Thanks Scott,

I always look forward to your end of season reports. I'd like to hear how your other fruit did too. Here in Beltsville MD I also suffered a stink bug invasion. I'm only growing a few varieties of apples, and so far only the two disease-resistant varieties Enterprise and Williams Pride have fruited. Williams Pride apples were excellent this year, a really rich flavor and no bug damage to speak of (sprayed with Surround and then bagged), mainly because they ripened before the stink bugs came and before significant rains came. Enterprise were ok, but not as good as last year. They ripened during the stink bug invasion but their tough skin probably helped with the stink bugs, though they still got into the bags and did some damage.

I agree with you about Freyburg; I tasted it at the Backyard Fruit Grower's tasting last week in PA and thought it was excellent. Another apple, not on your list, that I really liked was Hudson's Golden Gem.

I'm really not so good at sorting out a wide range of apple experiences so I'll just describe the few that are important to me.

Baldwin; This, to me is the quintesential old-time northeastern apple. Like quite a few in the hot weather, too many fell off the tree before achieving good quality but the last quarter had that nice tart to sweet balance that makes this a most satisfactory apple for eating and cooking- tough skin though. People further south should try this one in shady locations.

Jonagold; This one is too timid for my palate off the tree (although it often wins taste tests) but is so useful in the kitchen. Extraordinary aromatics and the lightest density of any apple I've tried that holds it's texture cooked. Try mixing it with something tart like Brambley's or Gold Rush in a pie and you will win prizes. Had half the crop fall off prematurely also- probably should not have done summer pruning this year. It's supposed to trigger early dropping.

Goldrush; This tree seems to do well no matter what as long as season is long enough to ripen. I think it is the first tree to plant in any climate warm enough in a small home orchard. I love it off the tree and I love it even more stored because no other apple I grow will taste nearly as good to me next March, even when stored in a cool garage (just keep them hydrated or they shrivel). Sweet lovers may prefer the stored apple.

Newtown Pippin; Just a few really nice full flavored apples. Hard and tart. Trees just coming into bearing. Get's as much sooty blotch as the magnet, Goldrush.

Braebern; World class when ripened properly but my main tree's crop was frost damaged. Seems more tender to frost than other varieties. Grown here, it tends to be on the tart side. Not the easiest apple to grow.

Cameo; Last year I liked them a lot in the cooler season- like an improved Stayman. In the heat of this season it seemed like an improved Red Delicious because they were all sweet with no acid. Easy to grow (nice form) and early bearing. Big fruit.

Gala; Very productive, yes, but pretty boring. Great nursery tree with good vigor and form and it assures my customers will likely get a harvest of good eating apples.

Zestar; Even though it was a very warm season this was the standout winner for an early season apple in flavor and texture.

Jonathon; Always my favorite early tart, it didn't disappoint this year.

Sansa; Spicy for a sweet and a nice early apple.

Suncrisp; This years best new apple for me. Intense flavor- lots of acid to go with all that sugar. Not an easy apple to grow- seems subject to corking.

Gravenstein; Considering the loyalty of its following I've never considered this one much good except as an aromatic early cooker. I suspect it's much better as grown in the west. Seems I remember eating some fantastic ones in CA.

Sugaru; Better than Fuji to me and earlier. A lot like Honeycrisp but without the explosive crunch.

Honeycrips; Not this year- most dropped before achieving adequate brix. It was quite the year for premature drops in general.

Ginger Gold; A consistently productive very good early yellow. Can be picked green.

Roxbury Russet; Best russet type here for regular cropping and pest resistance (contrary to Scott's experience further south). Bears heavy crops annually which is not usually the case with late heirlooms here.

Actually I could go on when I think about it but that's all the time I have for now.

I should have also noted,

Swaar; Very interesting green-yellow sweet. It's a very old apple from Dutch NY. Neal, of Apples of Antiquity suggested it to me when I asked him about any dense fleshed apples he'd recommend. Swaar is the Dutch word for heavy and it's the heaviest apple I've ever grown. Real good, intensely sweet apple that seems grower friendly although this is the first year. Major sooty blotch magnet and not a pretty apple.

Ashmead's Kernel; Pretty much as advertised- big flavor, small crop, quite tart. The tree seems to leaf out sparsely, so I wonder how best to manage it. Maybe it crops lightly because it's almost bald. The tree is growing well and otherwise quite vigorous.

