My Jonagold are just starting to come off of their tree. I love them in pies, fresh and this year I’m gonna try juicing some of them and see if they are good as a single cider alone. In Europe Stella Artois makes hard cider with them. I have eaten two Goldrush and they seem mellowed this year, even my daughter said it was kind of sweet.
Do your Goldrush trees want to grow the leader but not laterals? Does the tree eventually decide to put some oomph into laterals? Mine are only two years old and extremely vertical.
My goldrush on Geneva-30 is also super vertical. It came from the nursery as a large highly feathered tree and was topped and laterals tipped to get it in the shipping box. The nursery pruning job looked good so I did no further pruning at planting. Laterals grew very little but the leader shot up 6 ft with no new laterals. Not sure what to do with it this winter. I’ll either cut off most of this year’s leader growth and head back the laterals a little, or score the upper part of the leader to slow it down and notch the buds to get more branches. I planted some different varieties the same way at the same time and they did not demonstrate the vertical growth habit.
Probably the existing lateral growth is nothing but fruit spurs. If you cut back the knobby growth on those laterals while dormant and then cut back the top of the tree a couple weeks after first growth in spring you should get some vegetative growth where you want it.
Thanks for ideas. Alan- is topping after growth starts more of a stimulus to laterals than say late dormant topping? One of Goldrush’s parents must have been a telephone pole. Smile.
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Actually I am surprised you are having difficulty with Goldrush and wonder if yours is true to label. They tend to a very spreading growth habit which usually requires very little direction to a productive, stout shape.
The gurus say that growth response is more evenly spread when heading cuts into one year wood are made after some growth while dormant pruning concentrates all the response to the buds immediately below the cut. Heading into two year wood is another way to deal with the problem.
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Barry
My goldrush are very tall also. In fact they are taller than any other variety that I grow and most of the trees have reached the the 10 foot wire on the trellis. Fortunately, I do not have a lot of blind wood on the gold rush trees, but I do on some other variety. I bud notched the leaders on some of the other trees like you suggested with some success. Maxcell sprayed after the bud notching will improve lateral production, but its expensive.
Thanks Alan, great tip.
That is strange news to me. Goldrush is as precocious as any variety I grow and not at all a vigorous upright grower here.
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My 2nd year Gold Rush on M 7 has several branches but the central lead reaches for the sky, straight up several feet. I have not done anything to this young tree but plan to top it off in early spring.
If I don’t forget, I will take a picture and post.
My Bud 9 Goldrush trees are very precocious and had to be thinned heavy. The tree caliber is small given the height of the trees. I started with a 4 foot spacing on the first batch I planted, but reduced the spacing on the next batch to 3 feet after I drank the Cornell Koolaid on high density spacing.
I started with very nice 5/8 inch feathered trees which helped a lot. My Virginia Winesaps and Grimes are two years older than my Goldrush trees, but are not as tall.
Should be interesting next year when I compare the yield of the younger Goldrush trees against other variety that are several years older, but not as tall.
Continuing on Goldrush, I love its taste, crunch, complexity, sweet/tart balance. What other apples come close or exceed GR in your opinion for fresh eating?
Very subjective but a lot of people seem to agree on Goldrush, the secret is getting out now. I think it’s stunningly good. Had some King Davids recently that I’d put just behind GR.
I think Alan’s advice to clip off fruiting wood from the slow growing branches makes sense. It definitely tried to flower last spring, its first spring in the ground. I pulled off the flowers. In Aug, the very end of one the the branches looked kind of “spurry” so I clipped the tip off to see how it would respond. That branch immediately grew 12 inches after hardly growing all summer. I hope it is in fact GR. Got it from Cummins. The bark is a little bit lighter color than my other ones (williams pride, liberty, priscilla, king david, ark black) - I have no idea if that is an indicator. That leader is long and flexible. My liberty is kind of vertical too but not as bad as GR.
I have 2 Goldrush trees (4 and 5 years old) and both put out a good amount of laterals. Over the last 2 years I had borer attacks in both of them, about head high on each. They are in different parts of the yard from each other and are the only apple trees (out of 40+) which got such attacks (William’s Pride got hit near the base). In removing the borers, I cut the tops off both of them. In response, the trees have just kept putting out apples, even though they are more shaped like large bushes. No vigorous waterspouts, just branches full of apples. One of the trees did get pretty tall at a young age (11’, after 2 years in the ground on G16 rootstock). A year before the borer strike, I bent the top branches down, keeping it around 10’ tall.
But, I’m not sure if the new shape has affected my brix levels. I’ve sampled a few so far and most were in the 13-15 range. The highest I’ve gotten this year was a 16-18. In past years, most were in the high teens to 20 or 21. But, even the 13-15 were pretty good apples. They have a nice acid (lemony?) taste that appeals to me. Given that Alan has low brix readings this year, it could be weather related.
Bob,
Apple Borers? Now, you make me nervous. I have not paid any attention to apple borers before. You are so close, too.
I didn’t pay any attention either. Luckily, they don’t seem too prevalent, as out of 40+ apple trees, they’ve only hit 4 (I remembered a 4th- a potted Pixie Crunch). Given how all my Goldrush got hit, I should probably keep a closer eye on them…
Here’s a GW thread with a pic of the damage and the perpetrator. Here’s a 2nd thread, with a better pic of damage on a larger tree (before I got to work cutting).
I believe this season has not promoted high brix levels in general and my Goldrush are not as intensely flavored as usual. I only began testing brix levels in mid-season this year so can’t offer a specific comparison.
I think the only way the change in the trees could affect the fruit is if the leaves near the fruit received less sun due to growth habit and shading caused by it- unless cambium damage limited access to sap ( I would expect that to raise brix levels while reducing size)…
Hambone, if you like intensely sweet/tart try Rubinette. They are not quite as crunchy as GoldRush but have a ton of flavor. Pitmaston Pineapple is another one, it is the most intense of the yellow-fleshed russets.
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Will do, thanks Scott. How is Rubinette with fire blight? Do you put Reine des Reinette in the same intense category?
Here is my Goldrush, in a pic from yesterday. In it’s 2nd leaf, grown from a tiny stick from Cummins. It is on G11/M111 interstem. It is pretty well behaved so far for espalier and growing well. Just next to it is a Sweet Sixteen which wants all the very thick and inflexible laterals to go straight up.
Next spring I plan on cutting back the laterals a bit on all but the bottom tier and heading the leader at the fifth tier level (canes not yet installed for that level). Does that seem reasonable? Any suggestions?
So far it has not shown any desire to flower.
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