Cellar Hole Bitter Apple Scionwood

This is a twig for grafting. Fall. Full bittersweet cider apple. Unknown parentage. Gene Cartwright, Whaleback Cider intro, 2015. Discovered near an old overgrown cellar hole down the road from Whaleback’s orchard and cidery in Lincolnville, ME.

Very bitter yellow fruit develops spots of pink and orange when fully ripe in mid-October. Gene says, “Intense tannins, not terribly juicy but can pack some sugars.” He measured a whopping 21 Brix in some highly colored specimens from the sunny side of the tree. Gene has artfully pruned the wild mother tree, but he still has to compete with the porcupines for a share of the large annual crop. Another one of the local discoveries on trial at MOFGA’s low-intervention no-spray South Orchard, where hopefully the quill pigs will stay away. Z4.

818 Cellar Hole Bitter

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Additional Information

Scionwood

Scions are twigs, not trees. They have no roots and will not grow if you plant them.

The deadline for ordering scionwood is February 16, 2024, for shipment around March 11. (Please note: we ship scionwood only in mid-March. If you would like to order rootstock to arrive in the same shipment, select mid-March shipping when adding the rootstock to your cart.)

We sell scionwood in two ways:

By the stick: One 8" stick will graft 3 or 4 trees.
By the foot: For orchardists grafting large numbers of trees of a particular variety, we also offer scionwood by the foot (minimum order of 10 feet per variety). In our own nursery work, we are usually able to graft 6-8 trees from one foot of scionwood.

You can graft right away or store scionwood for later use. It will keep quite well for several weeks stored in sealed ziplock bags in the refrigerator.

For more info:
About Scionwood

Item	Discounted Price
L818A: 8" scionwood stick, 1 for $6.00
L818B: scionwood by the foot (10' minimum), 1 ft for $5.50