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Ben Davis Apple Scionwood (Spring 2024)


A once widely grown heirloom apple that is a parent of Cortland. Also known as Mortgage Lifter, Baltimore Pippin, New York Pippin, Victoria Pippin, Virginia Pippin, Victoria Red, Kentucky Pippin, Kentucky Redstreak, Carolina Red Streak.

This tree is precocious and productive. It is upright, and spreading, resistant to wooly apple aphid, cedar-apple rust, and mildew, but susceptible to scab and canker. 

The apple is medium sized, with a smooth skin washed red over yellow-green. The flesh is coarse, somewhat soft, aromatic, juicy, and subacid. It hangs well on the tree, stores very well, and resists bruising. 

Ben Davis is most famous as a parent of Cortland apple (Ben Davis x McIntosh). It got its other common name "Mortgage Lifter" from its productivity and ability to travel without bruising, making it a highly profitable commercial apple in its day. My Dad describes it as like "eating cotton."

Volume Pricing

Premiums are included in the following prices if applicable. These prices are for regular scion. Add $1 for clean scion.

Quantity Ben Davis Apple Scion
1 $12.00
2-5 $7.00
6-10 $6.00
11-99 $5.00
100+ $4.00

Order Your Scions

Select clean or regular:

$12.00 ea.

This is the full retail price for orders of 1 scion. You can get these scion for as low as $4.00 each – see Volume Pricing above. More about Pricing & Grading.

9 in stock
Quantity
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Clean vs. Regular

Our clean scion is harvested from trees grown on G.16, which is extremely sensitive to viruses. These trees would not have survived if the scion contained viruses. Our clean wood has not been lab tested. Regular = may contain one of the common latent viruses; this is not usually a problem and can be used with most rootstocks.

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This tree is precocious and productive. It is upright, and spreading, resistant to wooly apple aphid, cedar-apple rust, and mildew, but susceptible to scab and canker. 

The apple is medium sized, with a smooth skin washed red over yellow-green. The flesh is coarse, somewhat soft, aromatic, juicy, and subacid. It hangs well on the tree, stores very well, and resists bruising. 

Ben Davis is most famous as a parent of Cortland apple (Ben Davis x McIntosh). It got its other common name "Mortgage Lifter" from its productivity and ability to travel without bruising, making it a highly profitable commercial apple in its day. My Dad describes it as like "eating cotton."


The Fruit

Fruit Type

Category: Apple
Subcategory: Heirloom

Fruit Uses & Storage

Uses: fresh eating, baking, storage, jelly, sauce
Storage duration: three plus months (approximate, depending on storage conditions)

Fruit Appearance

Skin color: red
Flesh color: off-white

Fruit Origins

Parentage: unknown
Origin: Possibly Kentucky
Introduced in: 1700's
Introduced by: unknown

The Environment

Calendar & Geography

USDA zones: 3 - 7
Chill hours: Not yet determined
Ripening date: Sep 29 (approximate, in New York State) + 14 days after McIntosh

Diseases & Pests

Apple Scab: Susceptible
Cedar-Apple Rust: Resistant
Perennial Canker: Susceptible
Powdery Mildew: Resistant
Woolly Apple Aphid: Resistant

Pollination

Pollination Factors

Bloom group: 3
Is it self-fertile? N
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid

Pollination Partners

This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Ben Davis Apple. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.

Tree Ships Currently in Stock
Virginia Crab Apple 2024 0
Florina Apple 2024 0
Porter's Perfection Apple 2024 0
Elstar Apple 2024 0
Rubinette Apple 2024 0
St. Edmund's Russet Apple 2024 0
Spitzenburg Esopus Apple 2024 0
Liberty Apple 2024 0
Mother Apple 2024 0
Cripps Pink Apple 2024 0
Binet Rouge Apple 2024 0

See all pollination matches for Ben Davis Apple






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