The apple you grafted to will not have that much influence on the quality of the fruit from the grafted wood except possibly on its vigor in the same manner an interstem would- Interstems are when two different rootstocks are used where the top one is grafted on above the ground and then the scion apple is grafted to that.

The most common interstem combination is 111 with 9 as an interstem, to create a tree with a little less vigor than 7 but a nice root system that anchors well and can find water during drought.

Something may be going on with your tree but I don't think it's what you think it is.

There is definitely something odd happening here and I'll post some photos of the different fruits as soon as I can figure out how to upload them.

You can upload the pictures directly to GardenWeb (the tool is provided just under the words "Post a Follow-Up" just above where you are typing in the text of the post). BUT, there is also a better way (sometimes GardenWeb does weird things to photos AND you can only do one per post if you use their tool).

IMO, the best way is to upload your photo(s) onto an image hosting site such as Photobucket, Flickr, etc. That should be pretty straight forward, and the individual sites will give instructions on how to get your photos uploaded to their site when you sign up.

Once your picture has been uploaded, find the image's location address (URL) by right clicking on the image and copying the image location. Some sites may even provide the appropriate HTML code in a text box below the photo for your convenience. It will be the one that begins with a href=...

Let's say, as an example, that the address of the picture you want to post is http://somepicturesite.com/yourpicture.jpg

To embed the picture into a post, use the command:
img src="http://somepicturesite.com/yourpicture.jpg">;
_____________________________________

If your picture is too large to fit nicely into the text page, you can add a width attribute. This is a good idea to keep posts from being hard to read.

The command with the width attribute would look something like:
img src="http://somepicturesite.com/yourpicture.jpg"; width=600>
_____________________________________

Note that I had to use special characters to get the commands above to show up here without turning into pictures, but you can use them as shown (with the correct image web address, of course).

Hi all,
Here are the photos of the tree in question... I'll post them in 4 separate messages due to uploading limits here. As you can see there's quite a different fruit produced on the graft. Thanks again for any advice.
Dave

The tree I cut back to graft on to.

The grafted fruit, which is larger than the Freyburg apple in photo 1.

A view of the grafts.

When you graft a scion onto a rootstock or top-work a tree, like you have done, the fruit produced by the scion will be fruit of the scion cultivar (period). The rootstock, or the tree onto which you have grafted, may have some effects on the fruit (e.g. amount of and size of fruit), but not on the type of fruit. I am not specifically familiar with the two cultivars you are working with, so can't tell you how an unripe Freyburg should look. If Harvestman comes back, he can probably answer that MUCH better than me. If not, you may want to post on the Fruit and Orchards Forum.

Hi Brandon
The rootstock for the Freyburg is MM106 and all I can tell you about the other tree is it was a dwarf Peasgood Nonsuch.

The first photo posted here is the unripe Freyburg and the 3rd and 4th photos are of the unripe grafted Freyburg. I would have thought they should at least look similar, being from the same tree, but they are not. I guess time will tell.

I did some reading on Freyburg apples yesterday and every description I could find described them as yellow-green, which clearly they are not... so I'm now questioning this too, but that's another subject.

Perhaps I should not have let the scion wood fruit immediately after grafting, and given it 12 months before it fruited onto new growth instead. Maybe that's the answer?

According to multiple internet sites, Freyburg has a green skin that turns golden yellow with a small amount of russet when ripe. That doesn't match your first picture at all. Actually, the 3rd and 4th pictures are closer matches (at least for color) to Freyburg than is your first picture. I would bet you a box of donuts that the first picture is not of Freyburg apples at all. Somehow, I think you have your apples mixed up.

Hi Brandon
All the photos posted are of my trees, not from the net. This now raises 2 issues: have I actually been sold a Freyburg, and why is the grafted fruit so different from the Freyburg where the scion wood was taken from. Photos 1 and 3/4 are from the same tree! (photos 3/4 are the grafts).

Here's the label of the tree I bought from a supposedly reputable source:

Mismarked nursery stock is more common than you might imagine. A lot of times, they just get plants mixed up, but sometimes grafts fail and rootstocks take over. Either way, it doesn't appear to me, based on internet source, that your red apples are Freyburgs.

Hi Brandon, yes you're right about the Freyburg which I'll have to replace this year. Annoying but hopefully my other 5 (cider) apple trees I bought are going to produce the correct fruit.

I'll assume that the parent tree has taken over the grafts and produced fruit similar to what I was trying to replace (once again, annoying). Interesting to note that both grafts pictured in photo 4 have the same fruit and so both appear to have "failed".

Perhaps it is because the scion wood was taken from the "Freyburg" tree before it had fruited for the first time?

Possibly if my original Freyburg tree was taken over by the rootstock then maybe it is not a suitable source for taking scion wood from?

It would be interesting to actually know the reason why this has happened and I'm hopeful that the other grafts of the Cox's will be successful.

Dave