Check each cultivar for it's resistance to cedar apple rust.
The apple trees are mainly for the deer.
I will check those out, SDJIM, thanks.
Hope you do well with the apple trees. As far as the apples go, I was leaning towards Liberty apple trees with crabapples for pollination. But I'm not sure I've ever eaten a liberty apple, so I thought I would see if I can find some to eat before I commit to planting a bunch.
I collected a 5 gallon bucket of crabapples from our front yard at home, and dumped them around a trailcam at the farm. Didn't see much deer activity on them, but once the turkeys found them, the flock was on them daily until they were completely eaten. Not even a stem was left on the ground a week later.
Crabapples might be a pretty awesome Fall turkey attractor, as a side benefit.:cheers:
I do that and the deer eat a few, but the squirrels really like them. I have live trapped about forty squirrel over the years to repopulate them at the Ponderosa.
A few years ago I knew of a pear tree at a vacant house in town that dropped a lot of pears. Got permission and gathered trash bags of them. I dumped them out and the deer really took to them. I had one bag that was set back by accident. When I discovered them they were fermented and pretty rank. I dumped them at one trail cam site. One doe stood there for about an hour and a half eating those high octane pears. I kept waiting for the frame when she fell over drunk, but she never did.