I have a nice crop on a tree that is suppossed to be a red delicious but this is its first year to produce and I have doubts if that is what they are. They do seem to have the characteristic “bumps” on the bottom that go with red delicious, but they aren’t as pronounced as I’ve seen on store-bought RD’s. More importantly, these guys are just now starting to turn red. Are red delicious apples green most of the year and just turn red at the end? There are also some GIANT apples on this tree, but its a good sized 4 year old tree without very many apples so that could explain the large size. I’ll post some photots later, but I’d appreciate hearing if red delish are green up until now or not, and whether or not a red delish would be turning red this time of year in my area (TN). Thanks all.
Gravs just finished up here in Northern California. Most things are fruiting early this season. We’re starting to pick Winter Banana and the first of the Golden Delicious, and I’ve just picked our few young samples of Rubinette, Carter’s Blue and Lamb Abbey Pearmain. The CB was’t quite ready, but the others were quite good - the Rubinette was exceptional.
Looking forward to sampling Hunge (and a lot of other young trees and grafts) next season.
Just devoured my first and only Edelborsdorfer. It was a soft yellow color with a pink cheek. I enjoyed it - fairly sweet, juicy, and crisp. It is a fairly rare apple from possibly Germany from at least 1175 A.D. I look forward to having more next year. Had a Holstein earlier. I was gone for three weeks in July so I was grateful all survived the sitters care. I hope the usually good Smokehouse are better with a bit more time on the limb.
So, what other apple trees do you have, and have you harvested any yet since you got the farm? I recall you’ve mentioned cherries and peaches, but not apples.
Remember that big Winesap I got from Lowe’s this spring? It was pretty tall then, maybe between 5-6’. Well, it appears to like its new home, because I was down there mulching it a few days ago, and that thing is over 7’ tall now. Its trunk is at least an inch thick, and has several more thinner, but substantial, side branches.
Do you (or anyone else) think it would be OK if it’s allowed to set a few fruit next year? I don’t want to “runt it out”, by letting it produce too early. Judging by its size when bought, maybe it’s already had a year head start on my other bare root trees.
I actually have several apples, but I don’t speak of them much because I’m just not much of an apple lover (80% of this forum just recoiled in horror!!!). I’ve got Winesap, yellow delish, red delish, honeycrisp, Gala, Rome, Arkansas Black, Liberty, and one unknown apple that best matches photos of gravenstein but its an old tree and I don’t know what it is.
Glad to hear your Winesap did so well. I actually let mine fruit its second year, at least I left some on the tree so I could taste them, but I thinned it way, way down. The tree still grew like crazy so I bet it would be ok for you to do that, but I’m certainly no expert and will defer to others here if they say otherwise.
I just hope yours is what you think it is. It’s no secret that I’m an advocate of big box trees in general (many here are not, and I respect that) but my one exception is Lowes. That is because I have honestly had more than 50% of the trees I’ve bought from Lowes- and there have been a LOT- turn out to be mislabeled. Think about that. More than 1 out of every 2 have been mislabeled. That is just insane.
Well based on what you’ve said about Lowe’s, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what kind of apple it really is. It still has the nursery tag from a place in TN on it. Says “Winesap S/D” on it, so hopefully it really is a Winesap.
If it is a WS, those are tripoids, and I don’t know if it will have enough different cross pollinators. There is a Cortland and Macoun planted close to it, but I don’t know if they’ll be producing any viable pollen next year, as I just planted them as bareroots this year. Who knows, some of my other bareroots bloomed this spring right after I planted them. There’s also a couple of large, old Milam apple trees closeby, so they could help. We’ll see. I might let it set a small amount of fruit if that does happen.
Back in 2010, I purchased 3 apple trees from Lowes on clearance in May. They all turned out true to variety. However, one was on some type of dwarfing rootstock which was unexpected. My miss-ID’d stuff has been from Willis. My guess its just the luck of the draw.
Thanks, Sam. What varities were those trees from Lowe’s, and how have they done? Are you getting any fruit off them yet?
I’ve looked at some stuff from Willis, but haven’t tried anything from them. They seem to get mixed reviews, so I’ve been kind of reluctant to buy anything from them. How have their products done for you?
The one with the dwarfing rootstock is a Yellow Delicious. Another is a Fuji. The third one was a Winesap which died 2 years ago from Collar Rot (no fault of Lowes). I replaced it with an Winesap from Walmart. All of the Lowes apple trees fruited in their 4th leaf.
