I have space to graft one or tops two apple scions and was looking for recommendations for a good fresh eating apple. I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. I have heard good things about Wilson’s Pride, Cox’s Orange Pippin and Rubinette but don’t want to limit myself if someone can talk me into another variety. Here is what I currently have growing:
Honeycrisp
Liberty
Akane
Chehalis
Spartan
Golden Sentinel
Arkansas Black
Centennial
You might check out Haralson and Wealthy - two overlooked and I think underrated varieties that I think are excellent.
Note that Orange Pippin claims its keeping qualities to be two-three weeks, but unless the tree is misidentified the experience here is that they’ll keep months.
It would help us make more appropriate suggestions if you knew something about what you enjoy in a fresh-eating apple. In general, though, here are some options that many folks seem to like:
Rubinette (which you’d already listed)
Spigold
Hudson’s Golden Gem
Gravenstein
Stayman
Kidd’s Orange Red
King David
Esopus Spitzenburg
Grimes Golden
If you like strong or unusual flavors, you might consider these, too:
Wickson
Pink Pearl (or another of the many red-fleshed apples)
Sweet 16
Frostbite
Freyberg
Milo Gibson
Pitmaston Pineapple
Ananas Reinette
There are a lot of other worthy options, of course.
Thanks to all who replied so far. A lot of the varieties I have not heard of so more research commencing. My wife and I seem to enjoy crisp and a good amount of juice. Sweet is great and sweet tart is great so can’t decide about that. But I watched a video from skillcult talking about WIlson’s Pride not being the juiciest but very flavorful for a summer apple. I mentioned crisp and juicy which seems to be how Red Delicious is but do not like them very much but only have had store bought ones which typically does not compare to picked fresh in home orchard. Do not prefer softer apples.
You threw me when you said Red Delicious was crisp. I’ve grown Esopus and Kidd’s and both are really nice, Cox’s was very temperamental for me. Check out Nick Kasko who has a YouTube channel, he is in the Pacific North West so I would be guided by what works for other growers in your area. I think he likes Gold Rush and Rubinette.
Thanks Wdingus, I have heard of it and from the description this could be a great apple to grow. No doubt it’s nothing like the Red Delicious we find at the supermarket.
The problem of most at the supermarket is they are 6 months to a year old…been off the tree in storage.
I have a half dozen Red Delicious purchased about early October…(came from Michigan)…that are definitely hard and crisp.
I have a niece I offered one to on 10/22/23…she said she didn’t like ‘mushy’ apples. (Implying all RD are ‘mushy’).
I said you may like this one then.
She’s lucky to go 100 pounds, despite being out of college, and she crunched on that thing seemed like a half hour, like she’d break a tooth if she took a bigger bite. Solid red Starkrimson I think.
Definitely a ‘Grade A’ apple. It exceeded my home-raised ‘Fuji’ by a good margin in brix and in crunch.
Besides taste and texture, my criteria for a good apple to grow in a home garden include resistance to Apple Maggots. I’ve found that red apples, especially the earlier varieties, are very susceptible, while late ripening, green apples are the most resistant. My Akane apples are mostly inedible due to maggot infestation, and Jonagold and Jonafree are not much better. Newtown Pippin and Granny Smith seem to be hardly affected at all. I haven’t picked my Fujis yet, but they also seem pretty resistant, although they are ripening later than usual due to excessive fruiting. Yellow transparent is pretty useless for fresh eating, but it ripens before the maggots appear.
Perhaps maggot resistance is not as useful a property in the USA; but here in Canada there is no controlling spray available to home gardeners. So, there is not much we can do to prevent infestations.
There is no Surround (kaolin clay) sold in Canada?
Do they sell Tangle Foot, sticky substance, there? If so, you can hang red spheres smeared with Tangle Foot on apple trees to trap apple maggots. It helps.
Spokane Beauty since you are out in that area. Spitzenburg apple is a great eating apple.
Honeycrisp may do well out there but you may not get the size you see in the stores. Arkansas Black is very good apple but you have to store it inside for about a month to soften them up enough to eat- they are as hard as a rock when you first pick them and they get sort of greasy on storage.
Thanks,@mamuang. Surround is available in Canada; but it is not practical where I live because it usually rains frequently in the fall. Also, I use overhead watering every week during the dry summer months.
I use Tanglefoot on all of my fruit trees to keep ants off, but I’ve read reports about the sticky traps that don’t sound very encouraging. However, I do plan to give them a try.
That’s an interesting idea, @hambone, but salt is something that I’m trying to reduce in my diet, not increase. If I remember, I’ll give it a try next year.
Thanks for the comment and will check out Nick Kasko’s YouTube channel.