Seed:

I have a mature Freedom tree here, and if I could give it to you I would. Then I would plant something better in its place. The Freedom tree occupies a choice location in my orchard. Apples are below average in flavor and productivity, and will keep without getting mealy about one month in refrigeration, and that is only if they are picked before fully ripe on the trees. I have had a couple of bad fireblight outbreaks in past years, and saw no difference between Freedom and any of the others (I have over 30 varieties) in resistance. I still had to prune away a lot of branches from the Freedom. I don't have Liberty, but believe it is a lot better apple if you want one with advertised disease resistance. I say advertised. Melrose also ought to work in South Dakota.

Now I dormant spray the apples with oil mixed with copper (Kocide), then treat them once with streptomycin at bloom time. I have not seen any fireblight in the past 5 years, in spite of weather conditions that favor it. This may not be a definitive scientific result, but it looks suspiciously like the sprays are doing some good.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks, jellyman, that's just the sort of anecdote I was hoping for. It seems like people who have a lot of trees don't seem to see a lot of difference in the area of fireblight regardless of the purported resistance of their trees.

Melrose is listed as ripening in late October. By that time here we will most years have had a hard frost. So I worry that the sweetness of the apples might be compromised. I hope that someone from a more northern clime will answer this post.

I have never sprayed anything, but am thinking of learning how. It seems like the copper sprays are a good thing. Thanks!

I've got a 4 year old Freedom but it hasn't produced apples as of yet. My asst pear trees got clobbered by fireblight last year but the Freedom had no signs of it. But I can say that the Freedom gets only 40% of the cedar rust damage when my other apple trees get 80-90%. I have tons of cedar trees throughout the neighborhood.
Don, it saddens me to hear your thoughts on Freedom's quality :o(. We'll see if it sets fruit this 5th year.

Vgkg:

I would compare the quality of Freedom to Rome, to which it is very similar. I had a Rome here too for quite a number of years, but took it out because I didn't like it. If you like Rome, you might also like Freedom.

I control cedar apple rust with a fungicide called Ferban, applied when blooms begin to open, together with streptomycin against fireblight. There are lots of eastern red cedars in my neighborhood too, and CAR was a serious problem for me every year until I found Ferban, which has entirely eliminated this disease. CAR used to devastate the apples themselves as well as causing leaf spots, and for some susceptible varieties like Stayman this meant losing all of the apples.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks again jellyman and vgkg. I'm not too excited about Romes, myself. Mostly it's the mealy texture of them. vgkg, I'm glad to hear that someone has better luck with these new "resistant" cultivars, else why even bother to develop them? I'll have to keep thinking about which to choose. I can't have a whole orchard! I still hope to hear from a northern fruit grower.

Thanks for the Ferban tip Don, my other 3 apple trees are of the old heirloom varieties which really take a beating with the CAR annually. After CAR has it way with them then the Japanese Beetles chomp on what's left of the leaves. At least the JB's leave the CAR infected leaves alone, they must taste pretty bad.

Vgkg:

Correct that spelling. It is Ferbam. Sorry.

Ferbam looks like nothing more than ground up anthracite coal, but it dissolves well in water, and is very effective on CAR. If you have a severe problem, you might want to do two early sprays, about 10 days apart. But after the early sprays, you should be able to cruise through the rest of the season. I use no fungicides or insecticides on apples after about the 3rd week of May, when the fruit has been thinned and bagged.

It is difficult to find Ferbam in small amounts.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA