You may have ripe apples, just a variety that is green, like Granny Smith or something like that. Have you tried picking and eating one?

When you say they're much bigger than crabapples, are you talking about true crabapples, or the ones that grow on a flowering crab tree? The ones on a flowering crab are about the size of a cherry, and the ones on a true crabapple are about the size of a plum.

Most of mine are ripe now, but not all. I have a bunch of apples that came with the house. They bloom deep pink like flowering crabs but produce apples that are between a crab and an eating apple.
One of mine produces a green apple - that I tell is ripe by eating one.
I have one that ripens later than the others. I wouldn't call it a dud! The apples on it are somewhat tart, very crisp and make fantastic cookers. I'm making jelly with it this year, and maybe apple wine.

I can't think of any apple tree that produces apples as a dud for eating unless it produces those tiny cherry sized apples.

Young trees often have small apples and then they get larger with time, water and fertilizer. There are all sizes and colors on apples as well. Some stay green like Greening or Macs have a purplish cast. Cut open one of the apples. Are the seeds brown? If so it is ripe. Some apples like Macs are better after light frosts which cause the starches to turn to sugar which makes them sweeter. I have 25 appple trees of different varieties but my friend has 3,000!

Maybe this is a true crabapple then. The apples are about the size of a plum or apricot, about half the size of the eating apples you find in the store.

The next time I get home before dark, I'll gather up a couple of windfalls and test them.

I had apples, none are fully ripe yet. But they are going fast; I have flocks of small apple eating birds. But for some reason, they won't touch the fruit in one tree.

I know of a crab apple (at least one is supposed to assume that it is a crab apple) in a demonstration grove of crabs. City arborists or maybe a garden club planted the grove decades ago and it is absolutely stunning when in Spring bloom! Only a few of the trees are identified with markers.

Anyway, there's this one tree with plum-sized fruit and for some reason, I decided to bite into one years ago. It was soooo sweet & tasty!! None of the other crabs, and I tried a few, could be eaten raw. I gathered all I could carry in pockets and in my camera case.

This was about 20 years ago. I don't make it back every year but always intend to. Each of the 6 or 7 times I've been there in the Fall, this tree is loaded with fruit and I pack off as much as I can carry. Got this camera case for 35mm with a HUGE telephoto lens. I never use the camera anymore so could probably forget about carrying the darn thing around my neck and just take the case . ..

What!?!? Just leave the apples for the crows?!?

digitS'

Hey Lilacs,

I have two apple trees at 4500' in Utah, which is probably similar to the Front Range. One is a Jonathan, which tastes like a green apple but has a nice red blush mixed with its green color. These ripened in the past few weeks -- I hadn't checked it for a week and found a lot on the ground and a lot half-eaten by birds. But I still got a great harvest from the rest of them.

These are my Jonathan apples, picked last week (on 9/6):

My other tree is a Granny Smith, and I was warned (after I planted it!) that it wouldn't do well here, because they ripen so late. Well, I just let the apples stay on that tree into October, and it works out great. It doesn't matter if we get some frosts before I harvest -- they always come out great.

Like others said, the key is really tasting them. If the peel feels too thick when I bite it, that's my first clue that it's not ripe. I didn't give my Jonathan enough water this year, and the apples on it are smaller than usual. So, your small apples very well could just mean it needs to mature a little and it needs better watering next year.

I have an apple tree in my backyard in Colorado Springs. The first year we lived here it sounded just like yours--I wasn't sure if they were crabs, small, green, etc. Then we pruned some branches so we could walk under the tree--this year, especially with all the snow and rain--we had wonderful apples that were similar to the Jonathons with a reddish blush. There are only a few left now, which are mostly red and way, way up high. I harvest about a week and a half ago a whole bunch of them and made several pies. My 3 kids were eating a couple off the tree every day from August until I harvested. Seemed early to me, but they were sweet with just the right amount of tartness. LOTS more went to the birds then us. Next year I may consider some sort of netting.

Prune (if needed), fertilize, and water, water, water and see what happens next year.

Mine is actually small enough to permit fairly easy netting. I didn't water it at all this year because frankly I didn't realize it was a fruit tree. We had a good amount of rain this year, not like droughts of previous years, but next year I'll give it supplemental watering and feeding.

I expressed my delight in another forum about my "found" tree, complete with apples. Essentially I just got yelled at. :-( I think it's great that I have an apple tree that I didn't know I had before. Now I just have to figure out the proper way to deal with it.

"Essentially I just got yelled at."