Hudson's Golden Gem; I like the unique pear quality of this apple- all sugar no acid. Not that I'm usually drawn to that but it's an appealing fruit somehow. It's not even very crisp. However coddling moth and stinkbugs like it even more than I do and at my site it may not be worth growing under a low-spray program.

Here's the report from the apple tasting fest in Lancaster Pa. This is based on the 30+ votes.
The top vote-getter was Suncrisp,
Second place: Gold Rush, Golden Gem, Opalescence and Honey Crisp.
3rd: Coconut Crisp, Razzor's Russet, and Orin.
4th: Freyberg, Old Rusty Coat, and Ashmead's Kernel.

My personal top three were Golden Gem, Razzor's Russet, Ashmead's Kernel.

Bass

Thats interesting to hear all the positives on Suncrisp; I had a couple bland ones and topworked my tree but it sounds like I should give it another shot. Most of the other top ones mentioned I have but no fruit yet; Sansa, Coconut Crunch and Zestar I don't have but may want to try.

Austransplant, if I get the time I'll post on some other fruit experiences I had.

Scott

Bass,

Sounds like our tastes are similar. I voted for Ashmead's Kernel followed by Golden Gem, and then Adams Pearmain.

Scott and Harvestman have such nice collections of apples. I've only got a couple of trees.

In order of ripening

Yellow Transparent. Very early, very vigorous, heavy cropper. At no point is it an interesting apple, either for fresh or cooking. It would be easy to make apple sauce from since it is nearly applesauce while still on the tree, but it has no flavor, so it would be dull applesauce. It makes nice dog food food, though, very smooth and flavorless.

Gravenstein, early, hardy, absolutely lovely flavor, complex sweet and acid, nice crunch. It only stored for about 2 weeks for me. Makes decent early cooking apple, so I have Gravensteins stored in the freezer as apple crisp. Gravensteins make a flavorful dried apple.

The downside to Gravenstein is a very small window to pick. They will be unusable unripe and in a matter of hours, they swell up and turn delicious. The second that they are perfect, they drop off the tree. They are tender, so the fall bruises them. I was picking twice a day in order to get them. It was worth it, because I like them a lot, and doubly so because they are both early and tasty.

Fuji. Mine were very good, crisp, mild and reliable. I love the flavor, but there isn't enough of it, like they misread the recipe and put in 1 teaspoon of apple extract instead of 1 tablespoon. I've got some in storage that are holding up really well.

Fuji seems to hang on the tree well after ripe, and seems to get better the longer it hangs. Unfortunately, the birds really like them. Too mild for cooking, makes a mild sweet dried apple that would be perfect for kids.

Golden Delicious. Mine are smallish and sure taste better than the store bought ones. They are looking good so far in storage. I have been eating them, have not tried cooking with them.

Red Delicious. Sorry, I don't know what variety. It's a small apple nearly purple, it is so dark. This is a good one, like the red delicious of decades past that used to be a very nice apple. I stopped buying red delicious in the market two decades ago because they were always awful. No storage on this one; we already ate them all.

Mystery tree that was supposed to be a Braeburn. The apple is shaped like a Braeburn, long, smaller at the bottom, lobed, but it is light green. Whatever it is, whenever I go out to the garage to grab an apple, I grab one of these.

Cortland. I never got a fully ripe one. They color a nice red about 2 months before they are ripe and the birds have destroyed the whole crop. I took some off the tree before a freeze and they were too tart to eat, but they cook well. I don't find the unripe flavor very exciting. Sometimes unripe apples aren't ready to eat but hint at future value; these don't, they are just sour.

Cameo, still not ripe, still hanging on the tree in spite of a couple of freezes. Fruit is deep inside the tree and green and pale red striped, and birds haven't bothered it too badly.

Granny Smith. A long ways from ripe, and I suspect they aren't going to make it before they freeze into ice balls. I've got 3 buckets in storage to see if they improve, and if not, I'll cook with them. These are puckerish tart, but already better that what's been in the market in recent years.

This is the first year I've ever been able to grow usable apples (thanks Garden Web), so I've ordered several more varieties to plant in the spring. I've been listening to comments about different varieties in order to decide what to plant, hoping to get all winners.

It seems that there are so many good late season apples to choose from, so it was a mid-season apple, Egremont Russet, that really grabbed my attention this year, its first year to fruit for me. This is a nice looking apple with its symmetric russeting and tendency to lack (or at least hide) superficial imperfections. Has a good crispy texture, reasonably juicy and with a depth of flavor (lack of that watered down tendency of earlier apples) that rivals the late season apples. I like my apples on the tart side and this one complies. Don't know how well it keeps; didn't have many to start with and they went fast. Going to graft a few more of these next year.

