Honeycrisp was very popular in our local u-pick orchard. And they charged the premium price for them. About 1.5 $ more then for all the other varieties.
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I think the biggest issue is being in a cold microclimate. I live on top of a hill and some friends on mine on the bottom of the hill, where a wash passes through, can get 5-10F colder than us, which can mean a hard freeze for them while we are 35-40F! You know your land better than any of us dummies, and it sounds like a good spot for apples. I still highly recommend persimmons, though!
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Iād ditto nolpolaskeās comments, it will very much depend upon the details of your site. I am at 8300ā elevation, but often get fruit when folks lower down get frosted out; likely because my spot is S facing and has good air drainage so that cold air does not collect.
If you are familiar with the details of your site you should be able to adjust/compare to other neighboring locations and how they fair.
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Sounds like you have a real shot. How much traffic do you have nearby? Any well traveled roads to steer traffic from? Only 18 miles from Prescott? Wow, thatās probably a great location you got for a u-pick. Somehow Iām guessing Prescott has grown a bit since my family moved from Scottsdale in 1963.
Better make sure you have an iron-clad contract with the land owner. Money can create conflict.
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A thousand quarts! Would love to see a picture of that. My dream come true!!!
This place is less then 1/2 mile off of Iron Springs Rd, which is fairly well traveled. Itās the main truck route from hwy 89 to Prescott.
We would certainly want a contract with our neighbor. Heās a really neat guy, but the orchard could outlive him, and we would want to know, if that sad day came, that it wouldnāt be a major mess.
We were thinking maybe 25 yr lease.
Itās real hard frosts near bloom on that are fatal. Apples and peaches can crop even when it gets as low as 26 during bloom, but much below that an your crop can be destroyed. There are charts that have been provided on this site that shows the effects of frosts at specific temps and to the specific state of bud development. Maybe someone can provide a link.
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Here I think Honeycrisp and Sweet Sixteen seem to the the most popular apples from my observations at U-pick orchards in Iowa. Here they are early to mid-September apples, so right when we start to see the first signs of summer turning the corner into fall, many years. I think this is the prime time people think āI should go pick apples.ā If you havenāt had Sweet Sixteen (aka Song of September) it is an apple worth seeking out, it can have a lot of cherry flavor to it, but without it it still is a good apple. It isnāt a long keeper though.
Smoothee is a good Golden Delicious strain that is supposedly russet resistant (also called āImproved Golden Deliciousā).
Iād say that Crimson Crisp is also a good late Sept apple here. OrangePippin.com has it in group 3, but PRIās table puts it after GD in bloom date. Besides Goldrush and Pristine it is probably one of the best 3 PRI disease resistant apples. Folks here like their Jonathon for cooking too.
BUTā¦ we are a very different climate than you. So my experience is somewhat heavily weighted towards the scab-resistant apples because of our 40+ inches of rain/year and high humidity from June 10 - Sept 15.
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Excellent chart. I was going to add it to the Reference Category then saw it was already there. A reminder to myself and others that there is some very useful info in the Reference Category.
I appreciate the info and suggestions.
Sweet Sixteen is on my list, but like a lot of others I need to first graft a MM111 tree or two to grow budwood.
The rootstocks we have ordered are heavier stock, and would be easier to bud this summer.
My list for this year is made up of varieties we have trees of, for budwood.
So far Iām thinking of the following for this year.
Goldrush
Ashmeadās Kernal
Calville Blanc
Spitzenburg
Gala
Honeycrisp
Jonagold
Karmijn de Sonnville
Braeburn
Freyberg
Mutsu
The graft for later list is longer, but we figure there is no substitute for actually trialing a variety, and top working some would be easy if they really didnāt work.
Sounds like a great collection for knowledgeable apple connoisseurs, might be a tad on the intense side for your typical u-pick customers. The Mutsu, Gala, Honeycrisp and Jonagold will have kid appeal, anyway. The others are apples for grown-ups. .
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Can I ask a general question? Why do people always go for you-picks first if they want to make money? Me, personally, Iād hate dealing with all the people.
Is doing anything else on 5 or 10 acres simply unviable if you hope to make a profit?
Iām not licensed in Arizona, so I cannot give you any advice on the particularities of Arizona law, but you should likely pick up a quality attorney to work out your lease. For one, you will want to have the lease recorded and have a signed SNDA with whatever bank holds the mortgage or Deed of Trust on the property. Having your arrangement negotiated and spelled out can prevent a lot of future headaches.
