John:

I can't really grow Honeycrisp here either, but would if I could. I also have a Fuji which produces wonderful apples but is a shy bearer and is a very busy twiggy tree. My Fuji is one of the older cultivars - Nagafu #6.

One of the overall best, most productive apples I have is Goldrush, which is a late, long-keeping sweet/tart apple. It is very crisp, even after several months of refrigerated storage. I don't think I would get much disagreement that Goldrush is a better eating apple than Liberty, and it also has some inbred disease resistance as Liberty does. I just picked over 175 apples from my Goldrush tree this weekend, and the tree is not yet 10 years old, on M-7 rootstock. It's worth looking around at online nurseries until you find a nice little Goldrush tree.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

John, we're way too far south to be toying with U. Minn cultivars. Jellyman's idea is great. You may also wish to consider Pink Lady for sweet/tart or its sister Sundowner for sweet. These were developed in Australia. The latter is very hard to find, but Cummins Nursery has a few on M-7 rootstock. Don't overlook Arkansas natives such as (Mammoth)Black Twig or King David for spicy delight. Jeff, Memphis

I googled it and found this from the Arkansas Extension:

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Arkansas apples

Jellyman, Misterbaby and Carla, thankyou very much for the replies. You have been most helpful. I like the Goldrush suggestion very much and looked into this apple very closely. This seems to be real close to the Honeycrisp. I never would have known without your help. I would've probably just gone with a sour GrannySmith. Looks like the Fuji I have will pollinate just fine, if not, the crabapple should. The crabapple is 4 years old and I haven't noticed a bloom yet, so it's due. Stark Brothers has the Goldrush!

OK, I know I'm going to blow some minds here, but we harvested our first Honeycrisp this evening and IT WAS GOOD! A bit green, a little small, the flesh was a bit denser than the supermarket ones, but VERY sweet, Very crisp, Very juicy. It's been well over 100 degrees for the past three weeks but there's not a mark on the apple (Queen Cox next to it got fried).

There's a definate lack of vigor to the tree, so I'd plant it on M111 in your climate. I'm definately going to graft it onto some seedling rootstock and plant it everywhere I can, as it was excellent in the heat.

I got suspicious last year when I bought some up at Oak Glen, where it gets cool in the winter but regularly hits the high-90s to 100 in the summer, and it was some of the best I've ever had. I've heard it has disease issues that could preclude you from growing it in the humid south (and GoldRush is a good disease-resistant alternative) but don't let the heat or the apple's origin stop you.

Applenut, sweating it out in Southern California

Heat might not cause the same problems as heat and humidity. We have enough trouble with Honeycrisp up here in NY. In the Hudson Valley the growers say, "we may throw half of them away but half a bushel of Honeycrisp brings more dough than a bushel of anything else". This year my Honeycrisp are pretty sucky indeed, although the good ones are still crowd pleasers. All the rain we got blew them up like balloons- those that didn't rot don't have enough flavor for me.

Personally I prefer a good Goldrush, even on a good year. I'm counting on them having enough brix to have charactor this year, in spite of the excess rain. Unfortunately, up here, they can be pretty bienniel. That's the price we pay for a shorter growing season. I often don't pick GR until the first week of Nov. Wouldn't want to try to grow this one in Minnesota.

I'm just starting to grow Pink Lady. I thought our season was too short for it until last year. I'm wondering if it will be biennial here as well. Late season apples with high brix suck up a lot of a trees energy. Fuji's bienniel here also.

Hi everyone I live in Western Montana and so far i have planted MacIntosh, Honeycrisp, Jonathon, Haralred, and Freedom apple trees. The Honeycrisp and MacIntosh are delicious. The Honeycrisp is larger with more red and pink tones. The MacIntosh is smaller and slightly more green. I don't know what the others taste like as they are only 2-3 year old trees. I'm really considering expanded my orchard to another acre and plan on at least 20-30 new apple trees. I'd like to plant trees that are hardy in northern areas and also would like to try a variety of flavors for fresh eating, sauce, and maybe juicing/cider. So far these are varieties I am considering: Belmac, Roxbury, Pink Lady, Akane, Esopus Spitzenberg, Gravenstein, Wolf River, Snowsweet, Snow Famuse, Greensleeves, Northern Spy, Rubinette and Silken. Any advice or information on these varieties or any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Applenut,

Quite some time ago, there was a lengthy discussion on this list regarding the effect of heat on "cold climate" apples (i.e. Honeycrisp, Liberty, etc.)

As I recall the consensus of that discussion was that cold climate apples can be grown in very hot areas, as long as the night-time temperatures are reasonably cool.

I can't remember if you were part of that discussion, but I'm curious, what are the summer night-time lows in your area?

There are a lot of Wolf River apples on sale every year down here at our local farmer's markets. I can never understand why because they are very bland and somewhat dry. I think they are just easy to grow.

I am planting another Goldrush as well. I have one already that should bear a few next year. I just bought a half-bushel of Goldrush apples from the faermer's market. They are so good.

Olpea:

Summer nightime lows are usually in the 60's; last week we had a stint with 3% humidity that ran from 58 at night to 103 in the day with brisk winds (you could feel the moisture being sucked out of your lips, but potato chips stay really fresh). Most years we have some monsoons with night temps in the high 70's for a couple weeks, but this year was really dry.

The heat really messes with some apples; Braeburn is a mushy mess, Maiden Blush is Maiden mush, and Court Pendu Plat bounces like a rubber ball. It's nice to hit on some that stay crisp in the heat.

Applenut