Horrible year here. Decent rains, early on, but no precip to speak of here since June 10 - got a single 8/10" event in mid-August, and about 2/10" last night - and that's been it for the season.
MonArk had its typical good crop of tasty fruits in early July.
Centennial and Kerr crabs did well - plenty to eat, and made some primo crabapple jelly.
Almata had a moderate crop of tasty red-fleshed apples.
Geneva, Giant Russian and Winter Redflesh crabs were crappy, as usual, but added a nice red color to the crabapple jelly.
Every other apple was a total bust - if they managed to produce anything, the big European hornets ate 'em all.

Good crop of Chojuro Asian pears, moderate crop on the young Keiffer - but the hornets worked them over too.
Some of the young pears on the other side of the farm pond bore light crops. Spalding and Biscamp were really nice. Tsu Li was something of a disappointment. Hosui, not much to write home about this year. Dasui Li OK, but not enough to really make a good judgement on 'em.

Biggest surprise for me this year was how great the Empires were. Small red fruit on B9 stock, no sign of fly speck or sooty blotch, while the Jonathan nearby looked really bad (but tasted great). Somewhat thick skin on the Empires, really excellent sweet/tart balance, crisp.

Honeycrisp: Continues to disappoint. Few large fruit, some black pit, flavor nothing special. I wonder if the 111 interstem is a factor.

Williams Pride: Really excellent crop again. Early, but tastes like a later apple--crisp, some tartness. Large, dark red, and no sign of any fungus. I didn't spray much this year.

Fuji: Flavor nothing special. I wonder if our season is too short.

Cortland: Big crop, but they got mushy on the tree.

Marc, the most reliable Honeycrisps I manage are grafted on a couple of 100 year old seedling rooted apple trees. A tree on my own property gets black pit if I don't squirt it with summer fungicide. This year I controlled that but most of them dropped before reaching adequate flavor. On the old trees the fruit held on as usual and became very good.

I think HC might be easier on some sites once the tree matures and settles down. Maturity has an affect like reducing water and N. I think the scion starts holding more energy and delivering less to the roots.

For the high heat, low-chill area of Southern California in the order of ripening:

Anna
Dorsett Golden
Pristine
Williams' Pride
Hawaii
Bramley
Enterprise
Stump
Fuji
Wealthy
Granny Smith
Red Boskoop
Arkansas Black
Wickson
Sierra Beauty

Still waiting on:

Rubinette
GoldRush
Lady Williams

We judged them by crisp texture, juciness, and balance of flavor. Lots more ripended that were insipidly sweet, too dense, rubbery, mushy, or incinerated by the sun. These did well enough for my co-workers to nibble down to the core when I provided samples.

Applenut

Excellent year here, and the nicest crop in terms of quality I've ever had. I really thank all of you here for that, since you've given so many tips about the right products to use to control various pests.

Everything was early this year by several weeks, due to early bloom season. Still have some Arkblacks and Stayman Winesap hanging on despite the 55-60 mph wind gusts during the windstorm of last Tues-Thurs.

I think this is the complete list of what fruited this year, but I could be forgetting something:

Williams Pride
Pink Pearl
Gingergold
Jonadel
Arkansas Black
Red Delicious
Golden Delicious
Fuji
Stayman Winesap
Chestnut Crab
Crimson, Red, and Green Spire

Just one week longer on the tree since my last post and the yellow delicious are still not ripe, but the flavor is getting really good. Birds are really getting into them, but I think that if you can let them get tree ripe that this is a very tasty apple. Mine are nothing like supermarket apples.

Granny Smith. Well, hello there. Still not ripe, but getting some depth to the flavor and becoming juicy, while still being a hard apple on the tart side. I keep hearing that this is a good apple if allowed to ripen and it is starting to look that way. Birds have damaged a few, but not too many of them.

Cameo is a very long way from being ripe, still not edible.

Enterprise - I just wanted to comment on the surprising quality of this apple. I was ready to dig it out due to poor eating quality until I realized I just wasn't leaving it on the tree long enough. It takes until mid to late October and I'm very hopeful of it's keeping qualities. Possibly its unusually thick skin will prove helpful in that regard. Very delightful flavor and texture. I may plant another.

