Note on the 50% Kerr Parent: One of our all-time favorites, this apple crab (cross between an apple and a crabapple) blew Luke away when Roger Joy gave him some in summer 2016. It is Roger’s favorite apple and he has popularized it around Montana. Since then, we’ve been hooked. W. L. Kerr made the cross between Haralson and Dolgo in 1938 at the Canada Experimental Farm before releasing it in 1952. A wonderful keeper as it stores well into the new year, Kerr is also insect resistant. Its beautiful red skin, yellowish flesh, and distinct flavor will make you wanting more. We like to have people try this to gauge their reaction. Things we have heard after people have bitten into a Kerr: “floral, cinnamon, cherry, grapes, almond, pineapple, and even hoppy”. This apple can survive down to -50 F! Apart from eating it fresh, Kerr also makes a beautiful rosé colored cider, pink applesauce, and is wonderful in oatmeal. Plant one of these (or several as you won’t regret it). Zone 2.

Note Regarding these Kerr Crab Seedling Genetics: These are seedling trees (from seed and not clonally propagated), and since apples’ DNA holds lots of information relative to any other fruit trees, there will be a degree of genetic variability from the parent tree. However, we are convinced that there is not much merit to the often repeated idea that only 1/10,000 apples grown from seed will produce a good apple. We are consistently surprised by the quality of seedling apple trees scattered about Montana. Some may not keep too long, some may brown quickly, some may not even have the best texture. But seldom is the case that the seedling apples we find do not have decent flavor—it seems to be the exception that seedling apples are below acceptable in even desert (fresh eating) quality. As for the genetics of these particular Kerr seedlings, Kerr Crab (the parent), is a cross between an apple (Haralson) and a crabapple (Dolgo). Virtually all Dolgo’s are grown from seed, with the exception of some nurseries that graft these onto various rootstock. Of all the Dolgo’s we have tasted, their flavor is nearly identical to one another so there happens to be a “true to type” genetic characteristic in the fruit quality (flavor) that the parents pass onto their progeny. When this was crossed to make Haralson, the result (in our opinion) was one of the most unique apples (technically an apple-crab) created. These seedlings are the result of 50% Kerr (25% Dolgo and 25% Haralson) and 50% unknown. The unknown parent could be a number of trees including Wolf River, Goodmac, Spartan, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Haralson, Wealthy, and Goodland. Assuming there is an equal chance of each tree being any of these 8 other apple trees as one of its parents (not an accurate assumption because some of the trees are in greater abundance than others and in closer proximity to the mother tree, etc.) each tree will be 25% Dolgo Crabapple, 25% Haralson Apple, and then for the 50% other parents, a 12.5% chance that the 50% parent will either be Wolf River, Goodmac, Spartan, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Haralson, Wealthy, or Goodland. All of these 50% parents apples are zone 3 or colder (several even zone 2). So if we divide their hardiness’ amongst one another, this will be in all likelihood a zone 2 apple because 50% (Kerr) is zone 1, whereas most of the others will be between zone 3 and zone 2. So averaging these difference makes these seedlings hardy to at least -45F (if not hardier).

These seedlings come in a bundle of 3 and because they are on their own roots, they will likely be a full size tree (between 20-30 ft. tall). Lastly, given that they are each genetically unique, they will each pollenize one another.