I have read through as many threads as I could with Ashmead’s in the conversation but wanted to start one specifically for it. I am definitely interested in growing this soon but wanted to hear from folks as much as possible. Mostly, I want to know if people think it can be grown without spray of any kind. I have a friend from work out in SW VA who says she has a tree that shes never sprayed before and its doing great, besides animals stripping them bare before she can get to them every year.
Secondly, there seems to be a number of apples being sold as Ashmead’s that don’t seem to look alike - such as Century farm orchards, Trees of Antiquity, Cummins Nursery, and Fedco. All 4 of those websites look like an entirely different variety. Can anyone with experience growing them list where you got it from as well? I am looking at ordering from Century Farm as they are one of my all-time favorites to order from. Thanks for any and all insights!
Mine came from Trees of Antiquity. They don’t exactly match the photo on their website, as they don’t have as much russet concentrated at the base - but they’re unmistakably AK (and superb).
They vary In appearance I have not seen any FB (yet) but they do get scab. They are just now coming into good production after 10 years on m111. Great flavor. I think they would make an even better single variety cider than Roxbury Russet.
It’s one of my more damage-prone apples. This year it got above average fireblight, and the apples themselves get a lot of damage on them from various bugs and diseases. They are better disease-wise this year as I sprayed Luna. I’m not sure why your friend had such good luck with it. None of the russets do super well for me, they all get more damage. Pomme Gris is the best of the russets for me, it is usually pretty clean.
Re: the looks, apples can look very different depending on the weather. This year my Hunge apples are bright red, usually they are partly covered with dull red. Rubinette is usually red-striped but this year they look more like a Golden Delicious.
I have Ashmeads in coastal nor cal, some consider the area the southern most pnw and it always performs beautifully, no spray, but took quite a few years to reach a great flavor. The first few years it fruited it was not better than average. I hoard them now…shhh dont tell sis in law they are worthwhile…
Note that growing no-spray is hard to compare with sprayed results, a little bit of spray can make a big difference. Gnarled Chapman is a pretty bad rotter, but I think I missed part of one tree since it had very few apples overall. Here is what it looks like now:
Thanks for the awesome pics - I ordered Hunge from Century Farms as well, mostly bc of your high praises
My thing about no-spraying is that I can totally live with getting 10% of my apples to be edible bc they’re just for me and my family. I’m so new to growing and my trees are so young, I haven’t seen if it’s totally possible with time. I have about 18 dwarf apples, 28 semi-dwarf, and 9 standard (that I will never spray due to size) so I’m not sure I want to take the time and pay for supplies to spray? I guess I’ll live and learn…I’ll never own a commercial sprayer or anything, I don’t know if that many trees is feasible with a backpack pump sprayer.
It’s generally hard to predict how apples will do without spraying … I have seen trees doing great and I have seen disasters. A lot of it is the location and how the tree can adapt to it, although the variety is also a factor. You could always decide to start spraying some of the trees down the road.
I posted some of my bulletproof apples awhile back, but last night I noticed in particular how clean Yates, GoldRush, Kentucky Limbertwig, Black Limbertwig, Brushy Mountain Limbertwig, and Rambour d’Hiver were … pretty much 100% clean. Along with Pomme Gris and Hunge as mentioned above. The last spray of any kind that I did was around June 10th.
Your Ashmead’s look identical to mine, which I originally purchased from Cummins. I’ve seen another version with not so much Russet. I believe there are two distinct versions going and not simply the same one in different weather. I have gotten the other but I’m not presently managing any of the trees.
Good to know - I am growing all of those except for Kentucky Ltwig, Pomme, and Rambour. My Goldrush gets absolutely annihilated by CAR, so I may spray for that eventually since Goldrush is so highly praised (I have one apple on my tree, cant wait to try it!). Looking at your ashmead’s photos, id be totally happy with that. I just cut out the bad parts of the apple and eat the rest!