While a 25 year lease will give you some protection, depending on how the payment and liabilities work out (will the lessor be a limited libility entity and if so will you have to personally guaranty the lease, etc.) you may be better off with a number of extension options rather than a long set term. This also depends on what improvements you put on the land (just trees or also buildings).
In addition, you are going to want to do business under some form of limited liability entity. I couldnāt imagine myself running that kind of an operation with all of my assets on the line.
My advice to anyone starting any business venture is to take a step back and remember that every passion has some dreary administrative work to go along with it. Untangling informal relationships or disorganized businesses can be a costly affair. My advice to my friends getting into a business has always been to take a step back and think about the consequences and risks you are about to take on and how you can mitigate them.
This is not nearly as exciting as talking about Apple varieties, but I thought it might be helpful.
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I would think that many of those flavorful varieties would compare favorably with modern varieties boasting flavorā¦Sweetango, Jazz, etc. I really doubt someone would prefer a one dimensional sweet, after trying something more complex. Then too, many of these would brobably be stellar dried, or juiced, if they didnāt sell.
You pick is very optional here. One idea hubby had was taking a truck load (climate controled 14 foot) of them down to Quartsite AZ. That is a place where the population BOOMS in the winter to staggering proportions, and you can sell loads of firewood at high prices for their fire pits.
Many seniors cannot eat grapefruit because of meds, but appleās are only a problem for diabetics, and are generally considered healthy.
This is appreciated too. We are old fashioned folk, and have rarely had any problem with neighbors, or in business.
My hubby has been doing tree work for over 24 years, and has never had problems getting paid. He no longer advertises, as word of mouth is better then costly yellow pages adds. Still, keeping things clear is a good idea. My grandpa liked the saying āGood fences make good neighborsā and to me it is the same concept of having boundries, and responsibilities clearly defined. You can still be as nice as you like, or let things go, if youāre ok with it. Those options are still yours.
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VSOP
If your goal is to grow and sell fruit, several choices are available for selling the fruit, but U-pick is simple and works well. Each choice offers certain benefits, costs and complexities. Itās possible to combine multiple methods, but U-pick offers some advantages. For example, with good marketing itās possible to sell a lot of dollars of fruit on a busy Saturday, for a high price, and without hiring a lot of labor or even leaving the farm. We have tried all the options except Agg tourism. Here are some choices:
- Agg tourism ā Entertainment on the farm which can be very profitable. Corn maze, tractor rides and so forth. Works well combined with U-pick or other on- farm sales.
- Wholesale ā High volume sales by the case at a lower price, normally less than Ā½ of retail. May require a GAP certification. Very tight quality and grading standards. Some growers contract to a āpacker/shipperā who sells to the big supermarkets or food service distributors rather than selling directly to the retailer.
- Restaurant - Price is higher than straight wholesale, with fewer grading standards. High end restaurants love to advertise the fact that they use ālocalā produce.
- U-pick- Grower normally gets retail price without having to pick the fruit. Lots of waste from fruit knocked on ground. Combines well with Agg tourism or on farm sales of pre-picked or value added products. Family entertainment is often a portion of the U-pick trip to the farm.
- Value added ā Grower process fruit in some way to make it more valuable. Cider, Jelly, Pies, dried fruit and so forth. Combines well with U-pick, Agg tourism. Normally requires Health Department or Department of Agriculture inspection and separate product liability Insurance.
- Farmerās Market ā Grower can get a price higher than normal retail in better farmerās markets, but sometimes a few growers try to increase sales by dropping price.
Forgot these in orginal post:
CSA
Home Delivery
Roadside Stand
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Have you tasted all of the varieties you are planning to sell?. Popular recent releases are not as intense flavored as some of your choices. If your clientele are sophisticated foodie types I would expect that theyāll love the likes of Ashmeadās and Spitz. I just think of Ariz as a pretty conservative state. Recent releases are usually sweet-tart with plenty of crispness and juice but not intensely flavored. Also, it seems like Hispanics share the Asian tendency to prefer high sugar, low acid apples, if you are expecting a diverse clientele.
I havenāt tasted most of them, but now that Ashmeadās has full sun, I hope to soon.
This might be the year for tasting varieties top worked two years ago, and others coming into production.
I do have Cameo, Hawkeye, Arkansas Black, and Golden Delicious. I think those are less intense.
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Jolene, just curious why you think apples are a problem for diabetics?
Latest info Iāve read is that raw fruit has a kind of cellulose scaffolding that causes the sugar in fruit to be released gradually so it is not a problem for diabetics.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for-eating-fruit/?_r=0