Willis seems to me to have a issue with quality control. They are a discount nursery with great prices. I have read somewhere that a lot of their stuff actually originates from all over the country. That may explain their issue with quality control. Also, being a discount nursery its reasonable to think they can’t afford the time and money to insure a high level of Q.C.
The two grapes vines that was supposed to be seedless was in fact seeded. They both died after one crop. Their blueberries seem to be okay. The Methley plum that I got from them was true to ID. The pecans trees that I got from them, well, you already know how I feel about bareroot pecans 
. Bad success rate. The Sumner was true to ID and I am still waiting to verify the Cape Fear. One Honeycrisp apple tree was true to ID, a Winesap was not although a good apple, and a Stayman - I am not sure. The supposedly Stayman apples that I got were green. I thought that Staymans were red.
Interesting information on a few early apples from Penn State:
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/news/2016/2016-apple-maturity-assessments2014week-6
Glad to hear you’ve had better luck with Lowe’s. ANd don’t get me wrong- I’m one of the few around here who is actually a fan of big-box store trees. Aside from my mislabels from Lowes, I’ve had great results from big box trees. And even my Lowe’s mislabeled trees turned out to almost all be wonderful, productive trees. THe fact that they are a different variety than I expected really isn’t a huge problem for me in most cases- though I understand how it could be for those who don’t have a lot of trees and space.
The other thing you said that caught my eye was that you’d had some mislabels from Willis. I can tell you with 100% certainty that they are the worst on-line nursery I’ve dealt with in terms of mislabels. I’ve also had some other problems with them. I love their prices- as you mentioned- but I’m not a big fan of theirs.
I’m sorry if I asked you this before- and I think i did- but if so I’ve forgotten. What part of TN are you in? I’m in the north Nashville area. Nice seeing another TN fruit grower here!
kevin
East of Memphis near Somerville. Area best described as being too far north for most stuff and too far south for everything else. 
Redfree (1st year and surprising still not ripe), Crimson Crisp, Macfree and Liberty. This is my first year for all these! Liberty has about 40+ apples the others only 2. Liberty seeds were just starting to change colour this weekend. Funny thing is that the seeds looked at about the same stage as the 1 Redfree I ate (though the Redfree was sweeter) which is weird as Redfree should be 4-6 weeks earlier that Liberty from what I read.
My Libs here in W Montana are still about a week from ripe, but the seeds are changing.
It’s tough to judge this one, I think.
I also tried a Liberty today. Only one I tried would separate from the spur easily. It was still starchy. Most of the seeds were brown but not all. Still a week or two. About 25 or 30 apples on a 3rd leaf G.935. Nice to have enough to be able to try them along the way.
I tried the first of two liberty apples on my 2nd leaf tree. It was medium/dark red on the sunny side and almost completely green on the shady side. Seeds were light brown so clearly not ripe yet. It was pretty sour but was much more intensely flavored than my william’s pride, priscilla, and king david. It had hints of greatness. I have high hopes for the one that is still hanging on the tree. I’m thinking it will be really awesome once it sugars up a bit. I’ll let it sit another couple of weeks.
Not knowing a lot about growing apples, I’ve noticed people mention examining the seeds. Are dark apple seeds an indication of ripeness? If they’re black does that mean they would need to be picked? About when in the apple growing process do the seeds show up, or are they always there, just really small?
As the apple ripens and the seeds mature they darken, but the color is not an absolute indicator- more a general guide, one of several factors to consider.
I guess seeds grow up with the fruit. I don’t cut into a lot of green fruit but it seems to me that when I have I find pale, soft, small seeds. I’m sure they’re their from the beginning.
So, it was actually a pear picking day; most who showed up thought apple, like me. Not a problem. I tasted some incredible pears. I hope to get some scions off of a few later; maybe even volunteer and get to know the place a bit more. BTW…way off topic here but then I’ll stop…I asked what the deal was with Hazelnuts and was told where I could find them…soooo, I got a few of those, too. (Edit: 800 different cultivars of H.nuts, 1,000 of pears. Just made another trip: Sept. 22, '17)
Here are a couple more pics. Based on the pic in antmary’s post up above, I am guessing my mystery apple tree with the red apples is a Jonathan. Mine look identical. I ate one this morning that my daughter picked up off the ground yesterday, and it was delicious. Here’s a pic from this evening of a couple small ones just picked, one of which is misshapen from bugs. I bagged 900 apples total on the two trees, but these two were not bagged.
In addition, here are a couple pics of the trees themselves, or portions at least. Keep in mind that we bought this house last year, and that the trees had not been pruned in years and years, if ever.
Suspected Jonathan apple…
…and the tree on which it grows
Suspected Golden Delicious tree…
…and a close-up
