Heard very good reviews of Kamijn de Sonnaville and Calville Blanc d’Hiver. Love their names, too. Hope their grafts continue to grow and be fruitful.
Then, I could brag that I had apples on my pear trees 
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Calville Blanc is a good one. It’s such a unique apple.
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It would be even more unique if it fruits on a pear tree. Let’s hope 
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… and I was about to say it again before I saw your post 
Yes, it did strange things the first three years it fruited. Then it became extremely reliable. Once it matures it needs heavy thinning, I didn’t do quite enough this year and the apples are far enough along that its not worth it now. It has been reliably annual for me.
I am now eating Jefferis, that is a really fine summer apple.
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Thanks Mark I sure hope Rubinette does as well for me as it’s done for you. Might try a few of the other good ones people have mentioned as well. Wickson grafts look good as well. I’m hopeful it will live up to its reputation as a premium small apple. Those Etter apples have a great reputation.
Tom Burford’s Twenty Top Desert
American Beauty
Blue Pearmain
Cox’s Orange Pippin
Esopus Spitzenburg
Grimes Golden
Holstein
Kidd’s Orange Red
Mother
Newtown (Albemarle) Pippin
Pitmaston Pineapple
Ralls
Ribston Pippin
Smokehouse
Spartan
Summer Rambo
Virginia Beauty
White Winter Pearmain
Winesap (old)
Yellow Bellflower
Zabergau Reinette
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Wow…looking at that list…i have tried ZERO of those 
Scott-
Really liking Jefferies. For a summer apple they seem perfect to me…juicy, sweet… My kids love them too.
My question is how difficult/easy it is to grow any of this best tasting apples (per Tom Burford).
I don’t put much effort into spraying. If they require a lot of effort, they are out of my reach.
Of the list, I only have Kidd’s. 1 out of 20 ain’t bad
When I spoke with Tom Burford a few years ago, his suggestion for a small commercial orchard was Winesap and Grimes. Its good to see both of these on his list. On B9 neither of these variety produces a very vigorous tree.
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@mamuang Good point- I lost five on the list to fire blight- Cox, Esopus S, Mother, Grimes and Ashmead’s K. All no spray on MM106, not a good choice for blight, so my FB loss partially self inflicted. Tom has other variety recommendations for growing low or no spray.
Here’s a list I get from combining Tom’s best “disease resistant” varieties with his “organic or low spray” varieties from Tom’s book Apples of North America:
Chehalis, Fall Russet, Green Pippin, Hauer Pippin, Hog Sweet, Horse, Keener Seedling, Liberty, Magnum Bonum, Ralls, Brushy Mountain Limbertwig, Cannon Pearmain, Cheese Apple, Freedom, Hoople’s Antique Gold, King David (?!), Monark, Nova Easygro, Parmar, Priscilla, Redfield, Redfree, Sundance, Tenderskin, Wheeler’s Golden Russet, Whitney Crab.
Others know better but I suspect Horse and King David may tolerate fire blight more than resist or fail to get it. I’m currently experimenting with ten on this list, too soon for results. I would definitely add Black Limbertwig to the list (plus a Fabulous taste/texture).
,
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Thanks, Hambone,
I wonder what’s the difference between Wheeler’s Golden Russet and other Golden Russet (isn’t it American vs English). I have one
I also have Hooples and King David grafted this year.
Ralls; Newtown; and Grimes are reportedly rugged disease-resisting or disease-tolerant apples.
Just ordered Dula’s Beauty for next year. A seedling of an unknown Limbertwig, supposed to be very disease resistant and taste great- crisp, sweet/tart blend, vigorous healthy tree.
I have grown most of those Burford apples, that list is one of the first “top” lists I ran into so of course I had to plant most of them Ribston, Holstein, Cox, and Yellow Bellflower were major duds in my yard. Kidds, Newtown, Pitmaston, Smokehouse, WWP, Winesap are good apples I am still growing. Spitz and Mother are very tasty but have not been consistent yet and are prone to FB. Grimes and VA Beauty I am still waiting on.
I think Tom’s recent lists are better, this early list has many not adapted well to the mid-atlantic. All the apples on that list are really tasty, but many are hard to grow.
Scott, do you grow Kidd’s Orange Red? If so, how does it compare.
The list I like most is our Scott Smith’s list.
If you search “Scotts apple variety experience 2005-2015”, you will find Scott’s assessments on tons of varieties. I’ve tried to grow apples based on his list.
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I agree! Most useful info I have seen, especially the grow-ability part. Nice to see a few “grocery store” apples on the list too! Variety like gala, fuji and pink lady for comparison.
Burford’s nursery was located outside of Lynchburg, Va. He has a huge amount of experience with apples in Virginia, but we works as an apple consultant all over the world.
Scott’s focus on the Mid-Atlantic is a lot more useful to me. Thank you Scott!
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I have a similar question about the Golden Russett on Tom’s list. I have read many places that Golden Russet can be very fire blight prone and not easy to grow but I am wondering if those descriptions apply to the English version only. I have on order from Century Farm the American version of GR and hope it has the similar taste qualities without all the disease issues. There was a discussion thread about the American vs. English version of GR a while back and seems like Scott and others the American version but I don’t remember if the American version was more grower friendly.
Chris,
Thanks for reminding me. I may have made a mistake when ordering Golden Rusett this past spring.
Burntridge has AGR. Schlabach has EDR. I meant to buy AGR because I do not like high acidic apples. Burntridge did not have a dwarf rootstock I looked for so I went with Schlabach. I completely forgot about the E vs The A.
Now, I got EGR. Oh, well.
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Its very much a mix of its parents, Red Delicious and Cox. Its sweet like Gala but more aromatic so I like it a bit more (Gala is also a very good apple, much better home grown than store version). The only downside is it is highly prone to biennialism.
@Chris_in_GA, for me both GR are easy to grow, but the AGR is less prone to later diseases and moths. For some reason my (E)GR gets a lot of that. I have not had big blight problems on either of them. They are very different kinds of apples, its too bad the names are similar.
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