Buy em' all. Just kidding.

I gotta run now, I'll check my charts when I get home if I have time. The ones in there that "may" interest me would be Newtown Pippin and Roxbury Russet, but only due to historical significance. Read too much bad stuff about most of these antique varieties, but admit they do intrique me.

BTW...just curious. How much are they selling for?

$20 per tree is what I'm paying for these varieties and $5 per apple tree for the ones the tags blew off of that are unknown apples. I told them I would take the $5 ones for sure knowing that I will graft them over if I need to and several of these other varieties. These are all 3-5' whips. They are only a great deal because I don't have to ship them and because of the $5 trees that I will be picking up anyway.

Newtown Spitzenberg,Jonagold, and Arkansas Black look like winners to me but I wanted to get some other peoples opinions that grow more apples than I do.

Have you tried Pink Lady? Probably no FB resistant but if you like sweet/tart it was the best apple I grew in Amarillo.

Fruitnut I love pink lady , gala, Fuji, and honeycrisp. I'm looking for pink lady scion's but don't think they have any trees with this sale. I grow 4 honeycrisp now which at times seems like to many.

Heres my views. Y - good Y! - very good. N - not good due to growing issues.

Scott

Y! American Summer Pearman, Apple Pear Cross, Y Apricot, Y Arkansas Black, Arlet, Y! Ashmead's Kerrnell, N Baraburn, Benoni,Y Bramley, Bush Grove, Y Calvill Blanc, Carter's Blue, N Cox Orange Pippin, Devenshire, Y Empire, Y Escpus Spitzenberg, N Flamuse, Y Fugi, Y Golden Russet, Y Gravinstien Washington Red, Grenadier, Y Grimes, N Hudson's Golden Gem, Irish Peach, Y Jonagold, Y Keepsake, Y! King David, Lady (Api), Lady Williams, Lodi, Y Macoun, Y! Mother, Mullins, Y! Newtown Spitzenberg, Palmer Greening, Paula Red, Pumpkin Russet, Red Cinnamon, Red June, Y Rome, Y Roxbury Russet, Y Seek No Further, Y Spitzenberg, Y Stayman Winesap, Y York .

Lady Williams.

Scott,
I looked up the selections you gave a Y! rating on orangepippin.com and can see the benefits of King David,Newtown Spitzenberg, Ashmead's Kernel,American Summer Pearman,and Mother. They all look like excellent varieties. Planning on going with those 5 unless anyone has other suggestions. Thanks for taking the time to look at those!

Lucky,
Lady Williams looks like a good one as well. Do you currently grow that variety?

Here is a link that might be useful: Lady Williams

Clark...that Lady Williams is a pretty apple for sure. I personally could not see myself rolling the dice with an apple that says "some susceptibility" to every single major apple disease.
I admire your lack of caution and I mean that for real. What do they say "nothing gambled, nothing gained" or something like that.
You should ask that vendor for a list of all the apples they sold. I'm sure they should be able to provide that easy enough. They were billed for them. You should be able to very easily ascertain the unknown varieties once they come into bearing.
Empire is probably going to be the most fireblight resistant apple in that bunch and it is a good apple. It has a scab issue though and it's really bad for that. I dislike both it's parents but the kid is pretty good.
In fact in a quick glance here it looks like Empire is easily the most DR of all those varieties you listed especially when using FB as the chief disease to avoid.

Thanks appleseed70 empire will definitely be one I will get if it's got fb resistance and still tastes ok.

I wish this place was near me, of course I would buy them all and try squeezing them in every where. My wife would be pissed though for spending the money. I love my Jonagold and surprised I don't see more of these at the supermarket.

Clark,
I've abandoned almost all of the 60+ varieties of apples that I planted early on...just didn't have the time or inclination to do all the spraying that was required to get even decent fruit.
Lady Williams was recommended to me, years ago, by Ed Fackler, when I was looking for a late-season tart apple to plant for my dad, back home in AL, on the zone 7-8 border. I never grew it here, and dad's been gone and the farm sold nearly 10 years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ed Fackler's apple list

Clark,
I've abandoned almost all of the 60+ varieties of apples that I planted early on...just didn't have the time or inclination to do all the spraying that was required to get even decent fruit.
Lady Williams was recommended to me, years ago, by Ed Fackler, when I was looking for a late-season tart apple to plant for my dad, back home in AL, on the zone 7-8 border. I never grew it here, and dad's been gone and the farm sold nearly 10 years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ed Fackler's apple list

Johnthecook I'm fighting the temptation to make a large fall purchase to get a jump on spring so I know what you mean. I'm expanding a half acre to an acre this year and did a similar upgrade last year. I'm a sucker for different varieties because they truly all have their own advantages. Thank you Lucky I enjoyed the link and his honest descriptions http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/nafex/2009-May/036373.html

A few I know something about. Get the Grimes, Fuji, Jonagold, & Macoun, A lot of others sound very interesting, but I don't have any experience.

No go: Hudson Golden Gem (based on recent posts here, great apple but too hard to grow) I find Empire to be not worth having if you have Fuji and Jonathan, but if it were your only tree you would think it very good.. Lodi is a crappy early apple, Gavenstein early and boring flavor.

that is all I know on your list.

Empire is a great supermarket apple when others of similar taste are gone and it keeps pretty well. I think Gravensteins are a great early apple. Maybe compared to later apples it may not be the best, but for the end of the summer it is a welcome treat.

Thanks cckw I'm considering the really low maintenance ones such as Empire mentioned above because my pears already work me pretty hard now. Johnthecook you may be on to something when you say "great super market apple" because they might be a good seller.

