Frostbite Apple

General Fruit Growing
#12

Some say Frostbite has sugarcane or molasses flavors.

Frostbite is one of the grandparents of Honeycrisp.

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#13

Sugar cane is right on the money
Texture is good, firm nice crunch

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#14

Matt,
Just curious, how did your find out that Frostbite is a grandparent of Honey Crisp?

I’ve read that one of HC’s parents is Keepsake, the other is unknown.

#15

The University of Minnesotas website states, “Frostbite™ is a parent to Keepsake and Sweet 16 apples and a grandparent to Honeycrisp.”

Frostbite™ has been a key apple in the U of M’s breeding program since the 1920’s.

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#16

Thanks. Quite a pedigree it has.

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#17

Here are our other discussions on the recently unlocked secrets of Honeycrisp’s ancestry.

#18

Thanks. U of MN seems to be a lot of success oroducing good tasting apples.

#19

Here is the latest understanding of what scientists believe to be the true pedigree of Honeycrisp.

Frostbite is the maternal grandmother of Honeycrisp.

When listing the crosses, I list the mother trees first, the pollen-parent fathers last.

The only thing not known about this table is whether Duchess of Oldenburg and Golden Delcious are paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather, in that order, or whether they are paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother, in that order.

It is my theory that Duchess of Oldenburg was the paternal grandMOTHER (the mother pod-parent host plant, from which developed the actual apple within which the MN 1627 seed was formed). I imagine this the more likely scenario because Duchess of Oldenburg was known to be the rockstar of the University of Minnesota’s decades-old breeding program. This is because Duchess of Oldenburg is one of the most cold-hardy cultivars known in existence, and one of the only apples that could be relied upon to survive repeatedly cold Minnesota winters and grow into mature mother trees. This would make Golden Delicious the paternal grandFATHER (pollen contributor to the cross resulting in the MN 1627 seedling).

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#20

I have thought much the same, for the same reason you, Matt, propose concerning D/O, and because GD is popularly used for a pollen source throughout the industry.

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#21

I know I grafted a frostbite this year but I did not know that it set an apple!!!

One small red apple on a small stick!!.

Does anyone know when it ripens in zone 6a?

@HighandDry, when do your Frostbite ripen, pleae? You are half a zone warmer than me.

Thanks, all.

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#22

Early Oct. I would pick it now.

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#23

Thanks, Matt.

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#24

Here’s what Univ of Minnesota says

Ripening Season: Late September to mid-October. Usually 1 to 3 weeks after Honeycrisp.

#25

I just finished picking my last HC on Oct 9 :slight_smile:

#26

I’ve been eating mine for about a month, though almost all have been fallen apples, most of which were wormy or otherwise flawed. After the crud was cut away, they all tasted great.

I have picked a few nice specimens across the past three weeks to see how they taste and all have been really good. They do seem a bit less sweet than last season’s crop – I need to buy a refractometer to measure brix to verify these impressions. I could have picked them all a couple of weeks ago and been happy, but I’m leaving most (about 20 more apples – still a small tree) on to see how they continue to develop.

I think you can harvest your apple today and be happy. This might be your best strategy until your tree produces enough fruit for you to experiment with.

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#27

Do you think mine is Frostbite. It set this one small fruit on the first year graft. I grafted many wood this past spring and could get varieties mixed up.

Here is my small “Frostbite”

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#28

I think after reading the description on U of MN on Frostbite, I get the correct one. What I have fits the description.

When I said small, it is small, not much bigger than a grade A large egg from a supermarket.

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We ate it. It was tangy, sweet with some juice ( not as juicy as HC, but most apples aren’t, anyway). Brix at 14. We did not taste any molass or sugar cane but we like it. It’s a keeper.

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#29

It looks just like all the other photos of frostbite online.

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#30

Thank you for your response. I grafted Frostbite on my Honey Crisp. Their sizes are like David and Goliath :slight_smile:

@Matt_in_Maryland, i am very confident that mine is Frostbite.

#31

@mamuang, That looks pretty close, though mine are more flattened than yours. Maybe I’ll take a similar picture later today and post it for comparison.

I’ve been meaning to ask you a question for a couple of months, but never seem to get around to it, so now must be the perfect time for this infrequent poster. Where do you get the sleeves of perforated plastic that you protect your plums with? I’d love to use that on some of my trees that have spotty fruit rather than net an entire tree.