I’ve been growing it for over a decade and have it grafted to a tree on 7 and another on 111 and it bears heavily every single year. It actually isn’t one of my favorite apples personally, even though it’s cooperative and has better than an average taste. I just don’t eat many apples in early Sept when so much wonderful stonefuit is usually coming in.
I successfully grafted it this year. Last year’s graft didn’t take. I haven’t had the please of sampling one as it is a pretty rare Welsh apple.
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I started a graft this season, too, and while it hasn’t died, it hasn’t committed to growing yet. It has a few tiny leaves that haven’t changed for many weeks. All of my other grafts did well, so I’m not sure whether I bungled it somehow or it’s just trickier than most.
It is curious for me to note the varieties that took at least two attempts: Kidd’s Orange Red, Yellow Newtown (4×!),Allen’s Everlasting, D’Arcy Spice and Ginger Gold (powdery mildew). Kidd’s I wanted mostly for a giveaway apple. I believe Allen’s and D’Arcy are T1. I used to joke the Yellow Newtown issue was because I wanted it so badly.
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For what it’s worth, I’ve noted that scions grafted to my mature Albemarle/Yellow Newtown tree tend to callus and grow particularly slowly. Indeed, I’ve stopped grafting onto it for that reason. The tree is apparently healthy and demonstrably productive, but it’s not a good grafting host. Perhaps the issue works in both directions.
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What this tells me is that apples much like stone fruit can achieve very high brix if climate and culture come together in the right manner. That is unless someone back east can say they get brix numbers like this.
Dry climate, lots of sun, and not too much irrigation are the keys.
Here’s a climatic summary of Reno: Climate Reno - Nevada and Weather averages Reno
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When I manage your thirty something Brix measurements on a fruit, I will be sure to shout it from the roof tops.
We’ll see how a nice layer of compost topped by several inches of shredded trees affects things. I’ll adjust watering accordingly, but there will be more nutrients available to some of my the trees as soon as next year as I work through my long, slow, hand dug orchard terracing project. Maybe things will taste even better. One hopes…
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I think richer soil only becomes a liability when you can’t control irrigation in the 2 months or so leading up to harvest. I think it will lead to bigger fruit via cell division in early spring but once the soil dries out it won’t lead to bigger, more watery cells.
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I have had a big problem with Japanese beetles as well this year. A few trees were covered with them others nothing really at all. I put those bag traps out and that helps a lot. Especially around my peach trees. I also sprayed the trees and that helped a lot as well. The rain keeps coming and going so I needed those bag traps to have at least something out to try to keep them away from my trees.
What are bag traps? I’ve heard about them, but not sure what they are.
Yes the beetles hit a few apples, but not all of them, really hard like my Honeycrisp, Alkmene and a couple others. I have a large (>12ft) Winesap next to the Alkie and it has nary a problem with them. They’ve also hit my newly planted pluots pretty hard. Nasty buggers…
Sprectracide makes them and it uses a scent lure and a bag attached to a metal frame to trap them. Places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, or hardware stores usually carry them. Some places are sold out for the year because usually they are done being so active. For some reason these things are more active this year than I have ever seen. I have replaced my four traps three times so far, and they are not done yet.
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Hi, Could Anyone please tell me where I could buy a Freysburg apple tree please? Thank- you!
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I forgot to mention I prefer m111. Thanks again.
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Probably too late to buy any trees this time of the year. Freyberg isn’t too easy to find, I’ve only seen them sold by Cummins or maybe Trees of Antiquity. Cummins usually sells their trees on Geneva rootstocks, but some are on M rootstocks, TofA sells all of their apples on M111.
If you’re good at grafting, you may have to get some M111 rootstocks and graft Freyberg onto those.
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Thanks a lot for replying! Yes I will wait until next year! I did send a text to trees of antiquity to see if they could get the freysburg. I can’t graft.
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Just out of curiosity, I checked Cummins’ site, and they have their inventory out for next year. They do have Freyberg, but it’s on G935 rootstock, if you’re interested. Trees on G935 are smaller than M111, about 40% the size of a standard tree.
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Subdood TY for the heads up on cummins 2020 availability:grin:
. My bank account may not be so happy but hah. Too bad.
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Just went to look at Cummins sight and there already sold out of Aurora pear tree’s. Well probably for the best I already have to many but who here got any of them?
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This is not the time to look for fruit trees on line. August will be a better time when nuseries start to update their catalogs.
Those “sold out” could be back.
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