Why? Were they upset that you found the tree or that you didn't already know you had it, or that you were sharing your excitement with the group? Or . . .?

If people got upset with you for this, they get upset far too easily.

I should have done this. Why didn't I do that? I'll never get decent apples out of it. Something's wrong with the tree if the apples haven't ripened yet. Yadayadayada. Essentially I found a balloon and they had pins.

I may take some pictures and upload them here. Picture, 1000 words, etc.

The apples have been taste tested. I went and picked up a couple windfalls. All of the apples are still green, and they're all small, but I cut one open. The seeds are dark brown. And when I tasted it, it was sweet, with a bit of tartness. Doesn't look like I'll get a lot of apples, but it might be enough to make a cobbler or pie or two.

Coolness!

Your surprise find of an apple tree has me wondering about something. My oldest son has been begging me to plant an apple tree, but when I checked at a couple of local garden centers, they said I had to have two trees of different varieties in order to produce apples. I am not sure if my backyard is big enough for two apple trees, so I haven't planted anything yet.

Lilacs, you only have ONE tree, correct? If that is true, than I wonder if I really need two trees. Can anyone clarify this? Also, which varieties will stay fairly small, and how many years before we would actually be eating apples?

I think it was BPGreen and maybe CNetter, too, who posted in another thread about how apples need a different variety to pollinate them. I didn't know this before, but I knew that cherries were picky like that. For Lilacs, there are probably other apples in the neighborhood. It also turns out quite convenient that crabapples will pollinate apples, too.

I have a Granny Smith and a Jonathan tree right by each other, but I didn't actually realize that would be helpful for pollination! Turns out I picked a good match. See the link below, which includes a table showing which trees are good pollinators of other varieties. If you have any neighbors with apples, they may serve each other well, especially if you buy a different variety that works well with theirs.

Here is a link that might be useful: CSU Extension article on fruit tree pollination

I have no clue what kind of tree this is. Some of the apples are much bigger than any crabapple I've ever seen, but they're still only half the size of a Gala or Jonathan store apple. They stay green apparently, so I'm wondering how in the heck I'll know they're ripe. When they fall off, I assume the windfalls are ripe, but I could be wrong.

There IS an apple tree in my neighbor's backyard, maybe 20-30 feet away. It must be a different variety because it produces larger, red apples.

Thanks for the link, Steve! I love the picture of your apple harvest. What did you do with all of those? Can them, make pies, or will they keep for eating for a while?

BTW, my next door neighbor has a crabapple, so maybe I really do need only one tree.

If your next door neighbor has a crabapple, that should be enough (unless your lawns are really huge). I'm not even sure who has the tree that's pollinating mine, but I'm pretty sure it's farther away than next door.

Well, so far I've made three pies and gained three pounds! I'm also eating the apples every day for snacks at work, but I think I'm going to have to do something with them soon. I have enough to make four more pies, but I don't think I want to gain four more pounds! :-)

My wife suggests making a bunch of pie filling and freezing it or canning it. Neither of us have ever canned, but I'd prefer that to freezing so it doesn't eventually get freezer burned. But in about 3-4 weeks, I'll have a whole bunch of Granny Smith apples, which are even better for pies, so unless I want a pie a week for the next three months (let's see, that's another 12 lbs. to gain!), maybe the logical solution is to start giving some apples away!

I do want to make some apple muffins or apple spice cake or something like that, too. I just need to find a recipe (and a few hours free time) and do it.

Anyway, I suppose one reason you asked, Highalt, was to see how long apples will stay fresh. I'd say they're OK sitting on the counter for two weeks or so when they're fresh from the tree like this, but ideally, they should be refrigerated with a lot of humidity. I don't have much room in my fridge (nor do I have a way of making it very humid) so again, I think I need to start giving some away. I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate it!

I heavily pruned my apple tree in the early spring....thus a huge crop came in. My apples are smaller than the grocery store apples, but I don't thin mine in the spring. Based upon what i've seen, if id thin them, they would compare to grocery apples in size. I harvested 17 large paper grocery bags at the very end of Aug. They make great pies (stay crisp) and apple butter. lots wormy because I don't spray. but you can cut out the ugly part and they are still great.

I have six small windfalls. I don't think that's quite enough for anything yet.

I live in an area of old orchards, so apple lore galore. They store reasonably well in sawdust. Anywho, I use one of those suction clamp corer - peeler - slicer things for the non-wormy apples, and we sit there all afternoon and freeze up gallon ziplock bags of sliced, peeled apples for pies. For the wormy ones, we sit there all afternoon and cut out the good parts and microwave them, run them through the tomato press, and make applesauce, which is canned.

