Picked the balance of my Niedzwitzkyana apples today, and half a dozen off Redfield that I persuaded to turn lose from the spurs. Probably 8 to 10 days early on the Redfield…although a couple had some smell to them.
Made sure I beat the bears and coons to them.
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Excellent dark red flesh on both through and through. Some dryness, some sourness, little bitterness. Redfield more problem free…and also a little juicier.
These are cross pollinated by each other this year.
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Interesting that Redfield might be self pollinating. But, I had one or more other red fleshed apples in bloom myself…so your ‘experiment’ seems unique, and indicates it is at least partially self fertile it seems.
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Harvested some Winekist yesterday. @SkillCult, I watched your most recent youtube video earlier this week (link for anyone interested) and got a hankering for some apples. Fortunately these ones just happened to be ripe. I actually pollinated one of these with Pink Parfait pollen I got from you this spring. The seeds could produce a pretty good combo from those two parents. Update coming in just a few years.
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Quite a few years probably lol. I Haven’t fruited winekist yet. Is it worth eating? or more of a gimmick like most RF apples still are.
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It’s not bad texture-wise. Definitely tart. Kind of thin in terms of flavor. But there’s enough sweetness and flavor to make it solidly okay. It’d rate it somewhere between eating raw cranberries and an actual dessert apple.
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I think I put this one on a standard rootstock…so ‘someday’.
Redfield not as red as expected…but sure pretty on the tree. Niedzwetzkyana sure made a good cobbler…and not bad fresh eating dead ripe. I’ve harvested all of both of those.
Odysso is hanging on…ripening date I haven’t determined yet.
A tree having no disease issues.
(I’ve also decided adding limbs to ‘frankentrees’ is a quicker method of getting to sample trial varieties instead of grafting …even quicker than on B-9 or something.)
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Ripe Calypso second year of very few apples, thanks to deer. This one was just ok tasting, sweet- tart, I had a previous one that was better, had that jolly rancher flavor( the only way I can describe it) almost like Odysso.
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If your ripened now, I should count 3 weeks from now for my Calypso. Unfortunately, mine is still quite small even after all the rain we have gotten.
Yeah, and my one remaining Odysso is not not not tennis ball sized.
Not sure it’s ripen date…but still hard and so smell.
Redfield disappointed.
Niedzwetzkyana impressed this year.
Yes, they are small, just slightly bigger than a crab apple. Odysso is bigger and more productive. Last year Calypso ripened around August 27, so the end of August is the proper ripening time for me.
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Isn’t Calypso supposed to be picked late September / early October?
That depends on your location. In my location 7b Maryland I had an unusually hot summer, I still believe that is earlier than Odysso, that one ripened by October 3 last year.
Got a decent harvest of Redfield this August. You’re right, not a lot of red, and rather mealy in taste. I prefer it’s ‘daddy’ myself.
Only problems I noticed: plum curculio…little guys in the apple even though they looked unblemished on the surface. A healthy tree of medium vigor. (The deer love to nibble on it.)
I’ll have several red fleshed that should bear first time next year for me.
Winekist and Otterson have not done much this year…so not expecting any blooms on those anytime soon.
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Cummins had a season’s-end sale on a Redfield, so I ended getting a replacement after all. I had looked at some pictures and remembered that in the dead Redfield’s early days it did have some nice red flesh, and, though not usable for fresh eating, it added some character to our fresh cider.
After I put it into the ground, I successfully grafted some scionwood from it, so we have two Redfield trees. The grafted one is in the front lawn, instead of the orchard, where it will do duty as an ornamental crab.
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It is a lovely tree. The fruit are mediocre. But, that’s part of the reason I collected a bunch of red fleshed apples…intend to try and breed some improved ones.
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Are the lumps on the skin ususal?
Not in my experience (on the Marin County coast).
Interestingly, those apples are a bit more squat in profile than the ones grown here, ours being more conical and noticeably lobed. Some years they ripen to a nearly transparent white through which the pink flesh shows; other years they ripen to an opaque yellow with a red blush.
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I didn’t spray them early in the season unfortunately. So I think that’s the result of insect damage and scab.
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