The first picture looks normal. Maybe a little light on water but nothing to worry about. The second picture has problems. The web on the last picture and the direction the leaves are folded tells me it's leaf roller. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7473.html Leafhoppers curl the leaves the other way here. http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef215.asp I don't think rosy aphid because while I have plenty they don't ever cause enough damage to worry about on their own. The leaves grow faster than the aphids can damage so they continue to move onto younger leaves. The easy way to check for aphids is to look, and you would've seen them when you were taking those pictures. When aphids go unchecked long enough and can work fast enough they tend to curl the leaves the same way as the leafhoppers because both work on the underside. To find the leaf roller you have to keep unfolding leaves. And sometimes they hide in leaf bunches so young it's hard to get to them. Because they're hidden inside the leaves it's hard to get them with sprays.

Hi again Carmellia. "Rootstocks" are probably properly thought of as being very young trees grown and chosen specifically for the purpose of providing roots for other varieties, but in use anything you can stick a cutting on may be thought of as a "rootstock". So a lot of effort goes into producing very consistent, carefully cloned roots that will make their predictable effect on the resulting tree known: they may dwarf to some certain degree, or provide resistence to certain diseases, or maybe drought. They tend to have names reflecting their origin in East Malling, England: M-this, or M-that. They are not seedlings, but genetically identical reproductions of one another. But seedlings are also used as rootstock -and there's just as much predictability in seedlings as there is in cousins or such. Still, it works. In the same way, any growing apple tree can be a "rootstock" to your new graft. You might buy a whip or branched tree from a nursery, cut it off part way up, and graft your new variety to it at the cut. Everything above the graft will be your new tree (and everything below it will not be.) You might find a large apple tree, and use it as a rootstock: cut a branch off, graft on a scion, and everything new from that cut will be your new tree. If you go back to that new growth and cut a new scion off of it it will carry a blueprint of the original with it and reproduce true to type. (Usually. "Sports" is a whole new topic!) So I have a semi-dwarf Liberty apple that I bought as a branched three-year old in the late 90's, and now it has 13 varieties stuck on it here and there, and I can add others wherever I can make the space. One could go down the street to a crab apple in a neighbor's yard and put a Gala, Fuji, or whatever on it, and in a few years it should bear fruit. Or, one could cut a scion from the crab and bring it back to the Liberty. (This stuff goes on all the time- it's a miracle the government hasn't started regulating it!) The other thing you need to know is "what is a scion?" It's a stick off of the tree you want to reproduce- a chip off the old block. Some scions are good to work with and some aren't. The best are pencil sized and last year's growth. They would be clipped during late dormancy (March is probably good) and stored with a damp paper towel stuck around the cut part in a ZipLock bag in the refrigerator. If you decide to go ahead with this there are superb tutorials available here and elsewhere. There's a number of experienced folk here who would like nothing more than to answer your questions and direct you hither and yon. So give 'em heck. Best wishes and good luck on the adventure, M

Just a quick follow up, the fruit is about 2 inches thick, and was very firm to the touch (and to open) when I pulled one off. Trying to figure out what I need to make off limits to the pets/newborn. Thanks! Josh Z.

Katrina, I'm including a link from the National Center for Home Food Preparation which addresses this matter. You should be just fine. As for recipes, please check out Your Greatest Hit Recipes for Leesa - The Condensed Version. Many of the best recipes that we share and make over and over again are listed there. I'm certain you'll find something. Good luck, Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Canning for Special diets