Is anyone growing any Limbertwig apples? From reading about them they supposedly have their own unique taste. I grafted several different varieties of them last spring onto G202 rootstock so hopefully will find out for myself in a couple more years. Any comments on these apples would be appreciated.
Thanks
Rick
Rick, I tasted Sweet Limbertwig a few years ago and liked it, but I am not saying that it was great either.
I really don’t remember much about it.
I live in East Tn., and have a friend in North Carolina who went to Gatlinberg and got a lot of scion from the orchard of Henry Morton, who had a large collection of Limbertwigs.
Earlier today I went to his house a got a cutting of Dolly’s Limbertwig to graft in the Spring
Benny
I have a couple Limbertwigs. The only one that has fruited so far is Myers Royal Limbertwig. It is not radically different in taste but it is a bit different (and hard to describe - something like Orleans Reinette or Roxbury Russet with a bit of grape-y flavor added). The main thing I like about it is it produces a really nice load every year, and the apples are always sweet and tasty.
Scott
Thanks for the comments guys. Since I learned how to graft several years ago I’ve got caught up in the heirloom apple craze 
I grafted 7 different varieties of Limbertwigs last year.
I’ve been thinking about adding some of these. So far, I’ve grafted Swiss Limbertwig (in 2013), but haven’t gotten fruit yet. Maybe this year.
Two interesting resources online:
Big Horse Creek Farms has 21 types of limbertwig listed
Century farms has a page where they list (with pictures) 5 limbertwigs
Look what I’ve got! A stunning set of flowers on Myers’ Royal Limbertwig to set @hambone a gaga!
Hambone isn’t the only one! I have yet to taste any fruit from this fabled family. Maybe in the next 2-3 years…
Looks like I’ll get to sample a Myer’s Royal and a Brushy Mountain LT for the first time this year, too. Maybe a Victoria as well.
Well done Matt! Myers flowers are particularly showy. My branch here is loaded so I’ll have to thin severely.
Please report on taste of your Swiss Limbertwig this Fall. I’m getting the impression that this could be a real sleeper variety- a dynamite apple flying under the radar.
I had several, the best one had been in the fridge for about a month. More tart than sweet, but I enjoyed it. This was the first year for fruit on a B9 tree. Hopefully I’ll get more next year to form a better opinion.
I have be asking Ron Joyner to write about his experiences with Limbertwig apples and received an email today saying he would be posting about Limbertwigs on his blog soon. Should be a good read.
I look forward to reading what Ron has to say although you have to put a gun to his head to get him to say anything meaningful about taste. Your Swiss LT sounds good. I’m building a Fort Knox perimeter around my small orchard so Maybe next year I will get more apples than the squirrels. If electric fence fails to do the job I am prepared to add Claymores, trip flares, foo-gas, punji stakes, artillery, air strikes, napalm, ICBMs, etc.
Jason at Horne Creek Pres. Orchard says Swiss LT tastes like grapefruit to him. I say the same for Sauvignon Blanc.
Here is the annual newsletter on Tom Brown’s search for rare apples in limbertwig country.
https://applesearch.org/newsletters/2018AppleSearchNewsletter.pdf
Thank you for posting that. I was going to look on his site here soon to see what he had posted for 2018. The last time I had looked he had not posted his news for this year. I’m looking forward to buying a few of his trees. He takes the time to make sure the ones he sells are true to the variety before he sells them. It takes longer at first but at least you know you are getting the TRUE variety you want.
I have a couple of apple trees that are supposed to be one variety. However, I believe they may not really be that variety. These two are still really young trees so I will be able to tell more once they get more than one or two apples to compare.
Thanks again Matt!
There are hints that he will have some exciting news once he confirms identity of at least a couple old apples. He’s very careful. I grafted Junaluska, one of his finds, but it appears to have blight problems. So did Buckingham. Not many varieties do well in my no spray orchard.
Was that White Buckingham, by any chance? I’m curious as to whether those apples are as large as Joyce Neighbors recalled in one of her interviews. She remembered them as surpassing Gloria Mundi in size.
Mine was just Buckingham, never did get fruit before blight took over.
Thanks Matt, Tom’s newsletter was especially interesting and enjoyable.
