Lots of nice looking Ashmead’s Kernal apples.
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I think you need to be less literal to get my writing style. The point is you compared brix as an explanation or important part of your preference, and to me, you aren’t comparing apples to oranges, you are comparing oranges to cats.
I believe that most of us place a great deal of importance on their apple and pear crops, which is the fresh fruit that in zones with winter will be most essential. Nectarines are my most important crop off the tree, but overall, apples are as important as anything I grow because of the long storage possibilities.
It looks like my Goldrush will reach peak ripeness this season throughout the trees. Yay
AK really doesn’t seem to keep so well and GR will probably come down with considerably higher brix than it this year and equal acid.
Sorry, I thought that you were taking the “Chinese Date” name and thinking they were more similar than they are. If it was Lychee or some other high-brix fruit I would have better understood your point. Though not agreed, as jujube are very apple-like aside from the brix in terms of taste, texture, etc. So while they don’t replace nectarine/plum/grape/berries/etc, they do make a good apple replacement. Just more sugar and easier to grow.
Let me know if you expect to be in my area in the next month or so. I’d be happy to give you some jujubes to try. If you’ve had the ones from Chinatown, that is like judging figs based on the grocery store, rather than a well ripened one you pick yourself.
The long-storage potential of apples is a good point. I don’t generally get more than a month in the fridge from jujubes before the quality really degrades. And I completely get nectarines being in your top-spot. The few that I’ve picked have generally been very good. Getting them out of the rain and protected from critters is one of the things pushing the greenhouse idea for me (it would also be great to grow things year round…).
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I ordered from Orange Pippin today… but not an Ashmead’s Kernel… no charge to CC until they ship it seems. Seems to be a reputable nursery. Various rootstock choices also.
I have been tossing up whether i want this or Hudson’s Golden Gem… but i think i will just go with Hoople’s Antique Gold instead…hard to find a bad review on it… and Golden Delicious is one of my top faves anyways.
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I got my Ashmeads from an orchard in Charlottesville VA.
Albemarle Ciderworks & Vintage Virginia Apples
In 2018 I attended a grafting workshop there - as my first grafting experience - and picked up the trees from them at that time. They are on M7 I believe. Lots of root suckers - all the time!
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Hudson’s is a nightmare if you have hot weather. They got these strange indented spots and lost their texture. They were not fit for consumption.
Some times Hoople’s also gets spots, some of my apples this year have it … it is dark spots on the fruits. Some of the lenticels seem to get infected with something. Most years they don’t get it though. Razor Russet is another GD sport which got the spots horribly every year for me. I think all these issues are somewhat related, something about russet apples and spotting. Some of my Ashmead’s have it as well, see picture above. King Russet is another one I have which has similar issues. The only truly clean russets I have grown are Pomme Gris, Swayzie, Golden Nugget, and Keener Seedling. Probably a couple dozen russet varieties I had to topwork over the years. This is all heat- and perhaps humidity-related, they seem to all do fine when it’s less hot.
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What about Razor Russet? Not trying to collect apples but 2 or 3 russeted yellows would be nice.
See my post above … another horrible russet. I don’t know how hot you are but consider Golden Nugget and Pomme Gris or Swayzie if you are hot/humid.
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That’s where I bought mine from as well!! I was suppose to attend a grafting class there as well with Tom Burford being the grafting teacher and giving a lecture. My whole family got sick with the flu/cold so we could not attend. It was a huge disappointment for us. I have his book and I was going to see if he would sign it for me. Then COVID hit and no classes were held. Then Tom passed away. It would have been great to meet him and learn grafting from him.
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That is exactly the issue I had with my Hudson’s apple tree. I took it out. The heat and humidity here was a factor.
I have Ashmead Kernal but I picked it based on opinions on this forum and it just went in the ground this season.
I have found apples to be more robust where I am compared to things like pears or apricots. I can only share my experience with young trees so far. Our tree that we’ve had the longest is a nectarine and it’s been three years and it gave us 20 thrift damaged undersized fruits this year, but at least they had a good flavor.
I will report back when we actually have apples someday, but I’ve heard so many good things about it. I can’t imagine it not being a good choice unless it’s not appropriate for your zone.
It was purchased from TOA.
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That is sad about missing out on meeting Tom Burford. I don’t know think I know who he is, but I’m sure his death was a loss to the ‘apple community’.
It would have been funny if we both had ended up at the same workshop! - But how would we have recognized each other? Nametags that read -
PomGranny and MikeC ??? LOL
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Scott, that has been my experience, so far, with many of the varieties I have grafted onto my trees. And they are not even russets! The texture stinks - and the taste is so dull that they won’t be worth keeping. I’m going to give them another year or two - and then cull them out. Just not worth the effort. I’ll concentrate on the ones that do well for me.
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LOL, I thought the same thing when I read your post here. Being at the same event…then being here. What would have been the odds? Unless we had taken photos of the event and the grafting going on we probably wouldn’t have known. Like ships passing in the night.
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I have ordered from them and they are reputable. I believe Cummins supplies them.
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I think putting on the name tag is a good idea “gf#pomgranny”. I once floated the idea of a gf tee but the idea didn’t have traction
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Interesting Comparison of Ashmead’s vs Pomme Gris.
Nice review of Ashmead’s
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Yeah, but the AK in the photo does not look like the AK I grow from Cummins trees.
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Looks like the one on the left should be the AK. As far as I know - The Ashmeads never have any blush to them. Mine sure don’t !
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If youre ever around portland in the fall there is an orchard north of town that has tons of antique apple varieties, though there are not labeled well and the people working had a crude map so i dont know what i all had. Ashmead was one of my favorites, i was thinking about planting it. I ended up going with goldrush instead bc of better disease resistance and annual cropping. Theyre above average but ive had better imo
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