Black Twig Apple

Top apple is Rankin Tooles black twig and bottom is Mammoth black twig. Grown side by side but distinctly different.

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Wait, what?.. North Star Orchards here in Westmoreland, NY?

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Yup they grow some amazing examples of southern apples there. Check out their website. They have a lot of Limbertwig varieties to, my personal favorite.

I’m sorry I made a mistake. North Star orchards in Pennsylvania not New York.

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I’m familiar with them, they’re one of my favorite “local” orchards. They have a really nice market too. I just didn’t expect you to be referencing an upstate NY orchard, it caught me off guard !

They both have the same exact name so I’m very sorry. But North Star In Pennsylvania has a lot of wonderful info on there website on multiple varieties they grow.

Well now I gotta have the other one too :wink:

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That’s how I feel to. If you find a source for mammoth scions please let me know. A lot of places just list black twig and you really don’t know which one you’re getting. There’s also Mammoth Limbertwig so who knows if that’s the same or different. :slight_smile:

I grafted Mammoth Blacktwig in 2020, will check it sometime soon to see if it has any wood/sprouts to spare yet. If not I got it from a local friend who purchased it from a mail-order nursery. I just messaged him to ask which one it came from. I hope to get scions of a few additional things from him this year and can probably get more of MB if mine isn’t large enough yet.

This makes more sense :wink:

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Actually not mail-order… Turns out he purchased the Mammoth Blacktwig (and a few other) trees from Tim Hensley’s family a few years after his passing. Decent sized M-111 tree he will prune next month and can save me some cuttings from. Be glad to share.

Seems like high praise from Century Farms Orchards on this variety as well: My favorite all-purpose apple

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Do you know where you obtained the black twig (non mammoth) scion or tree?

I’m not home right now but I’ll get right back to you when I get there.

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I hadn’t heard of cheddar flavored apples before, but I’ve been evaluating a naturally dwarf roadside tree that I swear has cheddar in the flavor. I can’t help but wonder if this type of apple has atypical acid in the fruit like lactic acid.

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Black Twigs at a produce market near Richmond Va. Picked too green in my opinion. Goldrush in box beside.
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I picked my Black Twig apples today, my graft produced quite well, it was freighted! Most came out clean from my no spray orchard and confirms this variety is PDR. It’s a vigorous grower as well, I wonder if it may be triploid

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Somebody must like them as Century Farm Orchard has 340 trees in stock.

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I have a branch of blacktwig grafted on a Goldrush tree. Many of them drop early and underripe. The ripe ones are a little bit bitter in the peel. They ripen a little too early here - early Sept when it’s still pretty hot. Maybe that affects quality.

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I have been eating Black Twig, Stayman and Winesap apples purchased from Albermarle Cider Works/VVAApples in early December. I put them in my 32 degree fridge until this week. The Black Twigs have improved in flavor over the ones I ate at the time of purchase. Very tasty and still crisp enough to enjoy.

The Staymans I have are starting to get soft. The Winesaps are the best now for being stiil very crisp. Flavor wise are Stayman, Winesap and Black Twig in that order.

The Black Twig is not as dark as the one shown in the start of the thread from North Star Orchard as you can see in pics below. Haven’t seen any scions or trees for any darker ones for sale.
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The darker variety is generally listed as Paragon. If you want some scions next season I’m more than happy to share.