I tried to take a picture, not so good. It was a Home Depot purchase. Not sure which type of Winesap It is. I know there are different spin offs of the original.

No, not all newer varieties are precocious but you are right, I think, that there is a general trend, but because the industry is trending toward fully dwarf, tight spacing planting, precocity is pretty much assured by the rootstocks they are using.

If you wanted an early fruiting Winesap type you maybe shoulda run with Ark Black

No, not all newer varieties are precocious but you are right, I think, that there is a general trend, but because the industry is trending toward fully dwarf, tightly spaced planting, precocity is pretty much assured by the rootstocks they are using.

If you wanted an early fruiting Winesap type you maybe shoulda run with Ark Black. As far as when the winesap will fruit, it depends a lot on rootstock, but also on other conditions such as light exposure and richness and depth of soil- your relatively short growing season will probably delay things as well.

Thanks Harvestman it was too hard to pass up at Home Depot. They don't have a lot of choice there and never information about root stock. The Winesap sounded interesting when I read up about it and always looks pretty good when I see them at HD. They almost always have the most amount of branching compared to the other apple trees HD carries.

HD is not very reliable at all in terms of providing trees true to label. I'm surprised that they even have trees labeled Winesap because this is not the kind of common, widely known variety that is generally sold in non specialized nurseries. You also found Goldrush there?- that is almost unbelievable.

All the other trees I listed came from Grandpas Orchard Two years ago. Usually they have Macs, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, two types of columnar apple trees and Winesap which surprises me also. I have only once I think had a wrong labeled apple tree from HD. The tag read Golden Delicious it turned out to be a Granny Smith which didn't bother me too much it's a good apple for baking and such. They have had Winesap for a few years and I can tell before I look at the label most times because the Winesap almost always has more healthy limbs coming out of it than any other tree they sell and at pretty good angles.

At big boxes here you can sometimes see three very apparently different kinds of trees all with the same variety card displayed right beside each other.

Very true I shake my head now that I know a little bit about apple trees at some of the crap they sell. Now that I know a little I have picked up some really nice Macs, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Winesap, An accidental Granny Smith and my new favorite apple tree Jonagold really good flavor from HD. In a way the big box stores have given Backyard growers like myself the beginners bug for growing fruit trees at affordable prices and something I probably would never of started before seeing them at Home Depot. Now I have the experience and confidence to order more expensive and different trees on line and at other nurseries.

Are their potted trees really that much cheaper than bare root trees from someone like Burnt Ridge?

I believe the trees are provided by contractors so maybe your Home Depot has someone good supplying them- Home Depot here has Macintosh, Yellow Delicious, Red Delicious and TA TA Honeycrisp!. I just checked their selection on my computer.

No they're not much cheaper, but I never would of ordered from an on line seller if I didn't buy my first ones at HD. I am not a huge cheerleader or a hater of HD they have their place and I understand someone like yourself having different feelings about the big box stores selling mislabeled stuff. I have bought from local nurseries, big box stores and online and have been pretty happy with all of my purchases so far.

I buy lots of stuff from HD, just not many plants or ag chemicals. Got a mower there yesterday and a bunch of metal electric conduit to straighten trees in my nursery.

I like when a conversation changes. I need something to straighten a few trees in my garden. I didn't think about using those. just looked them up perfect for the job! Thanks.