Dolgo Crabapple
Dolgo Crabapple
Staff Favourite!
Wayne's favourite! Wayne says, "I like Dolgo for its full flavoured sweet/tart combination which makes for good fresh eating or traditional crabapple uses like jelly."
All staff favourites are offered at 20% the regular retail price. This discount cannot be combined with other quantity discounts and they will receive normal wholesale pricing should they be purchased wholesale.
History: Dolgo crabapples originated in Russia and due to the slightly elongated shape of the fruit were named 'dolgo' which means 'long.' They were brought to the United States by N. E. Hansen around 1897.
Why We Grow It: Dolgo is a classic crabapple with a vibrant flavour, very tangy and delicious right off the tree in the heat of summer- as refreshing as lemonade! The bright red fruits are about the size of small plums. These apples are excellent for making jelly or as a unique addition to a cider blend. Along with being exceptionally cold hardy, the trees themselves are quite pretty and are often planted ornamentally.
Fruit Specs
Fruit Specs
Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, cider
Fruit Size: Very small (about 2-3cm across and 3-4cm long)
Storage: Keeps for a couple weeks when stored in cool, humid conditions
Harvest: August - Mid
Cider Class (if applicable): Class: Sharp
Acidity: Medium to high, TA >4.5 g/L
Tannins: Medium to low, <2 g/L
Taste: Very sour/tart
Recommendations: Best when added to blends in moderation, juice is a nice pinkish colour
Growing Specs
Growing Specs
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 2
Soil Preference: 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: Early
Bloom Colour: White
Pollination Requirements: Requires a pollinator of a different apple variety that blooms around the same time. Like other crabapples and applecrabs, this variety is an excellent pollinator thanks to its large number of blossoms.
Sun/Shade Requirements:
Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)
General Growth Habits:
Moderately vigorous with an upright growth pattern, very hardy, tends to have heavy crops every other year. Resistant to scab, mildew, fireblight, cedar rust, and brown rot. Semi-spur bearing.
General Disease Resistance Rating: High. This is a combined rating of how the cultivar produces and grows in our test orchard, along with the cultivar's known disease resistences/susceptibilities. Remember, just because a variety is susceptable to something does not mean it will get it. The microclimate, pests and disease present within your orchard/area will differ from ours too, creating a unique growing condition that may or may not induce certain pests or diseases.
Shipping vs. Pick Up
Shipping vs. Pick Up
CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.
Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. 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. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.
Size at Purchase
Size at Purchase
Our grafted fruit trees are graded into three categories, and the size includes the rootstock:
- 50-80cm whip: may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree in industry standards; we include in this price category trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
- 1m+ whip: may have some minor branching, aka feathering. This is like a typical one-year whip in industry standards.
- 1m+ branched: these trees must be over a meter and have 3 or more branches 30cm or longer, as well as a central leader. They are essentially a two-year tree in industry standards.
- For stone fruits only - 1m+ whip/branched: We have combined these grades based on the way these trees grow and are grafted. Plums, apricots, cherries, and peaches naturally tend to grow more vigorously compared to apples and are more likely to form larger trees with more branches. However, we only chip bud them so they are a one-year old tree by industry standards. Apples and pears are partially bench grafted, and using the knip-boom method the grading becomes more complicated, hence the reason they are split into different grades.
Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "to 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.