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Crab apple?

AshleafAshleaf Posts: 7
in Fruit & veg
Some years ago we planted several crab apple trees (malus sylvestris).   This year two of them flowered for the first time and one produced about half a dozen apples.  The fruits are much bigger than I expected - see photo, with stamp for scale.  Is this a crab apple?  I haven't cut into or tried tasting it.   Thanks. 

Posts

  • bcpathomebcpathome Posts: 1,256
    It does look rather large for a crab apple but if it’s a crab apple tree then that’s what the fruits will be .
  • robairdmacraignilrobairdmacraignil Posts: 746
    Got a Malus sylvestris/crab apple here as well that went in as a very small sapling and after about seven years gave its first proper crop of apples this year and some of them are a similar size to the one in the photo. Have a crab apple variety Golden Hornet that has much smaller fruit with a nice yellow colour but maybe that's the normal size for the wild type.

    Happy gardening!
    https://www.youtube.com/user/sustainableveg/videos
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,168
    The photo looks like the fruit of the Malus sylvestris (native wild crab apple) I know ... more of a culinary fruit than the tiny marble sized fruit of the cultivated ornamental crab apple trees.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • AshleafAshleaf Posts: 7
    Thanks all - that answers my question.  I didn’t realise there was such a difference between the species and the cultivars.
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