There’s mentions here and there on here about Crimsoncrisp, but not a lot. And, it seems to get mixed reviews on flavor. It’s a tree I bought and made a second one grafted to learn how to graft, so invested in learning about it. My local PYO recently opened picking for it, and we went over this morning. Found some beautiful ones that had dropped and some that popped off easily. They’re really good! Great crisp, interesting taste, not overly sweet, and kids loved it. Very happy to learn about what I’m growing.
If anyone is growing this and Triumph, I’m trying to decide which one to put in the ground. Triumph was ahead, but now tasting CC, I don’t know. Haven’t tasted triumph. CC is a tad healthier/less CAR, but both look relatively healthy with minimal spraying. Any thoughts?
I put a CrimsonCrisp in the ground 2 years ago and got my first one this year. It popped off the other day when my 3yo grabbed it. It’s currently in the fridge. We will eat it soon. I think it’s a little under ripe. It’s supposed to ripen Mid-September.
I have a mature Crimsoncrisp tree, and I love the apples. They store well, their flavor intensifies in storage, and they remain crisp. The tree is virtually disease-resistant in my no-spray environment, which is a big plus. The apples also hang well on the tree, till end of September/beginning of October in my zone.
Of the three varieties we have (Crimson Crisp, Gold Rush, and Williams Pride), Crimson Crisp is by far the worst for fire blight. This year was a pretty mild year, and it still had a dozen or so strike while the other two had none at all. Last year I had to cut five feet off the leader to keep it from getting lower down into the trunk. Aside from that, we haven’t had any disease issues. The squirrels like them a lot, though.
Good to know. There were two other reports of fire blight on it that I found on this site. It is supposed to be strongly resistant…I thought I saw one branch on maybe a hundred trees we passed this morning, but I’m sure they spray everything known to mankind there.
Unfortunately I don’t, but they were classic shoot blight strikes - withered leaves, ends of the shoots curled downward, discolored and slightly wrinkled bark. We didn’t have any blossom blight this year - the first strikes were in May and I haven’t seen any since mid-June. I checked it every day or two and cut it back pretty far when I see one, and so far that has kept the tree going. Last year it was warm and wet while the tree was blooming and there were some blossom strikes as well.
Triumph was less dense than CrimsonCrisp, it was very crisp and juicier with a bit of the exotic flavors of Sweet16. I remember being very impressed with the quality. Both were grown here in Maine, and freshly picked. .
Based on tasting them last year at a pyo in Virginia Beach, VA, I planted one on G210 and another on B118. Both made good growth this summer. I just checked that pyo site and it says they started picking them on August 26 which puts them in Blondee season which they are starting as well.
Last year was a hot summer and fall but this year has been cooler than normal especailly in the last 2 weeks and predicted cooler than normal through September 15. I will have go buy some soon and see how flavorful they are this year.
Agree with Ukie above, the flavor of crimson crisp is better after about a month in the fridge. After a month it has a rich, complex flavor. I bag my apples with zip lock sandwich bags on the tree, then store them in the same bag. CC holds their crispness for at least a couple months stored this way. My 10 year old tree produces every year, but is not a heavy producer, which is nice because I haven’t had to thin. I have 30 apple trees, so don’t want a large volume of any one apple.
My CC also gets bad FB here in AL. It blooms late here, which seems to expose it to more FB enhancing weather (warm and wet). I’m grafting all of it over this winter. The tree survives OK if I keep a close eye on the strikes and get them out ASAP, but it really cuts down on the crop. It has maybe a half dozen apples this year despite a heavy bloom, while the goldrush tree next to it has a bushel of apples hanging on it right now.
yes I spray very dilligently with agrimycin. I spray within 24 hrs of each and every rain if I have not sprayed in the last 3 days. So I’m seeing alot of FB on CC in spite of these sprays. FB is BAAAAD here.
I harvested a couple of the few CC that were hanging on my tree. They were the best tasting apple ive ever had off one of my trees. Extremely sweet with an acid zing that made my tongue tingle. I guess this could be due to the light crop. Anyway, seems like CC has the potential to be excellent. Im still replacing it due to FB induced light crops.
