General Information
This small, tart apple is used in making tarts, jellies and garnish. Some may be too tart to enjoy fresh, but some are a refreshing and enjoyable combination of sweet and sour. Crabapple fruit are mostly red, but some cultivars, such as the ‘Golden Hornet’, are yellow. If crabapples are stewed and the pulp is carefully strained and mixed with an equal volume of sugar then boiled, their juice can be made into a delicious ruby-colored crabapple jelly. A small percentage of crab apples in cider makes a more interesting flavor.
Some crab apples are used as rootstocks for domestic apples to add beneficial characteristics. For example, Siberian crab rootstock is often used to give additional cold hardiness to the combined plant for orchards in cold northern areas.
They are also used as pollenizers in apple orchards. Varieties of crab apple are selected to bloom contemporaneously with the apple variety in an orchard planting, and the crabs are planted every sixth or seventh tree, or limbs of crab are grafted onto some of the apple trees. In emergencies a bucket or drum bouquet of crab apple flowering branches are placed near the beehives as orchard pollenizers.
Cultivation
For the Malus pumila cultivars, the culinary and eating apples, see Apple.
Crabapples are popular as compact ornamental trees, providing blossom in Spring and colourful fruit in Autumn. The fruits often persist throughout Winter. Numerous hybrid cultivars have been selected. The following have won the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit:
Other varieties are dealt with under their species names.
Some crabapples are used as rootstocks for domestic apples to add beneficial characteristics. For example, varieties of baccata, also called Siberian crab, rootstock is used to give additional cold hardiness to the combined plant for orchards in cold northern areas.
They are also used as pollinizers in apple orchards. Varieties of crabapple are selected to bloom contemporaneously with the apple variety in an orchard planting, and the crabs are planted every sixth or seventh tree, or limbs of a crab tree are grafted onto some of the apple trees. In emergencies, a bucket or drum bouquet of crabapple flowering branches are placed near the beehives as orchard pollenizers. See also Fruit tree pollination.
Because of the plentiful blossoms and small fruit, crabapples are popular for use in bonsai culture.
Uses
Some crabapple varieties are an exception to the reputation of being sour, and can be very sweet, such as the ‘Chestnut’ cultivar.
Crabapples are an excellent source of pectin, and their juice can be made into a ruby-coloured preserve with a full, spicy flavour. A small percentage of crabapples in cider makes a more interesting flavour. As Old English Wergulu, the crab apple is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century.
Apple wood gives off a pleasant scent when burned, and smoke from an apple wood fire gives an excellent flavour to smoked foods. It is easier to cut when green; dry apple wood is exceedingly difficult to carve by hand. It is a good wood for cooking fires because it burns hot and slow, without producing much flame.
