Malus Royal Raindrops Crab Apple

Position and soil. The NC State toolbox says it does best in full sun in a well-drained, slightly acidic soil with steady moisture, and tolerates a range of soils, air pollution and, once established, drought. Utah State University rates its water use low and its growth medium; an American wholesale nursery's profile says it grows fast.

Climate. The Missouri Botanical Garden, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the NC State toolbox rate it to USDA zones 4 to 8; Utah State University gives 4 to 7, and the Purdue arboretum and the nursery that sells it give zone 4. No Australian reference read covers it, so there is no figure here for how it handles an Australian summer or a frost-free winter.

Pruning. The toolbox says to prune as needed in late winter, because spring cuts leave open wounds where the fire blight bacterium can enter.

Pests and diseases. American references name scab, fire blight, rusts, leaf spot and powdery mildew as the main crab apple diseases. The Missouri Botanical Garden says this cultivar resists them well, and the nursery that sells it rates its resistance excellent to scab and cedar-apple rust and good to fire blight and mildew. One American wholesale nursery reports it stopped growing it after a defoliating disease in its area, and that trees pruned back every year stayed well foliated.

The Missouri Botanical Garden and the NC State toolbox list Royal Raindrops as a specimen or accent tree, planted in small groups, and as a street tree. Its fruit persists into early winter and draws birds, by both; they say it matures in late summer, where the Purdue arboretum's text says late spring. Utah State University notes that the fruit can be messy, though smaller than on other crab apples. For the genus and the other crab apples with pages here, see the apple genus and the Bechtel crab apple. No reference read gives a planting distance for an avenue of it.

Royal Raindrops is a trade name; the registered cultivar is 'JFS-KW5', and a grower may list either. The American references give a tree of about 4.6 to 6.1 m, so check the grade and height at sale against the job. For tree grades and the stock standard to write into an order, see the guide to specifying and procuring trees; the table above shows the sizes growers list. Because no Australian reference read covers it, its behaviour here is not on the record. Stock crossing a state border moves under the state and territory biosecurity rules.