Hello Dennis, I love these types of questions! :) So, you want us to send you a list of our favorite apples? Gee, that's going to be hard (but fun)! My Papa has an orchard with 100 varieties of apples, and I tried every one that has bared so for. We planted lots of new apple trees early this year in our scab resistant orchard - all of them scab resistant varieties. However, they are all new varieties for us so I can't put any of them in my list because I haven't tasted them yet. Well, except for the famous Honeycrisp apple. Okay, enough, now for the list. . . For fresh eating (although I haven't found one that I don't like eating out of hand, except possibly Wolf River) I recommend: Vista Bella (very early apple) Zestar (early apple) Summer Treat (early apple) Blushing Golden (fall apple) Jonagold (midseason) Mollies Delicious (early) Ashmeads Kernel (fall) Jonalicious (midseason) Honeycrisp (midseason) Northern Spy (fall, love the vitamin C flavor) Empire (midseason) Snow (midseason) I love the Macintosh flavor plus a little more sweetness. For cooking, the best all around are: Calville Blanc D'hiver (late) Thee best cooking apple for everything! Gravenstein (early) Fav. apple pie! Northern Spy (late) Starks Jumbo (midseason) Idared (late) Wolf River (midseason) Spartan Mac (midseason) Great sauce apple! Plus, you may want to take a look at some of these strange apples: Court Pendu Plat (Garden of Eden apple) Kandil Sinap Lubsk Queen (grapefruit apple) Chenango Strawberry (smells like a strawberry) There is also this one I just can't remember the name. It is similar to a pineapple! Sorry, my head is blank right now. Okay, that's enough for now!

I've had Suncrisp from farmer's markets (2 different vendors) for the last 3 years, but have never been impressed. They have OK crunch when fresh, but nothing special. After a bit of storage, they are OK sweet apples, but were getting a bit soft. I think this year was a bit better than the last two years- perhaps they were a bit riper when picked (due to the extra long season). I remember Harvestman really liked it 2 years ago. I've found that most of my Goldrush were both hard and crunchy. I did have one which was hard, but not crunchy, which wasn't so good. That one apple aside, Goldrush is great. But, while it has plenty of sugar, it isn't a "sweet" apple, at least when first picked. For super-sweet, I would say Golden Russet. When properly ripened, it seems to be around 20 brix, which is great (grocery store apples are often 10-12). It isn't crunchy like a Honeycrisp (which has crunch, but isn't all that sweet), but it was crisp enough for me. You may be able to try one, as they are still sold in a few orchards. Hopefully I'll be able to comment on Hudson's Golden Gem and Sweet 16, and Ashmead's Kernel next year.

I use a guide that describes the growth stages and timings for spraying found here: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id21/id21.pdf It takes a bit of head scratching to set up your own program given the pantheon of chemicals for both disease and pest management, esp. when guides you read switch between naming the active chemical and trade names. I've spent my time staring slackjawed at the pesticide rack at lowes looking for mycophalacloroalthobyutiolic compounds when it turns out all I needed was Immunox. This guide helps because it does list both. You may have to find some of the things online, like Surround. That stuff is expensive in small quantities. I bought a 25lb bulk bag from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply at a much cheaper rate. Should last me quite a number of years given the small number of trees we are talking about.

Hi, I have a spot in my front yard where I would like to grow an apple tree. i would really like to find an heirloom apple tree and I'm looking for recommendations. I only have room for one so I need one that doesn't require a pollinator. I am in zone 6 in Connecticut. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks