Those of you growing and fruiting this variety, any reports on it’s overall disease and bug attributes/susceptibility?
I am considering grafting it in, but less interested if it tends to be a “problem child” I’m getting rid of those!
Also interested in reports of how far north folks are getting it to consistently ripen.
Thanks for thoughts
I’ve had very bad luck with this variety, I first planted it 12 years ago and no fruit yet. I don’t think its the variety fault though. The first tree was killed by fireblight and the second the root just died. The third is about to start fruiting. It is somewhat susceptible to blight but thats about all I have noticed.
Scott
A stick was given to me this year but I haven’t got it on the tree yet; all I know is that it’s supposed to be an outstanding culinary apple. The orchard that gave it to me didn’t mention anything about contrary growing habits or such.
The Orange Pippin rates it pretty highly:
http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/calville-blanc-dhiver
and says it’s “easy” to grow. Dates way, way back.
(I thought I had posted this yesterday but apparently forgot to push the button!)
After hearing raves about it being such a good cooking apple, I planted one last year. Not sure how well it will do this far north, but I have lots of other varieties if this one doesn’t fruit consistently.
The location is on border of zones 3 and 4.
I think it is an extremely unvigorous grower. I could never get anyone to send me decent diametered wood (my first clue to its lack of vigor) so I ordered a tree on 111. It was tiny on arrival and is still tiny after a year of “growth”. Maybe just a bad tree, but slower than any I’ve ever tried to grow and I’ve grown literally thousands.
My trees have been plenty vigorous, but prone to making too much long pencil-thin wood.
Scott
Maybe I just got a bum tree from Burnt Ridge. I do hope it gives me some serious growth this year, at least I could graft it onto something already established.
Since there hasnt been much posted, I’ll post my observations.
Personally, I am growing it, but I havent gotten any fruit, but I have observed orchard trees with Calville Blanc d’Hiver.
Here in 5a/5b, I dont see much fireblight at all other than Goldent Russet. On my tree, Calville Blanc is vigorous and a bit of a weeper similar to Jonathan. Its probably tied for 2nd most vigorous of my varieties behind Belle de Boskoop. Its healthy, doesnt spur as much as other varieties that I’ve seen.
In terms of the fruit, just about every fruit develops what I can describe as corky spots on the bottom nodes. They seem to seal naturally, and seems to store just fine.
These trees in Samascott orchards are some of the tallest trees they have, in the same row as Ashmead’s Kernel, which look dwarfed by comparison. Be careful what stock you put Calville Blanc on would be my recommendation. I have it on M7, I hope it doesnt run away. Thats Belle de Boskoop’s job.
There is nothing more beautiful in the fall than a Calville Blanc tree with its pink flushed, lobed green fruit against the sunset. A majestic tree worth growing.
Taste is similar to a champagne, fizzy effervescent with a green grape note. Stlll tart.
It is a key component of our Triple Heirloom Apple Pie with Reine des Reinettes and Orleans Reinette.
Yum! I’ve baked with the first two and they are awesome cookers; I hope I can try that combo some day.
We’ve only made it twice Scott.
We had the opportunity to get all 3 on a road trip to Scott Farm outside of Brattleboro Vermont before we grafted.
Calville Blanc brings the fizzy sweet/tart body, Reine des Reinettes brings an umami sweet melon note and the Orleans Reinette has a citrus nuttiness.
All 3 together is like eating a kaleidoscope of apple flavors, but no flavor or apple steals the show.
A symphony.
I remember you writing on GW about cutting out your Orleans Reinette tree a couple of years ago.
If you change your mind, contact me, and I’ll send scion wood your way. My pleasure.
Thanks for the offer, Eric. I did put Orleans Reinette back on my list after my general orchard fireblight problems dropped to nothing. It was not a starter of fireblight but had straggler late blooms which helped spread it around once the infection had taken root in the orchard. So it may be OK now. I still have Reinette Clochard and Court Pendu Plat, both of which are in the same flavor group as Orleans Reinette.
MegaMav, your taste description is spot-on. CBdH does have an effervescent quality to its flavor, something I’ve never experienced eating any other apple. Mine were sampled from Poverty Lane Orchards in New Hampshire a few Septembers back.
There was one left in my cold storage unit.
Left to right: Golden Russet, Calville Blanc d’Hiver, Ashmead’s Kernel, Jonamac
Last batch apple crisp time!
Thanks for the feedback. No red flags so I believe it’s well worth the try.
Interesting to hear the two widely differing experiences with vigor.
It would be nice to pin that down as it helps in planning graft placement.
Now I just need to put my hands on a few sticks, but I think that’s covered.
Spring is developing very late here. Still a foot of snow, and maple sap runs just starting…over 3 weeks past norm
My experience is with a single tree from Burnt Ridge and the fact that when I tried to to obtain wood it was extremely thin- not much evidence there. I would run with the other version, that CB is at least moderately vigorous. My tree arrived pencil thin and didn’t grow much the first year. Hopefully this year will be a different story. I’m hopeful, I love good cooking apples.
FWIW - The New Book of Apples lists it as a T1 vigor and reports needs hot summers (to ripen in the UK).
Take my anecdotes with a grain of salt, I dont know what stock they are on at Samascott.
All I can say is, the very tops of those trees were over 20 feet as I couldnt reach some apples with my 8 foot twister fruit picker on a painters pole.
Make sure they get plenty of sun, I wouldnt go borderline on them because the best ones were red flushed on the south side of the tree. Shaded green ones tasted more woody. Probably not a good high density orchard variety. In the morning I can get outside and take pictures of my 2 year old branches. They are about 3/4" thick a few spurs.
I wouldnt expect big yields, however the quality in pies is tough to beat.
If I could grow 3 pie apples this would be one of them, Reine des Reinettes (tarts) and Belle de Boskoop (strudel) would be the others.
Belle de Boskoop is off the scale for vigor, but thats another topic.
I agree on this- I have a BdB on M27 (mini-dwarf) and it looks more like a B9 (normal dwarf) in size. All my other M27 are 4-5’ tall bushes.
Most of the literature has it as fairly vigorous. But I didn’t want to discount a firsthand report. Thanks for the follow ups on that.
It was a bit of a toss up betwean boskoop and CB. But the flavor profile on cb is so interesting. To be fair I have not tried a boskoop, and it does have a good reputation as an easy grower(disease and big wise)
I would definetly agree with megamav, reine de reinnette is a fantastic multiple use apple. Fresh, cooking, drying and cider it’s great in all of them. I just can’t get them to hold for any decent period of time without going rubbery at the skin. And I get a lot of premature drop most years…but that’s another thread.
Calville Blanc:
Pencil shown for comparison, total length after 2 season is about 6-7 feet.
CB is the branch going left. You can see the very few fruit spurs. Tough to get a good shot of it.
Belle de Boskoop:
Pencil shown for comparison, total length after 2 season is about 8-9 feet.
Long, thick branch.
