Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

John Downie Crabapple Bareroot

History: John Downie was raised by Edward Holmes, a nursery worker in England, in the 1870s. The variety was named after another nursery worker and friend of Holmes, John Downie. John Downie crabapples remain one of the most popular of the English crabapples.

Why We Grow It: This crabapple sports bright orangey-red fruit, often used to create some of the best jelly around. With its sweet-tart flavour, this crabapple can be pressed into a cheery orange juice that is a great addition to cider blends.

 

        $56.50

        Rootstock
        Size

        12 in stock

        Fruit Traits:

        Recommended Use: Preserves, cider

        Fruit Size: Small

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

        Harvest: September - Early

        Cider Class (if applicable):

        Class: Bittersharp?
        Sugar: Medium, SG 1.055
        Acidity: Medium to high?
        Tannins: Medium to high?
        Juice Yield: Low
        Taste: Sweet-tart flavour
        Recommendations: Best used in blends since it can be too astringent and tart for single-variety cider, adds a nice colour with its orange juice

        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: Late

        Bloom Colour: White

        Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without an apple tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present. 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 Habit: Moderately vigorous and tends to have good crops every other year. Susceptible to scab.

        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.

        John Downie Crabapple

        John Downie Crabapple Bareroot

        $56.50

        $56.50

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