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.
Early Oct. I would pick it now.
Thanks, Matt.
Here’s what Univ of Minnesota says
Ripening Season: Late September to mid-October. Usually 1 to 3 weeks after Honeycrisp.
I just finished picking my last HC on Oct 9 
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.
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”
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.
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.
It looks just like all the other photos of frostbite online.
Thank you for your response. I grafted Frostbite on my Honey Crisp. Their sizes are like David and Goliath
@Matt_in_Maryland, i am very confident that mine is Frostbite.
@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.
Ate some at Great Maine Apple Day, great crisp texture, unique sugarcane flavor.
Mamuang, that looks a lot like mine (photo above) and flavor sounds similar . I wonder if the reason yours and mine didn’t have the strong sugarcane taste is because they are young first apples.
could have sworn I had some frostbite apples at some point this year and posted up about it in the apple tasting thread, but couldn’t find my post…anyway, I remember really enjoying the apple.
Sue,
I agree. This was my first apple from a young graft. It hopes it will fruit again next year and develop more flavor.
I’d love to try sugar cane taste (grew it and grew up with sugar cane). I won’t miss that taste if I could detect it.
Have you grown Hoople’s Antique Gold? Mine had sweetness that tasted like honey that lingered on in my mouth. Very pleasant sweetness but the fruit was on a drier side (had difficulty squeezing out juice for brix measurement).
I’ve heard growers in southern zones call it ‘Frostbitten’ and say it lacks quality compared to further north (z5 and below).
@mamuang Here you go. Seems mine aren’t really any more flattened than your specimen. One shined up for the photo and the other two left with their natural bloom.
As mentioned in a previous post, these have been harvesting themselves for about six weeks now, starting with the wormy ones and, more recently, those that cracked at the stem end, a fairly common defect in this variety. They tasted good from the get go and continue to sweeten.
Those with no skin issues remain in excellent shape, so the unblemished specimens really do hang on the tree for a long time with little or no loss of integrity. In fact, they improve. I harvested the final 15 or so on my tree yesterday after finding bear scat in my yard (cub climbed my deer fence). I’d have left them on as late as the weather allowed just to test their durability if not for the bear. Can’t risk my apples.
Jesse,
@HighandDry is half a zone warmer than me. He likes his Frostbite. I’d like to think that my zone should produce good Frostbite, too.
Have you grown Hoople’s Antique Gold?
Not yet! But I’ve been following the HAG thread and trying to decide if it will ripen in our shorter season. It sounds like an apple I’d like. Maybe I’ll graft on a branch of my maybe-possibly-Golden Delicious (from an old local tree) since it ripens late as well (the original anyway - mine hasn’t fruited yet).
I’ve never tasted sugar cane. Now I’m hoping my Frostbite does develop that flavor.
I only had it grafted on to my Gold Rush, a small graft from last year. I let HAG fruited two apples this year. It is good, honeyed sweet but on a dry side. It ripened for me the first two week of Oct.
You being in zone 3, I think HAG may be too late for you.
But then, you can grow Frostbite. I don’t know when you picked your Frostbite. My Frostbite ripened this past weekend.
