The person most likely to find an early ripening sport is the grower with hundred tree rows or more. It took a long time for Pink Lady to become available with an early ripening sport but now there seem to be a couple, one available from ACN (Barnsby strain). They also sell an excellent sport of Fuji that ripens a full month earlier but maintains the firmness and sweetness of the original. I like it better than Fuji because it seems to bear annually with no special effort besides early thinning.
I enjoy a wide range of apples from the sweetest to the most tart. However, early Pink and Rush will be my staples by mid-winter for fresh eating. Pink seems to require calcium sprays on my property to avoid a lot of corking. Same deal with Red Jonaprince, my fav Jonagold sport.
I enjoy my Rising Sun Fuji apple. Ripens earlier than the standard Fuji and tastes really good. Works well in my orchard as far as ripening sequence with the rest of my trees. I tried to get some ripening along different months so I am not picking them all around the same time.
I would like to find a sport of the Goldrush that would ripen earlier, probably a month or so would work great for me at my location. I picked the last bunch of apples off two apple trees right after the first week of November. That was pushing it a bit. I had hoped to get another week on the trees before taking them off. just to give them a little more time outside. They were ripe and still taste really good.
There is a point where the tree doesn’t help the apples to ripen in most Nov.s. I go by how the leaves look as well as 10 day weather forecasts. I think it needs to be above 50F for the leaves to provide the apples any help. Once the soil gets too cool, the leaves may not matter.
