I have a white gold in 3rd leaf in container, but new fruit yet - it’s finally starting to grow shoots. I think I might have seen in the past that @RichardRoundTree had some fruit. Maybe check up higher in this thread in his photos?
I’ve had Craig’s Crimson cherries the last few years. My tree is also in a container.
Is anyone growing Golden Russet?
I bench grafted one this year. I hear it does well here… but there is the debate about which golden russet to get
Yet, there may or may not only be one available state side.
That would be good. I had a Golden Russet over the weekend while in Wisconsin (not sure which Golden Russet it was). Seems like a good apple to try growing. Did you get your scion locally?
It’s a funny thing… I ordered some from a guy in OR who has many interesting varieties, but he cut almost in April, and when they got to me, were leafing out already. I didn’t want to take a chance, so I ordered from the guy at Three Trees Orchard in Fort Collins (formerly owned by Masonville)… the got the sense he’s still learning about fruit trees, versus a well seasoned grower. I then had a horticulturist friend also give me some late cuttings, but by the time I bench grafted, they were also leafing. So, I think I went with the one from Three Trees. According to the owner, the source tree was from Trees of Antiquity.
There’s a big debate about English Golden Russet vs American Golden Russet (Bullock), and what’s actually what. It’s clear as mud. I think EGR is actually from America??? At the end of it, what I took away is that I wanted the one that has syrup sweet fruit with syrup thick juice. Then I read that it might be almost all local orchards are selling this variety, but some think not.
Anyhow, here’s what ToA texted me about their variety.
ToA: “The golden Russet caliber that we carry traces its roots back to upstate NY in the late 1800s, potentially originating from the English Russet variety. On the other hand, the Bullock varietal we offer is the American Golden Russet. Both are distinctive in their own right, offering u Kaye flavors and qualities.”
Me: “Hi, Thanks Neil. The whole ‘Golden Russet’ topic is very confusing. When you say English Russet, do you mean English Golden Russet? Also, is it the syrup sweet fruit with syrup thick juice? The one that I think hard cider folks tend to use”
ToA: “Absolutely! The Golden Russet fruit is very distinct. Great dessert apple and great for hard cider”
Related thread: Will the real Golden Russet please stand up?
What I gather about growing is that GR is late, but usually OK on timing most years here. Can get fireblight, but manageable. Some local cider growers are definitely growing it.
I grafted Golden Russet onto two of my trees this spring. It gets good reviews for taste (2 stars from Adam’s Apple blog). Zone 4, late bloom period and late harvest.
Got scions from Maple Valley, which notes origin as NY 1845. They seem vigorous (over 2’ growth on both). I had no idea that there may be more than one Golden Russet out there. Perhaps Ross and I will have some fruit to compare at some point.
I am going to head down to Dolores this weekend to attend Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project’s Orchard Social. I’ll take some photos. Anyone else going?
Thanks, Ross appreciate the detail. I’ll read through the link you sent. It’s going on my list for scions this year.
Colorado Orange in Colorado Sun story today. Bringing back Colorado’s rarest apple that was once thought lost
@NuttingBumpus
I was looking around recently for some updates, without success - so thanks for posting up! I have a few that I grafted early this year. I hope they have a more promising future than these first bites. Also sad to hear it’s fireblight prone. I guess time will tell if the hype is real or myth.
It’s a neat story. I met Jude and Addie in Dolores on Saturday. I think there were well over 100 peoples there- cider tasting, a good band, food truck. MORP seems to have built a nice community down there. They sold at least a dozen Colorado Orange trees at the event. I tasted, and then bought, a tree called Colorado Sunrise. Not sure where I’m going to put it
The apple I had was yellow and ripe in October, so some variance from the description on the website. My plan is to graft several other MORP varieties onto it.
Ross- I got a note from MORP that Colorado Orange is a winter apple and should not be picked until after a ‘good fall frost, and are best eaten after maturing in storage.’ They first tasted apples from the original tree that were lying under the tree in December. Those apples were ‘firm and full of complex delicious flavor.’
Anyone remember how much hail we had in 2023/last year?
Cause in Colorado Springs/Lorson Ranch/Fontaine, we had it almost every day for around 3 months straight but they don’t believe me ![]()
We didn’t get any up here. We are close to the foothills, so generally when we get hail, it’s small. Last year was the wettest I remember and I know folks that garden/farm east of here did have some bad hail last year.
I feel like it’s often hyper localized. Along the front range we’ll always get some amount of hail, its just how much and how big. For me in SE Denver it’s been two summers without substantial hail; I’m way overdue this summer…
That’s not something I have noticed before, but we are near the foothills and got 2" hail in 2018 that took out the roof and cars. However, we’ve been lucky since with no major hail. Agree with Scooter that it gets to be localized like that.
That sounds horrible. Maybe the weather was getting the next decade’s worth of hail out of its system all this year so you’ll have some easy years coming up.
I moved out earlier this year to another state. Was trying to find someone else who live in/around Colorado Springs to see if they remembered how much hail there was last year because the government said there were only 14 days of hail last year even though there’s over 100 accounts of hail for 75+ days last year in the area.
The 14 days of hail was at one location, ie the official NWS station in Colorado Springs. Sure there were hundreds of hailstorms across Colorado in 2023. But none of that affects you or anyone else. What affects you is what happened at your house.
Your original claim was hail every day at your house from March until late August. That would be the greatest weather anomaly in history. The record for consecutive days of rain in the continental US is 79. That was in Oregon in winter where it commonly rains 90% of days. Whereas your claim is 150-180 days in a row of hail which happens about 1 day in 20 on average.