The bestest pie is a deep dish, crumble crust made with both the apple sauce and the frozen slices, mixed.

Mmmmmmmmmm....okay, David, if you are going to make us all salivate, you could at least post the recipe!!!

In another month.:-> Here, if you pick an apple 'before its time' folks look askance. Mid-October, after a few frosts, the apples taste like apples in dreams taste like. I will tell tales about how the house smells after 20 quarts of Johnathan apple sauce, and a week of apple butter in the crock pot.

Actually, no wonder the bears hang around.

So having nonripe apples in mid-September in Colorado doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with me or my tree?

None of mine are ripe. I have a Johnathan tree that, (if the birds don't finish them) are now beginning to have just a hint of Johnathanism.

I figured I had to pick my Jonathans back in the first week of September, because about 30 of them fell on the ground. The birds were eating quite a few, too. I think mine ripened early, because the tree was a little underwatered this summer. That happened to me last year, too. The previous years, I harvested a little later. They still taste "Jonathany" to me! Although I have found a few of the small ones weren't quite ripe yet.

I always leave my Granny Smiths on the tree till after a few frosts, because they ripen so much later, which of course makes them hang onto the tree longer. I just looked back at my garden blog/journal, and last year, I picked the Grannies on October 28th. But this is what I wrote: "I think I waited perhaps a week too long. A few of them had weird flesh when I cut them up  it was dark and sort of transparent. Not sure how to describe it best."

That may have been the result of too much freezing at night.

One of the easiest ways to deal with apples is either apple sauce or apple pie filling. For pies if you have the freezer room slice them into lemon juice water ( so they don't brown too fast) Then drain and figure how much to putin pie tin. then mix 1 c sugar and 1/2c flour and a good dusting of cinnamon and mix well. Then put back in pie tin and cover and seal tight with aluminun foil and freeze. Then when ready to make pie make your crust and dump in pie. Don't have to be totally thawed. Bake. I have kept them for close to a year with no problems this way.

I planted a Northern Spy apple tree over 30 years ago. Within a couple years, I moved but took my apple tree with me. Actually, there were quite a few fruit trees that I moved but the only one that remains after all these years is the Northern Spy in Dad's backyard. I've moved multiple times since but Dad's been in the same place for nearly 40 years now.

The Northern Spy was supposed to be a "good keeper" and that somehow had some importance to me. Well, it is one tart apple - Dad doesn't care for it and it gets coddling worms each year.

Wikipedia describes the apple as, "juicy, crisp and mildly sweet with a rich, aromatic subacid flavor" and I think that fairly well sums it up. It seems fairly similar to what was probably a Winesap back on the farm when I was a kid. Seems to have about the same uses - apple butter, apple pie, throwing for the border collie, etc.

In each of the last 20 years, the Northern Spy has produced mega quantities of apples for a small tree. Many have no insect damage and I use some of them to make apple butter. I won't say that it is "to die for" because I'm not sure what that means but it is awfully good on a piece of toast.

The recipe is simple and comes from Mom's Kerr Canning book:

16 cups apple pulp
8 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
4 teaspoons cinnamon

Core & slice apples but do not peel (I ALWAYS peel). Add only enough water to cook apples until soft. Press through fine sieve and measure. Combine all ingredients (I use apple cider vinegar). Cook until mixture remains in a smooth mass when a little is cooled (about 1 1/2 hours boiling). During cooking stir frequently to prevent burning. (I cook until I begin to weaken and can't dodge the spattering any longer.)

For an apple that you just wouldn't be inclined to eat raw - this is an excellent use.

d'S'

The best thing we ever did was buy a juicer. We got it for the grapes, but it's a great way to deal with all the small apples we get that are too small to bother coring and peeling. The instructions say to drop the whole apple in, but we cut them up to look for bugs and soft spots.
Much much faster than coring and peeling.

We'ver got two gallons of apple wine fermenting and am about to start on my second batch of jelly.

My apples are very strong so they make awsome jelly.

I quarter my apples and take out seeds and any worms. Then steam and put through a squeezo to remove peel and then can the apple sauce. then in the winter on a Sunday afternoon put the applesauce, sugar, cinnamon and cloves in my biggest blue enamel roaster and bake at 350 degrees for about 3 hours for apple butter. No splatter and no scorching. Just stir once an hour or so until it mounds up on a spoon. Then I can the apple butter. Not enough time and too hot to do it earlier and this is much easier. One of the things I have learned as I have aged.