Yeah, I'm surprised I've read so many negative revues of Enterprise. It has seemed like a nice hard apple with a good sugar acid balance when I've eaten a few apples from trees in my nursery.

For my late apples I finally picked most of my Newtowns. They are tasting good already, but need more aging. I don't understand how the Vintage Virginia Apples tasting of a few weeks ago had Newtowns that people liked -- theirs must have been way ahead of mine. I had one Pink Lady which was OK, but I need to wait longer on them. Both of these should be great storage apples when I get enough harvest to bother storing.

Scott

Scott,

My guess is that the Vintage Virginia apples were picked a lot earlier. They clearly are not grown on site, but are obtained from local orchards (given the large quantities they have for sale at their event), so perhaps they are from even further south than Vintage Virginia is. I missed their event this year, but went the two previous years. The first year the Newtowns were not very good; the year after they were among the best apples I've ever tasted. I think they need storage to really get their best taste.

The same is true of Enterprise, which I grow. To my tastes, it is only so so straight off the tree but it improves greatly after a few weeks in the fridge. This said, this year's Enterprise was not as good as last year's, this year's William Pride was really good, way better than last year. As I've mentioned in prior posts, both these varieties are bullet-proof in regard to disease.

I can't believe I missed the Vintage Virginia tasting (I live 15 miles from them). For anyone within driving distance, they also have a their Apple Harvest Festival this weekend, which is a lot of fun. They usually have 10 or so varieties of apples to taste (and what is probably the most exciting hay ride you'll ever take your kids on).

Here is a link that might be useful: VVA festival

Everyone's disappointment with Enterprise might be because it colors up much earlier than its ripe; our best-tasting ones are the ones that fall to the ground and then cook in the sun a few days. Very productive, excellent texture and juice even when ripening in our brutal heat (in the high 90's here the last few days).

Applenut

Scott, thanks for posting, and thanks to everyone else too.

Here in Santa Cruz County, we've had one of our most dismal apple years ever. All the commercial growers were complaining about the long much cooler than usual Summer followed by a week of 108F temperatures in late September. It was a disaster, with a lot of burn damage. Needless to say, many varieties didn't do well as a result of these conditions. The lack of Summer heat lowered the brix level on many varieties, and the Fall heat destroyed the texture on many varietie.

So my report isn't glowing, but heck, at least a few varieties turned out very good.

The big winner for me this year was Oldenburg. I was amazed as to the flavor and complexity of this apple, it was really perfect. It was the first time this one ripened for me. On the other end of the spectrum was fraurotacher. I was excited about this apple, but it turned out to be the most horrible apple I've ever grown. It was virtually inedible off the tree, and reading all the descriptions, it sounded like it needed to store a while. Well, it just turned mealy in storage. This may be a good apple in Switzerland, but it will get grafted over to something else in my garden.

So here is a summery of some of my apples:

Summer apples:
- yellow transparent was delicious, the cool Summer helped this variety retain excellent texture, and the flavor was good too.
- William's pride, an amazingly delicious apple, so dark red it was almost black
- Viking, now that I got to eat viking side by side to William's pride, it was hard to tell the varieties apart once picked. Flavor wise, they are also very similar, but William's pride is bigger and a better keeper.
- Anna, a low chill variety really disappointed me, the flavor was really one dimensional, a great apple if you can't grow anything else, but dismal in competition to william's pride.
- dorsett golden, the other low chill variety, it's more vanilla like in flavor, I like it because it's one of the first varieties to ripen, as early as June.

The rest of the apples:

- Gravenstein, one of the best apples around. We pressed 100 liters of gravenstein juice which usually ill last us into next Summer. Doesn't store well at all. Because of the cool weather, Gravenstein really ended up a late Summer apple, even though on normal years it's ripe by the end of July, early August.

- Zestar, delicious, one of the best late Summer apples

- Reine des reinettes, ripens early September here, really high quality, delicious, I love this apple, firm, crunchy, full of flavor This is the first year I've had these, they are a definite keeper for me.

- Mother, first year I got this one too, it was delicious, I really like it.

- Calville Rouge D'automne, last year this one was superb, this year, it was mediocre. It just didn't have that amazing sugar/acid balance that makes this a great apple. It's a keeper nevertheless, hopefully next year it will fare better.

- Bella des jardins, first fruiting, was very, very tart but very flavorful, and it sure looks beautiful. Our cool Summer left this one with BRIX below acceptable levels, but on warmer years this one will be really good. I think this is a good candidate for hotter climates. I can't wait to see what I will get next year.

