Spencer Apple

scionwood
$6.00
sold out
Item: 7935-A
$5.50
Sorry, ordering deadline has passed
Item: 7935-B
Malus spp.
This is a twig for grafting. Late fall-winter, red-blushed skin.

Summerland S-5-4 (McIntosh × Golden Delicious) Summerland Ag Res Stn, British Columbia, 1959.

This relatively unknown dessert apple has an avid following among commercial and home orchardists here in Maine and throughout the Northeast. The large oblong-conic yellow fruit blushed with light scarlet red is crisp, firm, juicy and sweet. Grower Phil Norris says it has “all the sprightliness of Golden Delicious combined with the incomparable sweet-tart ambrosia of a perfectly ripe Mac.”

Ripens after McIntosh and keeps relatively well. The tree is vigorous, upright-spreading and annually bearing. Blooms midseason. Z4.
ships in early spring

Related Items

Rootstock
Grafting Supplies
Hole-Istic Spring Planting Mix
Quick Details
Harvest Season
late fall-winter
Skin Color
red-blushed
Compare

Apples with Harvest Timing Similar to ‘Late Fall-Winter’

Variety Product Type Harvest Season Skin Color
Api Etoile scionwood winter red-blushed
Ashmead’s Kernel scionwood winter russeted golden-orange
Baldwin scionwood winter red
Belle de Boskoop scionwood winter russeted green
Ben Davis scionwood winter red-striped and blushed
Bethel scionwood winter red
Black Gilliflower scionwood fall-winter purplish red
Black Oxford scionwood winter deep purple
Blue Pearmain scionwood fall-winter russeted purplish red
Bullock scionwood fall-winter russeted gold
Calville Blanc d’Hiver scionwood winter pale green-yellow
Cortland scionwood fall-winter purple-blushed red
Empire scionwood fall-winter dark red
Esopus Spitzenburg scionwood fall-winter bright red
Fireside scionwood winter red
Frostbite scionwood fall-winter purple-striped red
Golden Delicious scionwood fall-winter rich yellow
Golden Russet scionwood winter russeted yellow
GoldRush scionwood winter golden
Gray Pearmain scionwood fall-winter russeted yellow-green
Grindstone scionwood fall-winter red-streaked
Haralson scionwood winter red
Honeycrisp scionwood winter red-striped
Honeygold scionwood winter golden yellow
Jonathan scionwood fall-winter red
Kandil Sinap scionwood fall-winter red-blushed yellow
Keepsake scionwood winter red-washed and striped
King David scionwood fall-winter dark maroon
Milden scionwood fall-winter red-splashed
Milo Gibson scionwood late fall-winter orange-russeted greenish yellow
Mutsu scionwood fall-winter orange-blushed golden yellow
Northern Spy scionwood winter red-striped
Reinette Simirenko scionwood winter grass green
Ribston Pippin scionwood fall-winter russeted red
Roxbury Russet scionwood winter russeted green
Scott’s Winter scionwood winter red
Smokehouse scionwood fall-winter reddish-brown-blushed
Spencer scionwood late fall-winter red-blushed
Starkey scionwood fall-winter rosy red
Swaar scionwood winter yellow
Tolman Sweet scionwood fall-early winter greenish yellow
White Pippin scionwood winter greenish white
Winesap scionwood winter red
Winn Russet scionwood winter russeted gold-green
Winter Banana scionwood fall-winter bright red-blushed
Yellow Bellflower scionwood winter yellow
Zabergau Reinette scionwood winter russeted greenish bronze
Additional Information

Scionwood

Scions are twigs, not trees. They have no roots and will not grow if you plant them. They are cuttings from dormant branch tips, intended for spring grafting.

We do our best to provide ¼" caliper stock. Because of factors beyond our control (such as weather!) stock may be 3⁄16–3⁄8".

We sell scionwood in two ways:

  • By the stick: One 12" stick can graft 4-6 trees.
  • By the foot: Minimum order of 10 feet per variety. For orchardists grafting large numbers of trees of a particular 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

Apples

Choosing the Right Apple

Not sure where to start? Check out our Apple Chart!

Choosing a variety: Not every variety may be right for you. All-purpose apples are just that—they’re good for a bunch of jobs. If you're planting just one tree, perhaps start there. However, if you’re a history buff, consider the historical varieties and maybe plant one that originated nearby. If you don’t eat many apples but love pies, go for the pie apples. If you’re a dessert connoisseur, skip all the others and go for the highly flavored dessert varieties. Some are strictly for cider. Some are great to put out at the camp for summer use. Some are perfect for those who want fall fruit but don’t have a root cellar. Others keep all winter and into the following summer.

  • Summer apples ripen in summer, are generally crisp only for a short period, do not store well, and are often best for cooking.
  • Fall apples store longer and are useful for a wide variety of purposes.
  • Winter apples ripen mid to late fall, store well, and reach their best flavor after weeks, or even months, of storage.
  • Dessert apples are delicious eaten raw.
  • Crabapples are less than 2" in diameter. Some crabs bear edible or culinary or cider-making fruit. Some have persistent wildlife fruit that hangs on the tree for weeks or even months. Others have hardly any fruit at all. Some are beautiful ornamentals.
  • Cider apples are especially suited to making fermented “hard” cider. Some cider apples are also good dessert fruit, but most are not.
  • Subacid means tart!
  • Russet or russeting is a skin texture (fairly common on apple varieties and on a few pears and potatoes) which looks and feels somewhat like suede.
  • Bloom is a naturally occurring dust-like yeast film on the skin of some varieties of apples, plums, grapes and blueberries.

Cider Apples

Each year we offer a different assortment of the best European and American cider varieties, including new wild apple introductions from local fruit explorers and cidermakers. Many of these are NOT for fresh eating. They do however possess qualities that make them very desirable for fermented cider production.

Seedling Apples

These trees were grown from seeds, rather than grafted onto rootstock like the other apple varieties we offer. These standard-sized trees will grow to 20–30'.

Flowering and Culinary Crabapples

A crabapple is any apple with fruit smaller than 2" in diameter. All crabs bear edible fruit, some more favorable for culinary use than others. Some fruits are persistent, hanging on the branch through winter and providing forage for robins, jays and waxwings in the early spring. The flowers, tree form and even the shape of the leaves can vary subtly or profoundly. Most are magnificent in bloom and ornamental year round, especially in winter when the leaves drop and the trees show off their interesting forms.

Growing Apples

  • Soil: Adaptable, but prefers well-drained fertile soil.
  • Sun: Full.
  • Pollination: Requires a second variety for pollination. Any apple or crabapple blooming within a quarter mile will probably do.
  • Planting and Pruning: See our planning and planting and pests and diseases pages for more information about soil prep, planting, pruning, and pest control.
  • Spacing:
    • For trees on Malus domestica (standard) and Bud 118 rootstock, 20–25' apart.
    • M111 semi-dwarf, 15–20' apart.
    • G890 semi-dwarf, 10–15' apart.
    • Bud 9 dwarf, 5–10' apart.

Shipping

Orders for scionwood placed after February 20 will ship around late April through mid-May, in the order in which they were received. Sorry, we cannot expedite these orders.