farm hunter; With the property in a 5b climate zone I'm using these trees as a test to see if the late varieties will ripen. There are a few farm orchards around but no commercial orchards. I'll just have to keep planting 10-20 trees a year, monitoring them and I might end up with something semi-commercial in the future. The wild trees love the soil conditions so hopefully that's a good first indication.

Don't worry about wild apples causing problems with pollination. They make a great source of pollen. The only problem will be with the disease and insects that they harbor. You may end up removing or spraying all wild apple trees in a zone near your good trees.

Dan O.