Many people say that Wickson is one of the sweetest apples, if you like sweet apples. It is also fairly tart and astringent. Not sure if you like that sort of thing. I haven’t tasted it yet. My graft failed. I’ll try again this spring. It is small enough to be considered a sort of crabapple.
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I got to taste Wickson. Sweet and tart at the same time. The apples are really small. I guess thats why its called a crab apple.
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A crab Wickson is - but not crabby out West. So much light here it changes a lot of the acid. My records show I tried both Wickson and Golden Russet on 11 October 2015. They each had 21 Brix. I know people rave about Golden Russet. This sample was better than grocery store fruit, but unexceptional. The Wickson was very interesting, with flavors I could not pin down - a host of them - and a balancing acidity, but not the edginess expected.
I’d grow Wickson in a heartbeat, given enough room, besides what has already been settled upon in this yard.
Give it a try!
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And the east of England, although flat and marshy, gets nearly a rain shadow effect because most precipitation hits Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. I remember the nursery rhyme: Ah, lovely Devon, where it rains eight days out of seven.
Still want to go there someday!
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I’ve eaten about a dozen of the Goldrush I purchased a few weeks back and I’d say it’s moved to the top of my list. I should have bought more. I’m not sure they are going to last long enough for me to try one from spring storage.
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I only had a few from my trees. They were so good I purchased a half bushel and gave both sets of my adult children most of them. One of them told me that they were difficult to peel for the kids without wanting to eat the Goldrush themselves. Although I have several grafts added and two trees exclusively devoted to Goldrush I’m going to add more this grafting season. Not all really good tasting apples grow well in my area but Goldrush appears to be the exception.
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I made a trip to a member @Ryan yesterday, who offered to let me try Goldrush, and Sundance. A big thank you to him as I couldn’t seem to find Goldrush. Both of these were very good apples. First thing this morning I placed an order for 2 Sundance from Cummings, and I will be ordering 4-6 Goldrush from Schlabach’s for 2018.
It was very nice to meet you Ryan if you’re reading this.
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It was my pleasure! Glad you were able to stop by and that you enjoyed the apples. It’s fun to talk with someone as crazy or crazier about apples. 
GoldRush are really something special. They stay tart and complex long after other apples have completely mellowed in late winter and early spring. It’s easily our family’s favorite apple at this point, living up to all the hype.
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Finding that GoldRush does well in such diverse locales as Alabama (thanks for the observation, Auburn) and Vermont, (Scott Farm) from where I received the only sample tasted so far - and approved - I am encouraged it can manage Spokane summers.
Since I made the graft only last spring, it will take a few years to find out!
Keepsake and Connell Red (Fireside sport) were also successfully grafted last spring. Keepsake being seed parent to Honeycrisp, I am eager to try an apple with similar crunch and more flavor. Here’s hoping! Neil in Reno says his Keepsake drops nearly all fruit. Connell might gas away all flavor in our heat. So, with some reservations, I hope to have four longer keeping apples on site. If not, and GoldRush comes through as well as Hunt Russet appears to after debut fruit this year, they’ll fit the bill.
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FWIW, Keepsake has not dropped fruit here (other than what the birds take off). But it has only produced fruit a couple of years so far for me.
Before hearing of Neil’s disappointing results with Keepsake, I had not heard it drops prematurely. He is in Reno, myself in Spokane - both the “semi” arid West. Where are you Steve333?
We are in the Colorado foothills at 8300’ elevation. In theory ag zone 5a but we are considerable drier and windier than an “eastern 5a”. Definitely in the arid SW.
The local organic market has had so many different apple cultivars lately that I decided to have an apple tasting with my husband and next-door neighbors. The contestants were Tsugaru, Pink Lady, Jazz, Sweetie, Envy, Braeburn (I think it was underripe, so not a fair comparison), Cameo, Pacific Rose, Opal, Honeycrisp, Cornish Aromatic (I grew), Red Fuji (I grew), and Sonata. There were another three that got mixed up in the bag or the refrigerator and I’m not sure what they were, alas. The results were interesting. My husband and my neighbor Don both had Gold Rush and Honeycrisp as their top two apples, and my neighbor Valerie had Gold Rush as her #1 and Honeycrisp as her #5 (Valerie also turned out to be a serious tangy/sour apple fan), whereas these two apples didn’t make it onto my top five. Honeycrisp seemed harsh with a slightly unpleasant taste. My favorites were Pacific Rose first and Cameo second. (To me, Pacific Rose isn’t just sweet, but has a delicious floral taste.) The only two that I grew (although I didn’t tell the tasters!) were the Red Fuji and the Cornish Aromatic, and the Red Fuji was in all four of our top fives, and the Cornish Aromatic was at the bottom of everyone’s list. I think that may be because it is not a crisp apple and it suffers in comparison. Val and Don have a productive Pink Lady tree so they’re set for good sweet/acid balance apples, whereas I have a big old tree with about 15 varieties grafted, mostly on the sweet end of the spectrum.
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… and you didn’t invite me?
Lovely set of offerings on your table there!
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Which all just goes to show it is entirely in the palate of the beholder. I like Cameo for a sweet- it’s what Red Delicious would taste like if it was worthy of the name. Here it seems to tend towards biennial bearing, though. I need some more experience with it to be sure, but it’s not in any of the orchards I manage even though I have it in my nursery. It is on nursery trees I’ve tasted it.
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Cornish Aromatic! How I long to get close to it. Perhaps the closest thing to compare it with in my limited experience is Beacon. That tended to go a bit soft over time in the only experience I’ve had it, but the floral components in the boxful I got in '13 - sweet alyssum and lilac - overroad any objections I might have that way.
Apparently, if an apple is interesting enough in flavor, texture is of secondary importance to me, unless it has gone entirely mealy.
Steve333: If you are at 8300 feet in CO, I have greater expectation Keepsake may hang on for the season, when it grows up to bear fruit.
Honeycrisp with flavor - what a concept! (I know, In some people’s books, I’m scarcely human.)
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On further thought, the Cornish Aromatic had been harvested the same day, and maybe it takes time to get its full flavor. This one had NO aromatic qualities that I could detect, but it was from a recent graft and I’m going to keep trying. If you want some scions, PM me!
Cornish Aromatic is always a winner in our orchard! In addition to the flavor I love the looks of it, not a bland pretty apple for display in a grocery store. Ever since I started including Cornish Aromatic in our annual taste tastings of 40 to 42 heirloom and unusual varieties it has ranked in the top 5 if not top 3.
It has become so popular that I grafted more trees of it a couple of years ago.
Definitely an apple worth growing. Matter of fact this year when I noticed the number of apples was getting low on our trees of that variety I pulled it as being available for our U Pic guests to pick from to keep the apples for us !
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I keep seeing wickson come up as a high quality apple. Many say most contests it is in top 5 apples for taste out of 100 https://www.orangepippin.com/crab-apples/wickson-crab
https://fedcoseeds.com/trees/?item=201
http://sierracider.com/apple-varieties/. @SkillCult ranks the flavor as very intense From Old Nonpareil to Lady Williams: Apple tasting notes, late season 2012/2013 — SkillCult.
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