long term keeper for zone 4 Central MN?

13 years ago

ordering apple trees for next year soon. looking for advice on what to plant that would store well till spring in a "root cellar" type of storage; cool but not refirgerated.

plan is to have something to sell at indoor farmers market thru the winter. will probably plant about 10 trees, maybe more if I can find a good deal.

location is central MN zone 4 sloping well drained sandy soil. windy most of the time.

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Comments (7)

sportsman1
13 years ago
I would look no further than your own UN of Minn.Honeycrisp is 1 of if not the best apple ever developed.Tastes great and keeps for months.You will need a second one for pollination.I would go with either Haralson/Haralred or Honeygold.Both are excellent keepers from the U of M.

So if I were buying 10 trees.....I would get 8 Honeycrisp and 2 Honeygold.
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Granite City Services
Original Author
13 years ago
thx. for response. I already have 15 honeycrisp so it seems i'm good to go. wasn't looking for storage attributes when I made previous selections so didn't realize honeycrisp was an excellent keeper.

nice surprise as I'll have keeper fruit a year or two sooner!
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alan haigh
13 years ago
Honeycrisp is an excellent keeper when stored by savvy commercial growers but in home situations and even for commercial growers it has plenty of problems from what I've read and in my own fridge.

I have seen several articles in Goodfruit Magazine discussing storage issues with this apple. For one thing it doesn't like it too cold and stores best a few degrees above freezing while most apples store best right around freezing.

It may be a better storage apple as grown in your zone, however. I'm only speaking form experience in southeastern NY and Goodfruit isn't geared towards short season growers.

I was hoping someone would make some other suggestions because I would like to know some good storage apples that ripen before nearly Nov in my own climate. Right now all my favorite storers are quite late.
windfall_rob
13 years ago
Black Oxford (norhtern maine hierloom) is supposed to hold up quite well under "cellar" storage. we have not yet had enough to last much past mid winter.
It's a good apple. It has nice dense fine grained flesh....I like that...a lot of folks don't. good flavor balance, and a wonderful dark mahogony like color.
For us it ripens late october or early november...it is supposed to improve with a bit of aging....but I haven't noticed much change over our short time and conditions.
athenainwi
13 years ago
Honeycrisp keeps well for me, but you'll probably never have storage problems as it sells well enough that the supply is usually gone by now. I'd buy as much as I could fit in my fridge if I could find any. This year all the local orchards had sold out by mid October.

The one that I've been buying at the winter farmer's market is Sonata. It's nice and sweet and the grower I buy from has it until late Jan or early Feb and I think that is when they ran out. Cider also sells well at the winter market.
alan haigh
13 years ago
Been wanting to try Black Oxford. Scion trade, anyone?
windfall_rob
13 years ago
I would be happy to pass along a piece...if I had it. We lost the young bearing tree we had to a blow-down spruce in a wicked windstorm year ago november. The replacement tree I bought this spring tanked...got another coming next spring...I liked the tree enough to keep trying. Would definitely recommend it.

long term keeper for zone 4 Central MN?

Comments (7)

sportsman1

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long term keeper for zone 4 Central MN?

Comments (7)

sportsman1

Granite City ServicesOriginal Author

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alan haigh

windfall_rob

athenainwi

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Granite City Services
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