I have the Redlove-series on my wishlist. Do you have others on hand?
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I have almost all of them, ill be going to denmark for christmas and can post them with dao if you want scionwood.
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For anybody interested in doing something similar with Apple seeds, and especially the pre-1920’s heritage varieties.
I was able to connect with Tom Brown. Here is his website for anybody who is not familiar with him and his work:https://www.applesearch.org
It seems that he prefers not to send seed oversees without going through a rigorous plant import procedure. He has concerns about pest and disease transfer. However, he did mention that he has several hundred apple varieties that seeds could be taken from potentially.
Maybe some of you living in the US could make the connection and tap into this amazing genetic resource, and help Tom see how the landrace approach could be yet another way of conserving and perpetuating heritage genetics.
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Another lead.
Steve Edholm recommends connecting with the Temperate Orchard Conservation: https://www.temperateorchardconservancy.org in Oregon. This is the largest collection of apple trees in the US.
I also started collecting apple seeds this season so I might have some for you to exchange, as well as with other people who are interested in some genes from the south. I don’t have hundreds but I would be happy to share. I am also collecting persimmons (kaki seeds) and paw paw.
I also just threw many whole apples in the garden and covered with some mulch. Because I have some that sprouted like this last year. So all leftovers from cooking jams are going in the garden and they germinate when they feel is the right time, so I just transplant them to a different place.
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I would love to have some of your seeds! I live in Zone 2b, Alaska, where I have been germinating apple seeds for over five years. Using store-bought domestic apple seeds, I’ve observed a very low survival rate—about 5% after two years. To address this, I’ve started experimenting with various species of wild apples, aiming to find more cold-tolerant varieties to cross with domestic apples.
My ultimate goal is to develop an extremely cold-hardy landrace that can serve as breeding stock for edible apples and rootstocks. Currently, I have about 50 trees that have survived one or more winters, with one tree already producing fruit. I’ve also discovered several crabapple trees in my town that produce tasty fruit and have started germinating their seeds, hoping for improved survival rates and greater adaptability.
If you would like some of my extremely cold tolerant seeds I would be happy to send them to you!
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Indeedly do. Joanie and Shaun were given direct access to Nick Botner’s legendary Oregon orchard back around 2011 (it was still for sale - has now sold - when I first arrived in Oregon back in 2015). They have thousands of varieties. They are old school apple ID experts - going off of fruit visuals primarily and old USDA paintings and the such. All these experts and more are discussed in David Benscoter’s new book Lost Apples - The seach for rare and heritage apples in the Pacific Northwest. One of the board members of his ‘Lost Apple Project’ (Housed under the Whitman County, WA Historical Society to garner Non-Profit status) Tim Steury introduced me to the rolling hills of Palouse last January when we harvested scion wood in 18" of snow and a roaring -5-to-5 F mini squall. Was quite fun. Quite eccentric. LOL. @ZachDYates : I routinely get down to -25F-to-40F in my mountain valley. We’d do well to exchange some seeds. For heritage stock, the EMLA 111 rootstock and Antanovka (a seedling Mother pool of genetics for many a variety - Franklin and Northern Spy off the top of my head) do quite well. Even tho the nursery is in N. Calif I’ve had great success in my climate with establishing mother trees via ‘Trees of Antiquity’s’ Nuserystock. They are great folks. I even have a Morello cherry that has made it through many winters here when all my Montmorency’s died. Same outfit. Anywho, I highly recommend David’s book - if only to learn of all the great apple conservationists of the past hundred years in the States. His index is a treasure trove of information. Oregon’s Home Orchard Society, in general, is a fantastic group of people doing very fun things with perennial fruits. They also run the Clackamas Community College orchard project out there where they hold many a workshop and help people gain access to scion wood by helping them prune their orchard. Mutually beneficial in that way. I would go to their fruit fairs regularly. It’s where I learned of the nuance of fresh eating quinces!