- Double bon pommier: very good all around apple. A definite keeper. French apples seem to do very well in our climate and soil.

- Reinette Franche: delicious green apple with a great sugar acid balance and a very good flavor.

- Empire, was very good this year, getting better in storage

- James grieve, a bit dissapointing, it goes mealy so quickly. I am not sure what the fuss is all about around this variety, it doesn't merit this much attention.

- red gold, wow, talk about delicious, and it's one good looking apple too. It's just a good all around apple, and very heat resistant. It was unphased exposed to full sun at 108F. There wasn't a single trace of damage.

- McIntosh, terrible, why do I bother growing this one, everybody keeps telling me it's a poor choice for Santa Cruz county.

- snow, turned out good this year. THis one isn't exactly a good apple for our climate, I hold on to it mainly for breeding purposes.

- Rubinette, very reliable and most excellent.

- king, I love this apple, also very reliable and very flavorful.

- arlette, tasty, especially after a bit of storage

- orleans reinette, reliably good, pretty much the same every year no matter how the weather turns out.

- nonesuch, ah, I think I am not liking this one anymore. I can eat one of these, and then I don't want to eat another one for the rest of the year. I am not sure why, there is something about this apple that my body just doesn't like. Produces reliably and the flavor is the same every year.

- Jonagold, very boring this year, bland

- mutsu, same thing, it just doesn't have that anise overtone it gets on good year. I still have mutus on my tree, that's how cold it has been last Summer.

- Sweet valentine, very good new local variety, super sweet, deliciously flavored.

- Freedom, good tasty apple, a bit on the tart side due to the lack of heat.

- Belle de boscoop, bread and butter cooking apple, did very well this year.

- Golden russett, very tasty, amazing flavor

- Hudson's golden gem, one of my favorites, never fails every year.

- Alexander, these were very good this year, excellent texture and quite edible as table apples.

- Bella di pontoise, Scott raves about this one, I had one single apple ripen on my single branch of Bella di Pontoise, and I must have waited too long, because it eventually dropped and by that time had already gone mealy.

-Winter banana, terrible apple this year, it's never really that good, but last year I had a few late stragglers that were quite delicious.

- Sweet victoria, a 100% acid-less apple, very strange eating experience, but good and interesting. I cannot find any info on this apple anywhere. It showed up at a scion exchange one year. I always look forward to it, it's such an easy apple to eat.

- Swaar, good basic apple, can't complain. But it didn't really stand out in any way.

- Cox orange pippin, I placed my tree in 50% afternoon shade, and this placement seems to be paying off. The ripening was delayed by a full month, making it truly delicious and live up to its reputation. The lack of afternoon heat means the apples had perfect texture and a good sweet acid balance, plus the aromatics it's well known for.

I am still waiting for brushy mountain limbertwig, pink lady, granny smith, Waltana, brownee russet and a few other very late apples. The late ones are definitely way superior here in flavor and texture.

Thanks for your report, Axel. I particularly like to hear your opinions because you and I are the only people I know of interested in all these old French varieties. It looks like there will be at least half a dozen of them which are in the very best tier.

Scott

That was interesting Axel. I liked 2 things in particular- your comparisons of this year to last which others should take to reinforce the idea of how much climate matters. Also your observation about the affect of using shade, not only to improve cool weather apples as you mention but also to give a different picking time for same varieties. Shade apples may also store better.

Do you grow Goldrush? I grafted it to a tree in my sisters coastal orchard north of Eureka and she's very fond of it.

Harvestman, I have a big gold rush graft that hopefully will start to bear next year. I've heard many good things about it over the years, I have a hunch it will end up in my top 10.

I've noticed the later apples ripen here, the better the quality. They need that extra bite of chill to develop that yummy complexity.

When you say Oldenburg do you mean Duchess of Oldenburg? Most of what I've heard about this apple is about its use in cooking or its cold hardiness, but I think it excellent for fresh eating and would recommend it at least for those of us who appreciate a tart apple. One thing I noticed is that it fairly quickly loses its light crispy texture, so it needs to be enjoyed right away. This one ripens early mid season for me and i like it best of those ripening at about that time.

It's definitely not duchess of Oldenburg, it's called Oldenburg and it's from Germany. It's full name is geheimrat Dr. Oldenburg, where geheimrat is some German nobility title.

While both apples seem associated with nobility, one came from Germany, the other came from Russia. They look and taste completely different and they ripen at different times.