The history of our orchard
An apple orchard was established at the Old Fort in the early 1900s. It is a combination of crab apples and traditional apples established on above ground grafts. There are no records indicating what varieties are present.
Nearly eighty, 100+ year old apple trees grow at the Old Fort at Hesperus Orchard. Over the last several years, MORP has grafted every tree and submitted leaf samples to the USDA-ARS for identification. Results confirm the rare, diversity growing here: Hibernal, Virginia Crab, Snow, Wealthy, poss Tetofsky, NW Greening, Old Fashioned Mac, and dozens of other unknown, grafted cultivars that are so rare that the lab does not have their match (although many of them match another in the orchard!). This work is made possible by a MORP partnership with Old Fort and a USDA Specialty Crop Grand Award for the state of Colorado.