Experience with Red Fleshed Apples

Varmints ate my Odysso last year…and no blooms this year. Redlove Cierce is too sour for fresh eating according to my taste buds…but if stored, I don’t know.

I have hopes for Odysso that it will be OK to pick and eat, but still waiting to verify.

If Odysso fails to impress…then I’ll just have to breed my own good-tasting red fleshed apples!!!
Which I am intending to do.

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Some beautiful blooms @Luisport

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I got budwood for all the red love varieties. Will start grafting this weekend.

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Thank’s! They are really beautifull! :blush:

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Thanks for the warning, NuttingBumpus! I will indeed have to thin the fruits on the Redfield, if the cold tonight doesn’t do it for me. Of the 200+ blooms, 50+ must have been fertilized.

And I got a surprise, even though my earliest bloomer did not set fruit (no available pollinator, not even the Redfield), I had taken a limb and grafted it to my Frankentree. Guess what, I have three little fruitlets on the graft made first week of March! I’ll probably let one grow.

That would be Veralma Simontornya….pictured here:
varalma

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Our Redfield was girdled a few years ago. I tried grafting from its budwood before it died, but failed. Didn’t replace it. Our tree never consistently produced very red flesh, and without that distinction, it didn’t seem to be that worthy or the best redfleshed option. We now have Redflesh (aka Hansen’s Red Flesh Crab), which, added to a mix of varieties, makes for a more colorful cider, and Winekist, which is a few years away from blossoming.

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I will look forward to my first Redfield eating experience this year…the tree in bloom makes it worth growing just to look at though! Plus cider/jelly options. Probably be too puckery to like, but looking forward anyhow.

Here is a picture I found a couple years ago of Redfield cut open. (Unable to load)

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I will give Redfield that. A lovely show at blossoming time.

I think that my new little Red Devil tree took the award for blossom showiness away from Mott’s Pink this year:

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Redlove Odysso

Red Devil

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Still haven’t seen Red Devil bloom.

But Redfield, Odysso, Niedzwetzkyana and Veralma Simontornya are about the same in bloom. I think Bakran and Odysso take the prize so far for blossom color. Odysso appears nearly black in bud…before it opens.

But, a quick glance at the new growth on top of my young potted trees and you’d be hard pressed
to tell the difference in Red Devil, Almata, Geneva Crab, Niedzwetzkyana, Redfield, Odysso, Bienrode, RoterMond, B9 or B118. Bill’s Red Flesh, winter Red Flesh, Winekist, and Hampshire Red are obviously not as red. And Giant Russian has leaves that are big enough to distinguish it right away. I moved Otterson to the ‘farm’. Pink Parfait, Nursha, Pekka are among red fleshed apples with green leaves instead of red.

LOL you can see Red Devil bloom on pic above… :smile:

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OK…I’m a little slow today I reckon!

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I do hope yours produces redder fruit. Best of luck. Ours was definitely not as red as any pictures of Redfield I have seen. Must have been a dud.

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@zestfest

Hi, is this apple available in the US?

Mike

Hi – I don’t know. It’s available in Canada from Appleluscious.

Luisport, those are very nice pictures. The Red Devil does indeed look to have darker leaves. My young trees are in partial shade, so that may be why I can’t readily notice a difference in shade of the foliage. (But, I believe it’s almost regular green in color in mid-summer?)

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Thank’s! I don’t know… i will tell you later.

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Happened to look out across the orchard this morning…“What’s that dead, brown tree out there?!”
It was Giant Russian crab…not dead, just starkly different leaf color from the other apples & pears.

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I though I might have lost the Giant Russian. Put it on G890 and G202 last spring. The 202 failed after initially putting out a leaf or two. The G890 seemed in doubt.

But, this year, the leader and two side buds have over 6 inches new growth…so we should be good to go. And next year I’ll have extra scion wood to put on a ‘frankentree’ or something.

I didn’t buy or trade for any extra red fleshed this spring…unless a KAZ 96 3-15 is red fleshed. But have grafted 99 apple grafts this spring, and somewhere between 78 and 96 will be successful…3 have died, 78 have made it, others are pending.

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