Today’s snack-- a Blue Pearmain. If it was good enough for Thoreau, then it’s good enough for me.
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Fall is in the air this morning in Maine, and so are my BPMs…as they have started to drop from my first ever grafted tree. Harvest will last over a couple weeks as they don’t all ripen at once. Beautiful blue bloom on these freshies. A teeny bit of scab on a few, minor insect damage, pretty good for nonsprayed fruit. My favorite apple!
A big one-
The trunk has now healed over fully, compare to the pic I took in '15.
Best crop yet on my trees, hope this trend continues into the future!
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Jesse you like bpm better than black oxford and golden russet? Also you are still waiting for canadian strawberry to fruit, correct?
A great question. I’m looking forward to @JesseS’s response.
Still waiting on Canadian Strawberry, correct.
There’s a considerable amount of sentimentality involved with my ranking BPM as #1 favorite apple. It was the variety that I found growing here which captured my imagination and launched me into orcharding. That being said it is a wonderful all around apple.
Comparing to BO, it is better off the tree but doesn’t keep as long. Both are great all around apples.
Comparing to GR is trickier as I don’t have it fruiting at my place yet, a neighbor’s tree will be giving me a fodder for a fresh assessment shortly.
Truthfully, my favorite apple does change over the course of the season too…in a month it could be Northern Spy (finally got some!), in a couple months I will probably be calling Goldrush my fav😉.
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So many apples. So much love. What is the point of apple monogamy?
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That is a good looking apple. Thanks for posting.
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really awesome you’re keeping those old varieties going jesse!. i just ordered a Garfeild King yellow transparent from st. lawrence nursery. the original tree is in Ft. Kent on charette hill and is over 120 yrs. old. thought to have been brought here by catholic monks from Quebec. . when i was a kid we used to pick these apples. we called them striped apples due to the red striping on them. my mother/ grandmother considered them the best cooking/ sauce apple. i love the blue hue on yours. i remember picking some apples like that but don’t remember where or when.
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@JesseS what a beautiful apple! I’ve ordered a scion from Mike at 39th parallel so excited to start growing this one. Do you see any signs of CAR or other diseases? All I can find online is the it’s very FB resistant, which is great.
Sometimes I really question growing anything on puny rootstocks…when you see a tree Iike that specimen you see how apples were meant to be grown. I wish I had 20 acres to plant all of my varieties on seedling rootstocks!
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JesseS hasn’t logged in since June of 2020. I don’t think he is active on the forum any more.
Here is his profile that shows when he has logged in.
No he is, his new account name is @JesseinMaine
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Oh that’s good. I thought we lost him.
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Due to a glitch I opened a new account, I don’t have CAR pressure at my site so I can not comment on that. Overall BPM has been relatively pest and disease resistant for me, somewhat biannual bearing habit. Still a favorite!
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Purple Pearmain is a better fit in my humble opinion 
I would never grow on seedling rootstocks. I regret using mm111. I’m too old for ladders and only getting older. Semi dwarf is it for me. I can keep them to 8 feet or so and pruning and harvesting are much easier.