What’s the deal with weird crab apple tree in the park near Rio Vista Circle, across the bridge from the county fairgrounds? Half of the tree is filled with small crab apples and half has much larger greenish red regular apples. – John G.
Your discovery confirms what we all know: There’s graft in Durango.
However, it’s not the graft you find in large cities like the Big Apple, where rotten apples in branches of government secretly take a slice for personal gain.
Durango’s small-town graft certainly involves branches and taking a slice. But it’s out in the open, and no one got rich.
The tree in question is a very old crab apple. Years ago, a gardener snipped off a small branch of an orchard apple tree, then sliced off a same-sized branch from that crab apple.
The gardener attached, or grafted, the apple twig to the crab. The graft succeeded, and today we can marvel at a half-and-half fruit tree.
City Arborist Ron Stoner doesn’t know who did the graft or when it was done.
“It’s gotta be prior to the 1970s when the Opie-Reams Nature Trail was established along the river. The tree was obviously saved during the construction of the park,” Ron said.
“It’s a pretty tree, and it’s doing well,” he said. “Not many people notice it, which is probably going to change after this column comes out.”
So, how can a regular apple be grown on a crab apple? After all, they are different trees.
For an explanation, we turn to Jeff Wagner, a Colorado Certified Nursery Professional and one of the keenest plantsmen in the state.
All apples – eating apples and crab apples – are in the same plant genus, Malus.
By the way, Malus is Latin for “evil,” as in the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, Jeff points out.
So with that bite of information, let’s get to the core of the apple issue.
There are a number of “wild” apples throughout the world, but all eating apples come from a single species of wild apple, Malus pumila, from Kazakhstan, Jeff said.
“Apples are what might be called the plant kingdom’s ‘mongrels,’ which is to say that they are not particularly fussy when it comes to mating,” he said.
“This is the reason why if you sow an apple seed you cannot expect the progeny to be like the parents.”
Once a great eating or cooking apple is discovered the only way to propagate it is by cloning it, Jeff said. This is done by grafting, “one of the humanity’s oldest arts” that has been around at least since Roman times.
Here’s how grafting works.
“For grafting to be successful, the two parts – rootstock and scion – must be closely matched in size as well as in genetics,” Jeff said.
In addition to apples being a love connection for crab apples, they can hook up with pears or hawthorns, which are close relatives.
The grafts “may not be as long-lived as apples on apples or pears on pears, but they will be viable for several years,” he said.
“During World War II, many good apple and pear varieties were saved in this way when there was a shortage of ideal root stock,” Jeff said
If you want to enrich your life with graft, Jeff is teaching a class on the “chip budding” method of grafting apples this Saturday. It’s from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Durango Nursery and Supply, 271 Kaycee Lane, south of Home Depot off La Posta Road. Info: 749-5642 or 259-8800.
“If you can peel carrots and potatoes, then you can chip bud – it’s not a difficult technique,” Jeff assures.
And while you are there, check out the nursery’s established crab apple trees. Many previous budding chip-budders have made successful grafts.
With some planning, you too can grow apples on your crab apples – thus proving that you have Malus aforethought.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you knew this column with written on an Apple.
