Chinese pearleaf crabapple

Photo: Łukasz Szczurowski — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Grown across northeastern China and Korea for its apple-like but small, tart fruit — usually cooked into jellies and preserves rather than eaten raw. Like the rest of the genus, self-incompatible: a second, unrelated apple or crabapple is needed for fruit.

Hardiness

Zone 4–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

To 6 m, rounded habit

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline) — tolerant of most soil pH

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Northeastern China, also grown in Korea.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs grafted

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Ovate to elliptic, finely toothed margins, to 11 cm long by 5.5 cm wide; yellow-orange autumn colour

Root system

In cultivation the rootstock's, as with every apple — vigour, suckering and soil tolerance follow the stock rather than the variety. On its own roots, moderately deep with strong spreading laterals.

Fruit description

Apple-like pome, 2–5 cm across, red-yellow, tart

Propagation

Grafting or budding onto apple rootstock. Seed will not come true: the genus is self-incompatible, so every seedling is a cross.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated; self-incompatible like the rest of the genus, so needs a second, genetically distinct apple or crabapple nearby.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.