These apple varieties are considered more disease resistance (than most), Enterprise, Freedom, Liberty, Pristine and William's Pride. I don't know if any of these are self pollinating. However, if you see crab apple trees in your neighborhood, there is a good chance that your one tree will be pollinated. I like my William's Pride so much, I planted a second one. On semi-dwarf rootstock, it fruits in 3 yrs. It tastes good and is easy to grow. I don't know it's storage life. I never have enough because I also give them to friends and neighbors. In my climate, WP is resistant to Cedar Apple rust, apple scab and powderly mildew. I don't have to spray for any of these diseases. However, I don't think any apple variety is immune to insects such as apple maggot flies or coddling moths. I don't spray, I use a bagging method and hanging red spheres smeared with tangle foot glue to trap flies. You stated that you'll plant your tree in the front yard. If you don't want your neighbors to question why you put ziplock bags on your apples, you will need to learn to spray. Otherwise, it's diificult to get undamaged apples. Oh, after you do all that, squirrels will take your apples. They love fruit. The only effective way is to kill them. I have not had the guts to kill any (yet) and had many fruit taken away, at times, right in front of my eyes. Many of us here started growing fruit trees with little to no knowledge about it. At least you asked first before planting. I planted a few and faced a number of problems before I found this forum . Keep reading,and asking, you'll be successful.

Apple tastings will not give you any information as to what is the best apple, because each apple reaches its prime at a different time. That's the whole beauty of growing backyard fruit: you get to pick and eat the apples just when they reach their highest potential, at which point each one in its own right would win a taste test hands down against any competitor that isn't at its prime. As far as choosing the right variety for your garden is concerned, there again, fruit tastings are not useful, because soil, micro-climate and the growing season weather all have an effect on the quality and flavor. Because apples loose most of their fragrance in commercial 33F storage conditions, and because they're often picked several weeks before they reach their prime (this is done yet again to improve their shelf-life) you also cannot judge an apple from the way it tastes when you buy it at the store or even often at local farmers markets where apples are stored in cold conditions. Of course, different apples respond differently to cold storage, some are better at retaining good quality. Cameo is generally horrible when bought at the store, but a tree-ripened cameo eaten after just the right amount of "natural" 45-55F storage will taste amazingly good. As a rule of thumb, the later the apple ripens, the higher the quality will be. Some speculate the reason for this is that as the leaves turn, the nutrients from the leaves find their way into the apples. So for example, an Akero ripening in mid-September in Northern Sweden just as the first frosts show up are of much higher quality and have much longer storing properties than an Akero ripening in August in California. In California where I live, the best apples are those that finish off ripening on the tree all the way into January and even Febuary. For example, Granny Smith, an apple that stays green and at best has culinary appeal when grown in Northern latitude reaches its prime table eating quality when it turns bright yellow in late January. At that time, it tastes like a cross in between a fully ripened pink lady and a golden delicious, a most exquisite apple that rivals any other apple out there. The reason is that it ripens when the leaves finally fall off (January in most of sea-level California) and when there is a good chance of light frosts at night. Other apples which are far too tannic to win a taste test but reach their prime in Febuary includes Lady Williams and a number of the Etter selections. However, personally, I still love Summer apples - they have a very small window of good quality that you have to hit just right - that window is sandwiched in between too much astringency on one end and the apple going mealy on the other end. For a really early apple like yellow transparent, that window is sometimes just a few hours, or maybe a day or two at most. When you hit an apple like that just right, it's down right heavenly and could win a taste test down right. For example, I just picked "yellow transparent" apples last night, and I let them sit on the counter until this afternoon. This afternoon, they are 100% perfect, the right balance of sweetness and acidity, still nice and crunchy, and downright awesome and yummy and refreshing. Another six hours and they'd be going mealy, good maybe for baking or the chickens. But they're worth it for that small 6 hour window. That's part of the fun. How do I know when they're at their peak? I smell them, as the aroma will peak when they're just right. The beauty and fun of backyard apple growing is that each apple is a 100% unique flavor, completely dependant on when it is picked and what the weather was like, and the types of feeding it got. Yes, this is the total opposite of what commercial growers try to do - a homogenized, repeatable but bland experience of eating an apple that is usually more reminiscent of eating cardboard. The truth is that each apple is like a fine wine: it's going to taste different each time, and when treated right, aged properly, and consumed at just the right time, then it can be an earth shattering experience. My advice to anyone wanting to grow their own apples: experiment with a lot of varieties. Learn to graft and try out grafting many different varieties to find the one that suits your taste buds the best. You will be handsomely rewarded. I have Rhode Island Greening, now that is one heck of an amazing apple. My all time favorite through has to be Pink Lady. A good home grown Gala or jonagold will knock your socks off, but a store bought one may leave you wondering how anyone can eat apples that taste like cardboard. I can't over-emphasize how much of an impact the surroundings of a tree can have. For example, Cox Orange Pippin is notoriously difficult to grow. Out here in California, this tree is best grown with 100% afternoon shade, otherwise the fruits are of very poor quality. Finally, there's the whole issue of disease resistance. But why care about that for a backyard apple? Unless you have commercial ambitions, who cares what the apple looks like. Apple disease susceptibility should not be the primary factor in selecting a backyard tree. In the backyard, imperfection is not only acceptable, it's desirable. On an interesting note, Cox Orange Pippin wood has viruses, yet these very viruses give the fruit more flavor. Here in California, Dave Wilson had the viruses removed from the Cox Orange Pippin (a laboratory procedure) and the resulting trees bear fruit of far inferior quality than the original virus infected Cox orange pippin. The bottom line is that backyard apple growing is not a factory practice, it's a real art form - it should be a fun and unique experience. Your apples will be special and different from everyone else's apples. I'll get off my soap box for now - I'd love to hear other's experiences of the best tasting apples they have ever eaten.

