Erik A. Draper, Ohio State University Extension, Geauga County; James A. Chatfield, Ohio State University Extension, Northeast District/Horticulture and Crop Science; and Kenneth D. Cochran, Secrest Arboretum of The Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, and Ohio State University Extension.
The original crabapple research plot at Secrest, designated as Crablandia, had a completely randomized design with three single-plant replicates of each taxon. This National Crabapple Evaluation Plot (NCEP), planted in 1984, contained 46 crabapple taxa. Observations and data were collected on each of these 46 taxa.
However, due to disease, attrition, and repeatedly poor performance, some crabapple selections were culled in 1998. The remaining 28 crabapple taxa provided data in Crablandia through August 2000.
An additional 14 crabapple selections were interplanted into the original NCEP plot in 1994 and rated from August 1997 to August 2000 only.
A second crabapple research plot, designated as Crablandia II, was initiated in 1998 at Secrest Arboretum. It began with 58 selected crabapple taxa. This plot consists of a completely randomized design, with five single-plant replicates of each taxon. Planting of the additional selections or new releases will be on an ongoing basis. Research evaluations and data collection in Crablandia II began in June 2001.
Fruit color and size, bloom color, tree form, incidence of scab, and mature tree size for all the crabapples evaluated in Crablandia and Crablandia II are reported in Table 1. These findings were cross referenced with tree size, fruit size, and fruit color observations recorded by the late crabapple hybridizer, Father John Fiala (4) and other researchers (2). Apple scab susceptibility ratings and aesthetic observations from the Secrest plots were recorded yearly, during the months of June through August; those findings were compiled for this report.
Table 2 provides the time of effective fruit display, overall mature tree size, and an expanded description or profile of each crabapple taxon. These profiles offer the positive and negative aspects of aesthetics and disease observations, according to the evaluations of the authors (1, 3). The time of effective fruit display was compiled from observations conducted each month during the year.
The overall disease observations were compiled from findings noted and reported by the authors in other articles written for previous publications of this ornamental research circular (1). Aesthetic and apple-scab ratings over the period of this research were recorded on 1 to 5 and 0 to 5 rating scales and are available elsewhere (1, 3), but are not itemized here due to space and format considerations.