| David: Your intention to obtain apple scionwood appears to indicate that you have apple rootstocks in place, or an existing apple tree to which you would graft. Is this indeed the case? Have you ever seen or heard of anyone successfully growing apples in Honduras? I ask this because I lived for some time in neighboring El Salvador, and never saw an apple tree, even in the higher elevations. In San Salvador, we had a wet season and a dry season, but never a really cool season. You may need to select from among the available varieties that are known as "low chill", and require much less cold to break dormancy, blossom, and fruit. Several of these are Dorsett Golden, Anna, and Ein Sheimer. There are others. I recall there was a breeding program in Venezuela to grow low chill apples in the mountainous western part of the country, and I have eaten good apples off the trees in Cochabamba, Bolivia, though they only produced about once every 3 years, and CB is located at over 8,000 feet altitude. If you talked directly to Nick Botner, I assume chilling hours was one of the subjects you discussed, but Nick has apple varieties from all over the world, and does not specialize in low-chill. You might try an internet search for low-chill apples to see what turns up. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA |
