Came across this. Knew Fruitnut would be interested as would several others on this forum more than any other.
That’s going to be a hard concept to sell. Holding off a little on water, where possible, sounds like a better idea to me and does work in apples.
Yeah…I can certainly see where late apps of Captan could cause fermentation issues, but it doesn’t seem the article provides any real evidence that it actually is happening. Also not presented in this article (though it may have been in the initial blog) is any proof that scab actually raises brix levels.
Unfortunately for me (I guess), I happen to be one of the pickier Americans who hold blemish free fruit in high regard. I personally wouldn’t want my cider made from scabby apples. I don’t think I could enjoy drinking it if it were made from crappy disease ridden fruit. I don’t think there would be any problem with it, I personally just wouldn’t want it. Unfortunately, I’m betting most Americans would feel the same way…for better or worse.
Smart guy for an idealogue and an interesting if partially silly article. Alarming rates of fungicide? That is entirely in the mind of the beholder- one can logically endorse organic methods without going all faith based on us all.
Scab is a spring disease- it is the summer diseases that require fungicide that might lead to appreciable levels of residue on the fruit- and the main actors there don’t cause cracking and rot before fruit even gets to ripeness and those touted higher brix levels as can happen on a scab infected tree.
Even in the context of getting pristine fruit with multiple fungicide sprays, I’d like to see some evidence of why we are supposed to be alarmed by these applications. No use arguing religion though.
The core issue of a stressed tree or a tree with stressed fruit producing more sugars is fascinating. Sounds like a good argument for not seeking perfection in general, but I’d love to see some research on which particular stresses encourage more sugar besides scab. Water deficit is the only thing that has been really covered that I know of.
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This might come as a surprise to you but most ciders - both fermented and sweet are made with seconds that certainly aren’t blemish free. The top ciders in America right now - Eve’s, Farnum Hill, Aaron Burr - use a variety of sprayed and wild apples that certainly aren’t “blemish free.” How the heck would you even know if the cider came from a scabby Apple? You wouldn’t! Thankfully, education by these new, and some older, cider makers are helping the public realize that a perfect apple just isn’t really an apple and has no effect on cider’s taste.
I wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t know that it did either. I’m well aware that juice is made from the lowest grade apples and up. Just like ketchup (which I love) is probably made from all tomatoes harvested from a field, not just the pretty ones.