I would take a look at the Gnarled Chapman photo, that is more what I would expect if you did not spray Ashmead’s. There is still something edible there though.
The part with 19 brix wasn’t bad, but the 16 brix part was too sharp. Those brix levels aren’t bad for an apple, but I think I can get them higher. I’ll probably wait a few weeks before picking more.
I have 2 trees of it, both of which are also from Cummins. One mini-dwarf on G65 (which got pretty big for a mini-dwarf…maybe half of dwarf size…) from 2014 and one dwarf on B9 from 2013. My father has an AK as well and it is one of his favorite varieties.
Mine get sprayed- generally 2 spring sprays of insecticide and fungicide. It may have gotten another fungicide spray at some point when I did the peaches (if I have extra, I’d use it on the apples too).
I think the height is the main issue. I’ve got a ton of trees packed into 1/2 an acre and spray them with a 4 gal manual pump backpack sprayer. Of course, I skip about half of it, as I don’t spray the berries, persimmons, figs, kiwis, or jujubes. But the apples, peaches, apricots, plums, pears, sour cherries, grapes (fungicide) all get sprayed.
I think height may be the toughest issue. Anything over 10-12 feet gets missed, so I’ve been working to keep my trees a bit lower. Helps with picking too…
Part of the reason I find 16-19 brix lacking is the excellent jujubes that are just coming into season…
Yeah, I like fresh dates too, but they are no substitute to my palate for juicy stonefruit and pomes. I believe much as is the case with the majority of Asians who are familiar with jujubes. Although many would probably tend to favor September Fuji or Sansa to Ash in early season.
Like Scott, I like the full range of balance between acid and sugar and my favorite tarts tend to get to the low '20’s brix wise on good years, but they don’t ripen as early as Ash. I consider Ash to be a world class tart for that reason- when it is at its best. .That hasn’t happened for a while because of very wet cloudy weather during ripening season for the past few years. For the fruit that has managed to avoid ovule (I believe) and stink bug damage (I know) this year. I am getting high quality.
Stink bugs have been more prominent than they’ve been in years- next time I see such numbers I will spray affected fruit with Assail 3 weeks or so before harvest. That knocked them down in mid-summer this year.
This apple is soooooooo easy to grow for me. “Thick“ skin apple is the way to go for me. If I could I would only grow “tough” skin apple it would be heaven! I only use Micheal Phillips’s recipe on everything I grow and nothing else.
Jujubes may be referred to by some as “Chinese Dates”, but they aren’t really much like palm dates. Jujube are much better than dates when fresh and much worse dried IMO.
The few times I tried fresh dates, I didn’t think they were that sweet and there was astringency. I only had a few before giving my wife the rest. When fresh, the better jujube varieties are like apples but with high brix (the poor varieties are barely edible styrofoam).
When dried, jujubes are basically big tough raisins, which doesn’t really appeal to me, though my wife uses them in soup, so I dry any that crack from the rain. On the other hand, I do like dried dates, such as Deglet Noor.
I agree that they are no substitute for stonefruit, such as peaches, which I’ve been eating a lot of recently. Some figs too, but only when they are very ripe. But for me, apples and pears suffer from comparison and are similar enough that I’ve been getting rid of the ones that aren’t exceptional.
Bringing it back to the topic, AK qualifies as exceptional, enough that I have 2 trees of it.
I think I normally get AK to the 19-21 brix range. But I don’t normally pick them in September. Once they are to that level of sugar, they are a very good apple. There is a real lack of jujubes with that sugar acid mix, though I am trying to correct that. I’ve been planting seedlings of a very sour (like lemons) one, which has likely been pollinated by a much sweeter variety (most of my others).
The last couple weeks have been great. Very good for figs as well, with a much lower level of damage than in past years. Some of my late peaches are ripening a bit early too- Octoberfest is just about ripe now and you can tell from the name it should be later
