My standard for “intensely flavored” is Ashmead’s Kernal. Although a lot of that is just that it’s both very sweet and very tart. The actual apple flavor is very good, but doesn’t blow you away. I’ve had intensely flavored Liberty and Mac, and Stayman Winesap. All of which i enjoyed.
Got it. Not an issue I’ve worried about. I have critters, and fungal diseases, and who knows what else. But there’s plenty of pollen in the air today, even ignoring the hard working bumblebees.
Wow, that’s really weird. And kind of cool.
I have a Jonathan that is showing a strong biennial tendency. Last year it barely bloomed, and the squirrels took all of the meager crop before they ripened. This year it’s a cloud of blossoms, it almost looks like a crab apple.
Here it is not that intensely flavored as the apples you mention. Still the Zabergau is an apple I enjoy. The russet part makes the Zabergau more disease and insect resistant for me. The apples you mentioned are more tart-ish than sweet, except for maybe Winesap. Liberty I was not impressed with so I did not pick that one to grow.
Interesting. Similarly, I have a seven-year-old AK that has always been a shy bearer, but it bloomed heavily this spring and has set an impressive load of fruit.
Intense flavor?
Karmijn de Sonnaville grown on the banks of the Columbia River near Wenatchee, and Suntan grown (if memory serves) at Scott Farm, Vermont, arriving in the mail. Lamb Abbey grown in my yard, Winesap grown in Spokane, Empire grown near town, along with Court Pendu Plat grown also in New England make the second tier, oh, and Ashmead’s Kernel grown in my yard.
Yes, that’s because i strongly prefer tart apples, so i don’t have a ton of experience with ones that are not tart. Some of them have a lot of sugar, though, so i wouldn’t call them not-sweet.
Liberty varies a lot. I think it’s very sensitive to climate. Around here it’s blander than a Mac, but in New Jersey the Macs weren’t really worth eating, and in good years the Libertys were excellent.
Ginda: Standing on M26? You might want to try another graft on something quite different.
Back to apple lists, I also prefer fruit with some acidic structure, although in high desert conditions, Wickson Crab is only moderately tart. (I know, I know…) Beacon and Macoun grown here are sweet & revelatory, changing my attitude to sweet apples.
It’s on G41. Do you think it’s doomed? If you don’t look at the graft it’s a very pretty little tree. (And i don’t have any place to put yet another apple. I could probably keep a scion alive in semi-shade, but i have to pull out a tree to plant a new one.)
Also … The very best apple I’ve ever had was a perfectly ripe macoun windfall.
A fair amount of swelling in the graft area is pretty typical for the G41 rootstock. Also you may see a fair amount of exfoliating bark near the graft union. If your concerned you could take some pictures with the screen wire removed from several different angles. I don’t think you have an issue but the picture you posted isn’t clear enough to be sure.
Experience has taught me to distrust G41. (Clean break at graft union in a July thunderstorm of Edelborsdorfer on G41 in its eighth leaf. Yeah, eighth leaf. The tree was 9 1/2 feet tall.) Get KdS on another branch, at the very least, as back up. KdS is an amazing apple.
And yeah, maybe i should take a branch of it and put it on my mature Jonathan in the front yard. Can i do that now (around petal fall) or this summer? Or should i wait until it goes dormant next winter?
I don’t think you have an issue. However, as NuttingBumpus said the graft unions can be weak especially with certain scions like Honeycrisp. In most cases the union failures occur when the trees are young and small. In some cases the failure occurs with mature trees.
I would make sure the tree is staked well and is attached to the stake with 3-5 straps spread along the leader of the tree. Tree with poor support or located in open areas with little shelter from wind are at the highest risk of failure.
Easiest grafting approach would be to do the grafting when dormant. Some people use a technique called “green grafting” to attach scions in the Summer but I have never used the technique myself.
Thanks. It does have a sturdy stake, and it’s tied to the stake (with cotton twine) in three places, so there’s not much mechanical stress on that graft union, even in the wind. But maybe i should upgrade from cotton twine to some kind of flat strap.
I could not find my note on the Fuji but I think I bought both grafted trees bare rooted, Fuji and Golden Russet (B9, having awful growth) from Schlabach in 2017.