Thanks megamav - that looks great. My cousin offered a pole picker today but I think we're just about done - probably couldn't reach the few apples that are left at the top of the tree now, even standing in the bed of the pickup or on a ladder. I'll borrow hers or buy the tongs for next year though. She gave me some Red Delicious she said should have been left on the tree longer - just 4, 1 of each of us to try. I don't normally like RD and she didn't say if these were new sport. I know there is n heirloom Golden that tastes good - is there a Red? Or are these likely the same as are commercially available nowadays? She also gave me some Bosc pears but unfortunately most of them were rotting in her garage. I sorted through some to find 4, took the bad ones for the chickens, she's going to have the neighbor go through and take what she wants and then maybe there will still be some good ones to make pear butter.

You did absolutely nothing wrong in your post. You just asked the question that you thought you needed to based on what you knew. It's not even like you could have easily have searched for the answer, because you didn't have the specific info to enter into the search function and you would have pulled up thousands of posts before finding enough info. Don't put all your eggs in the "Fruit and Orchards Forum" basket. There are a few really smart/experienced growers there, but the forum seems less informative than this forum, to me. I see at least as many "wrong" answers there as I do "right" answers. I used to be a regular in that forum too, but just got burned out by the lack of knowledge and, sometimes, contempt for common sense. I agree with most of what Scottfsmith said, but ya never know what else will follow. Do look carefully at my list of vendors. Willis (mentioned in your other thread) is probably not a good bet. It's listed in the "sources with poorer reviews" section of my list. You've heard of "where there's smoke, there's fire"...well I haven't seen sure signs of fire from Willis, but the smoke is really boiling out of that place. Years ago, I used to give them the benefit of the doubt because I was pretty sure that some of their negative reviews were made up from their competitor, TyTy (really, really bad news). But, since then, other negative reviews appear to be from valid sources. There's just way too much controversy for there not to be problems with that nursery. Another source listed in a response in your other thread, Stark Brothers, is a little better, but still certainly wouldn't be on the top of my list of suppliers. Unless they've changed their practices, they don't even provide rootstock ID. Their Garden Watchdog ratings are "OK/good", but not nearly as good as the sources I listed above. Most (all?) of them are rated either "excellent" or "very good".