Daniel:

If it looks like a crabapple, walks like a crabapple, and quacks like a crabapple, it's a crabapple.

There is no correct number for the number of seeds in an apple. All depends on how well it is pollinated. I have seen as many as 8, and as few as 4. Usually, the more seed pods, the larger the apple. There is no such thing as a "correct" number, regardless of what that someone once told you.

Can you tell us why it is important that it be a crabapple? Also, can you tell us where you live?

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hi Don, thanks for your help last spring on fireblight! I think it's under control, tho I lost an ein shemer apple. Fireblight was bad here, even getting my Orient pear.

Is there a list of good species of crabapples for pollination of different apple species? As usual, I just blundered in and bought a magenta (from coldwater farm- they were not expensive) and a native crabapple to help pollinate my Braeburn and Gala apple trees, hoping they would be in flower at the same time. The trees are still young and only the Gala has flowered at all yet.

Do you know if they will flower at the same time or be any help in pollination?

Susan