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Happy to trade with you Zach!. Ill send you a message
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When I lived in Alaska 40 50 years ago I had some family friends they grew apples up there on their homestead and they did it by drawing them on the North side where they didn’t thaw out and then freeze again at least that’s what they said
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@Lary Thanks for the tip! Many trees fail due to issues like sunscald, frost cracking, and frost drought. These problems could potentially be mitigated by planting trees in locations that avoid direct sunlight until spring.
Could you tell me more about the homestead? Where it was located? What other plants were being grown?
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Settlers did that out this way as well. Plant on the North slope to try your best to avoid early soil thaw and ultimate blossom kill by inevitable late frost events. It’s a real thing. To that end, fruit trees were most often planted on North slopes (if they had them - like on Steptoe Butte down south Pullman/Palouse way where they are finding a bevy of so called ‘Lost Apples’) and in the gullies/ravines where they would get passive watering to boot. Plums, apples, sour cherries, pears et al. All lining these north-facing downhill traveling water drainages. I’ve heard of this ‘…plant your fruiting trees on the norther slopes…’ type of thinking since I first started growing things decades back. It certainly seems to be an ‘ism’ that lives in this country’s core (of fruit).
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“The Botner orchard is not sold but still owned by his wife, Home Orchard Society is closed as of 2020. The Clackamas Home Orchard Demonstration Garden is now run by Tonia Lordy and is called Home Orchard Education Center” from Chris Homanics
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Wowsers. Thanks for those tidbits. I always assumed it had sold because it was pulled off the market - I tracked it for years when I dreamed before buying my own farm out Warshington/Idaho way in 2020. Explains why the ‘Home Orchard Society’ ‘closed’ completely left my purview. Fascinating. That was a very active group of people and homesteaders. BUT, those wily COVID times did a lot of different things to a lot of outfits. Granted, I don’t know if that is why the org ended. I did notice it was the ‘Home Orchard Education Center’. Anywho, things change and evolve. I should have added an addendum: I haven’t lived out that way in five years…this is what I remembered. 
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I never visited it but the guy we call our uncle wasn’t really our uncle and I know he had to get to this homestead you had to fly in there was no access to it otherwise
Heads up for anybody who is interested. Steve Edholm (SkillCult) just made his seeds available for sale: Apple Seeds — SkillCult
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Good on you for reminding the peoples. It’s a more limited offering this season as he didn’t have an optimal 2024 apple growing season. However, I think in the very least starting some of your own OP Wickson is a worthwhile endeavor on any plot of land (he had 700 seeds there as of this am). So many interesting apples have innate potential to grow out of the Wickson gene pool. I am in his $5/mo Patreon subscription ‘club’ so I had earlier access and got some interesting things to plant out on my lower 20 acre plots. Very excited to keep working the apple breeding in a much less forgiving climate up my way.
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If you just want genetics and don’t want to worry about ideal flavor just yet, I’ll start gathering apples from our friend’s property. It’s an orchard that was planted when the first colonizers got to our town - about 100 years ago. Some of the trees are still alive (or at least their descendents are). The apples are of varying flavor/quality/tartness, but we can start gathering those too. They mostly let them fall to the ground for the chickens. I tasted one earlier this year - it was like a tart apple and a potato made a tree, starchy and tart. I don’t know the heritage of them though, so they could be from the 5 originals.
Hubs recently has been gathering apples from the local food co-op to try different varieties. Nothern Spy, Spitzenberg, Spartan, Creston, etc. The seeds are all going into the fridge for stratification, so I can pull those in February when I get home and put a little package together for you again. 
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Could be the originals were used for baking or cider apples vs fresh eating.
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The focus on fresh eating apples is relatively new. Most apples were kept for preserves, cider and winter storage.
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Wow, thank you for the head’s up! I wish I’d noticed this the day you posted it. 
I’ve been checking back every week or so to see if there were any seeds for me to buy. There were still a few really cool ones available, happily!
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