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Wickson Crab Apple on G.210 (Spring 2025)

You are viewing a tree that will ship in Spring 2025. You can also find trees for Spring 2024.

A high-sugar, high-acid crabapple that is popular with cider makers.

The tree is vigorous, cold hardy, and annual bearing. It produces a dense white bloom that is followed by masses of brilliant red apples hung in clusters. Wickson is very slightly susceptible to fireblight, scab, and cedar-apple rust.

This apple is intensely flavored for fresh eating, and perfect for jams and jellies, but it has finally found its true calling as a cider apple. The small yellow-red fruits produce a juice that is abundant, clear, and loaded with sugar and acid. In Apples of Uncommon Character, Rowan Jacobsen says that Wickson "ferments beautifully into a bone-dry, water-white, high-alcohol cider with a nose of guava and lychee with an astringent crab apple finish." It is perfect for blending, as Eve's Cidery writes: "This apple is a great, complimentary source of acid. It’s very concentrated, allowing less to be used so the intensity of the main bittersweet or aromatic character is retained."

Although Albert Etter is most known for his red-fleshed varieties, Wickson Crab is the apple that has become his most highly regarded cultivar. It is a cross of two varieties (or one single variety–the language of the patent is murky) that are enigmatically named Newtown (and) Spitzenberg Crab, which we can only assume were breeding varieties developed by Etter himself. Wickson is named after E. J. Wickson, a friend of Etter's and author of California Fruits.

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The tree is vigorous, cold hardy, and annual bearing. It produces a dense white bloom that is followed by masses of brilliant red apples hung in clusters. Wickson is very slightly susceptible to fireblight, scab, and cedar-apple rust.

This apple is intensely flavored for fresh eating, and perfect for jams and jellies, but it has finally found its true calling as a cider apple. The small yellow-red fruits produce a juice that is abundant, clear, and loaded with sugar and acid. In Apples of Uncommon Character, Rowan Jacobsen says that Wickson "ferments beautifully into a bone-dry, water-white, high-alcohol cider with a nose of guava and lychee with an astringent crab apple finish." It is perfect for blending, as Eve's Cidery writes: "This apple is a great, complimentary source of acid. It’s very concentrated, allowing less to be used so the intensity of the main bittersweet or aromatic character is retained."

Although Albert Etter is most known for his red-fleshed varieties, Wickson Crab is the apple that has become his most highly regarded cultivar. It is a cross of two varieties (or one single variety–the language of the patent is murky) that are enigmatically named Newtown (and) Spitzenberg Crab, which we can only assume were breeding varieties developed by Etter himself. Wickson is named after E. J. Wickson, a friend of Etter's and author of California Fruits.


The Fruit

Fruit Type

Category: Apple
Subcategory: Crabapple, Cider, Cold-Hardy, Hot-Climate

Fruit Uses & Storage

Uses: fresh eating, cider, jam, jelly
Cider classification: sharp
Storage duration: less than one month (approximate, depending on storage conditions)

Fruit Appearance

Skin color: red
Flesh color: cream

Fruit Origins

Parentage: Spitzenburg Crab x Newtown Crab
Origin: Humboldt County, California
Introduced in: 1944
Introduced by: Albert Etter

The Environment

Calendar & Geography

USDA zones: 3 - 8
Chill hours: Not yet determined
Ripening date: Oct 20 (approximate, in New York State) +35 days after McIntosh

Tree Height & Spacing

Rootstock: G.210 Rootstock
Rootstock size class: Semi-Dwarf (40% of Standard)
Tree spacing (natural spread of tree): 12'
Good for wildlife planting? N

Diseases & Pests

Cedar-Apple Rust: Susceptible
Apple Scab: Susceptible
Fireblight: Susceptible

Pollination

Pollination Factors

Bloom group: 2
Is it self-fertile? N
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid
Rootstock size class: Semi-Dwarf (40% of Standard)

Pollination Partners

This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Wickson Crab Apple on G.210. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.

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See all pollination matches for Wickson Crab Apple on G.210






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