@murky can you take picture and post it or at least look at mine above does it look like yours?
I consider Crunch A Bunch an early Gold Rush. I cannot ripen GR in time here on most year. CaB ripens earlier and tastes as good.
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I donāt think mine have any blush on them. They are on the North side of my tree. edit: I shouldnāt talk about these things from memory. I guess mine arenāt more elongated, and there is a little blush around the damage.
Sighā¦ā¦well guess I will contact gurneys then maybe with pictures something will happen, doubtful though. Wonder what it is maybe a regular Fuji. Thank you for all of the feedback
Interesting looking apples. I need to look at getting one of these varieties.
How is CaB as far as diseases and the such? I like the description of the CaB from the catalog.
Baker Delight, picked a week early. Very good for those who like sweet apples. Some crunch, juicy and sweet. Much better than the first year I had it (2019).
The tree is on M 27 and produces biennially.
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@mamuang Iām considering adding this oneā¦ sounds great from everyoneās reviews here. Did you end up getting fruit in 2022, or does it appear to be truly biennial? I think I saw a thread where you mentioned the rootstock on the standard size, but canāt find it now. Do you happen know what rootstock they use? Too bad they donāt have semi-dwarf. I need pretty good fireblight tolerance here, and M.26 doesnāt seem very good for that.
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For posterity, I fond out from Gurneyās that currently they are using M111 and G41. What harvest times are you seeing in your locations?
Sorry, I did not see your earlier post. Mine are on M 27, super dwarf. I would be very happy to get a tree on G 41. I like the shape of my Fuji on G 41. However, the tree needs to be stake.
My friends love both Bakerās Delight and Crunch A Bunch. BD is on a sweet side and is not as crunchy as CaB.
Judging from the quality of fruit, I would love to have a tree full of CaB so I would choose M 111 even though it takes longer time to produce.
Because my trees are on M 27, they are not totally biennial. Heavy fruiting one tear and light crop the next.
No worries. Iāve been banking a lot on an earlier comment I saw you made about it being quite good and wishing you had a larger one. My yard is quite challenged for light. I have a few spots that will get 6-1/2 hours into mid-september (and 5-1/2 hours or less in mid-October) and one spot where I get 9 hours into mid-september and 8 hours into late October.
Our sun here is quite potentā¦ we might need 30% less sun than other areas. It sounds like harvest time might be late September or early Oct (still unclear on that). If so, do you think this tree is good enough itās worth using that one prime spot for this tree (i.e. my ābest treeā)? I donāt have a sense of if those other spots are enough light to get the sugars up, but welcome input from anyone on that.
Iām not clear on rootstock relationship to biennialismā¦ would CAB on M111 be more likely to be biennial? I have heard gold rush has biennial tendencies.
Crunch A Bunch is worth growing IMHO. In general, the sunnier spot for fruit trees, the better.
Biennialing depends on several factors. The major one is lack of thinning. A tree spends a lot of energy to feed every single fruit if you donāt thin a lot of them off. It will result in biennialing as the tree will take a year off (from fruiting) to recover.
Some apple varieties are more prone to biennial than others. Honey Crisp is one of them.
Rootstocks play a role, Dwarf rootstocks produce fruit sooner and are less affected by biennialing.
Thanks. I didnāt previously understand that relationship between dwarf rootstocks and biennial tendenciesā¦ good to know. Any idea if grafts on a tree that has gone biennial are affected or if they produce independently of the parent tree that is biennial?
One of the benefits of Crunch a Bunch over Goldrush that they donāt mention is that CaB doesnāt hugely overset like Goldrush does.
That means less thinning and bigger fruit with fewer blemishes.
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My tree is on M 27 so it is a tiny tree that cannot carry heavy load any way. I need to graft it to other tree.
I just ate one CaB for lunch. Picked since end of Oct. It is crunchy, juicy, sweet and had nice aroma.
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Well, I guess thatās another thing it has in common with Goldrush, stores great.
If not for my backup graft, Iād have not tasted CaB yet. Iāve grafted some Redloves to the CaB tree and theyāve fruited already. Maybe this will be the year. Iām not used to having vigorous rootstocks for apple.
My Cosmic Crisp hasnāt fruited yet either, although at least it flowered ins 2023.
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