Best tasting apples

Wow! Looks amazing.

Thanks. 4th year tree on M 7.

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I’ll have to remember that. :+1::heavy_check_mark::100:

All my M 7 apples produced by 3rd year and full load in 4th year.

Are those zip-lok baggies?

Yes, Hambone. All my apples are in ziplock bags. I am cleaning those bags for next year’s use. :smile:

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Good to hear, I have four M7 trees that were planted two years ago, so hopefully next year they’ll give us some apples- Winesap. Cortland, Pristine and King David. We planted a Goldrush that same year, but I don’t think it’ll be big enough to produce any fruit next year.

Will your Goldrush get enough sun/heat to ripen? It’s been quite cold the last week or so. What is the little tree in the background with the blue tag?

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Looks like my nursery Goldrushes that didn’t get any fungicide during summer. My orchard trees got a few summer apps and are still in full leaf, which will likely help raise the brix. Last season was pretty wet, but not like this one and my nursery trees held their leaves late and produced tastier fruit than what was on my orchard trees.

No fungicide after the two Immunox spray in May. Will need to consider it. Not enough leaves for those many apples are not good. My HC with the same treatments, has far more leaves than GR. It is susceptible to CAR for sure.

No indar? Or do you save that just for stone fruit? I have such serious canker and black knot problems it goes on everything.

That one is an E pear on OHxF87. I’ve planted 5 of them in ground this year.

King David is supposed to be fire blight susceptible, isn’t it? I have a graft but lot of blind wood. Maybe, it does not like cold weather.

My GR has enough sun but may not have enough leaves!!!

A couple of my M7 trees kind of look a bit spindly like yours. Meaning they haven’t really thickened up their trunks. Is this a trait of this rootstock? Both of these trees I’m talking about were 9/16" thick when I ordered them. It could be that my trees aren’t in very good soil. I haven’t had to stake them up, but may have to if they start bearing fruit.

Well, I’ve read both resistant and susceptible, I guess we will see. I haven’t noticed any strikes the last couple of years, but it also hasn’t bloomed, and I understand FB starts in the blossoms?

If anything, I’ve noticed my KD seems to attract wooly apple aphids. Not so bad this year, last year though, was pretty bad.

Yeah, I noticed the lack of leaves. Don’t apples (and other tree fruit) need the leaves to properly ripen? Something about leaves converting light energy to sugars for the fruit?

It may be related, but my tomato plants had lots of fruit, but due to disease they lost their leaves, and the fruit just got sunburned and didn’t really ripen properly. A lot of them just rotted because of this.

Would like to know what size zip locks you use. Thanks.

Awesome tree.

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M7 are pretty good rootstocks. They thicken up later on. I had about all my old orchard on the M7’s. The only downside , that I know of offhand, is that when they get old the trunk can or tend to lean.

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They are standard-sized, ziplocked sandwich bags.

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If you can stake them , please do. Two of mine are leaning, one badly and may need to be removed.

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I have loosely tethered the Pristine and KD to small wooden stakes, though not now. They’re OK now, but like I said, when they start to produce they may need some support.

Our big M7 Winesap is a bit top-heavy, it’s over 10ft tall, and has leaned a little when we get heavy rain plus high winds. But for the most part it’s been pretty sturdy.

I thought my Macoun was a M7, but when I showed some pics of the burr knots on the rootstock, @alan said he’s really only seen that on M111’s. Both it and the Cortland came from the same nursery two years ago, so maybe the C is a 111 tree also.

The actual rootstock experts suggest that most of the English rootstocks are prone to burr knots. My comment was based on half-assed anecdotal observations. However, I’m certain that 111 is most likely to have burr knots of any rootstock I ever use but you may have M7 with the same thing.

M7 works fine, just make sure it is well anchored when it is holding its first heavy crop and stake it as needed. By the time 111 finally bears crop it tends to be well anchored for me.

For varieties slow to bare, M7 is probably a better rootstock for most hobbyist growers in a hurry for fruit.

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I try not to spray when I don’t have to. This is the first year of
full load GR. If the lack of leaves seriously affect the quality of fruit, I probably spray more fungicide next year. If the fruit quality is not compromised much, I probably won’t.

This year, in particular, I could have spray Indar 10 times and some fruit would still be rotted. So wet, so long.