less than 6" or 15cm, it will be discounted accordingly.

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