Lucky, thanks for that list. I have it here somewhere in an old Pomona but I wouldn't be able to find it.

You don't happen to know how Ed's doing, do you? Haven't seen him or heard from him in years. He was (is?) a great guru for the home grower.

Alan,
I usually see Ed at the Spring KY Nutgrowers Assn. meetings, don't recall for sure if he was there this spring - I was only there for a few minutes before I was tasked with moving on for a 'family' function; but I'm pretty certain that we visited for a while at the 2013 meeting - looked & acted like the same ol' Ed... he's quite a character!

Good, glad to know he's still kicking and kidding. His smoking habit worries me.

Clark,

If you want disease resistant good-tasting late varieties, then I recommend you consider Roxbury Russet, Stayman Winesap, Golden Russet & Calville Blanc D'hiver. All 4 are unique and taste excellent. Rox & Stayman are both Triploids so unreliable as pollinators. But Calville & Golden Russet should provide adequate cross-pollination all around.

Your list contains other apples which are excellent but may not meet your criteria of being both late-season & disease resistant.

I think Rox in particular is a stellar eating apple; very good sliced for the table. Sweet, flavorful & blemish free. In some years, it is the best October apple around.

Have fun!

-Matt

Thanks Matt I will look those varieties up.

I like the root stock they used to graft these to which is mm111. It is my favorite for disease resistance and longevity.

I got a Calville from Burnt Ridge and it is the poorest growing cultivar I've ever had. The twig they sent me is still a twig after 2 years. Never had an apparently healthy tree behave so sluggishly (I'm talking about thousands of trees over the years on various rootstocks). Is it known for being a very weak grower?

IMHO the one you have to have is Ashmead. Though I am partial to Ark. Black too for the long storage.

Clark,

I forgot to say: You MUST grow Stayman Winesap if you are living in Kansas. It was discovered in Kansas and is Kansas' most famous apple!

-Matt

Here is a link that might be useful: More on Stayman Winesap from Tim Hensley (OldVaApples.com)

Paula Red seems to do well here and tastes fantastic. I found the taste similar to that of Jonamac and Idared, which I hope to graft next spring. It is a summer apple though and does not store well. A farmer in SW MO who grows Empire said that Empire has pre-harvest drop problems in our region. I grafted Empire and Calville Blanc D'hiver to G. 30 rootstock in the spring and plan on keeping both trees. I think Calville grew about 3 feet in its first year in rich soil. I do not have experience with apricot, but it is one that I want to grow when I get scion wood. Orangepippin shows that it is resistant to scab and mildew. It is a late apple based on westonapples.com

I love Ahsmead flavor also, but I'm not sure I can coax it into adequate production on a free standing rootstock. I have a big mature tree on 7 that has not set more than a few fruit the last two seasons. Three years ago it was loaded.

Many unusual and unusually flavorful varieties are not good annual croppers, even if you thin in a timely manner and the problem is getting information about this before you plant. It's easy to get taste comparisons but not info about difficulty to grow. Fackler's list is the exception to this.

Also, richly flavored apples such as many later ripening Russets often attract stink bugs,wasps and coddling moth to the point of making them nonproductive in itself- at least in my region, unless you keep poison on the fruit until harvest.

Harvestman, regarding Calville Blanc D'Hiver, here is an interesting quote from the Cloudforest site:

"Vigor is highly variable, not a very vigorous tree that takes its time to get going, but once it's established, it picks up in vigor. Most likely suffers from numerous viruses."

Hi all! I received last spring two Caville Blanc d'Hiver from Cummins. They were beautifully branched and healthy. They are now close to five feet tall and doing beautifully. The two growers that I am most fond of are Arboreum, then Cummins. I also had to remove all of the clusters of flowers off of Caville this past spring. I just might keep one apple to try should the tree bloom in its second year. For new trees they are strong, tall and very healthy. Mrs. G

Great source for trees and Ron is shipping now. He is located in the far corner of N.C. where Tn. and Va. meet...

http://bighorsecreekfarm.com/

glib- Ashmead sounds tempting and I grafted a few Arkansas Blacks this spring.
Matt- my neighbor has a winesap so I have the hookup on some scion wood so I wont need to buy that one. Great link
Andrew- thanks for the information on pre drops and varieties
Harvestman- I have not had a coddling moth problem and definitely don't want one so I may steer away from some of these varieties.
Bob/MrsG- It sounds like that variety is indeed variable and I'm not sure it would be worth the chance. Kansas is unforgiving on the maybe varieties.
tbird - This spring I ordered scion wood from bighorsecreekfarm and the majority of the grafts took nicely and they have some very unique varieties.

Clark, my most stable trees that I really like are Jonagold and Pristine. One early and one late (as far as picking goes). My pollinator for both is Enterprise. A medium to reddish apple that has very thick skin. I'm beginning not to like it. The rest of my apples are obscure. Enterprise and Pristine are both very disease resistant, they are very strong. Mrs. G

Had PaulaRed at one time. If memory serves correctly, it's a tip-bearer...anyone know that for sure?

Thanks MrsG those hardy apples sound like what i need.

So I picked up 20 of the $5 apple trees which are about 3-4' tall. They were a wide variety of trees which are Arkansas Black, Golden Russet, Empire, Jonagold, Calville blanc, and Fuji. Can't be certain exactly which ones are which or if all the varieties are ones I got. I will pick up more trees when I get a chance to complete the new orchard area I've been planting. I like the fact he grafted the trees up a foot or so in case I need to graft them over later to a different variety.