Thank you, Ozymandias, for posting the link. Certainly you are free to draw your own conclusions, but I find the heavy reliance upon breeding a half dozen varieties of apple which require equally high reliance upon petrochemicals in order to produce a crop a troubling trend.
That was one of two reasons I had decided years ago not to give GoldRush a try on this property. And, noted earlier in this thread, I have laid aside my bias in favor of heirlooms to give GoldRush a try. The assurances it may do well in our very bright and hot summers tipped the scales in favor of grafting it.
It now appears one of the GoldRush grafts succumbed to the heat wave over 90 degrees in the past two days. The other looks strong. Because of the encouragement found in this forum, I harbor hope it will prove a worthy addition to the home orchard.
We can easily accommodate the 180 day ripening time. Great tasting apple with good disease resistance is a hard combination to avoid. Last year my new grafts had a little CAR but this year no signs of it as of now. It also handled my 90-100 degree days well but I did provide water as needed. I have been wanting a super good apple that ripens late. For me in my location I wish it ripened a little beyond 180 days.
It is a CAR magnate, but 2 myclo sprays should control that if it is needed. You can even wait for first signs and it will arrest the development. It also attracts an unusual amount of sooty blotch and fly speck- to the point where it is even hard to rub off.
My point is that I am unconvinced that those half dozen varieties require appreciably more chemicals than usual. All of those apples became popular well before modern fungicides arrived and there is plenty of data on how they perform from a disease resistance standpoint. (which is to say they vary, but fall within the normal range)
While they are popular for use in breeding, I donāt see any evidence that modern apples that have descended from these varieties have suffered from any inbreeding.
I have a couple old varieties with good reputations for disease resistance, including Arkansas Black and Mammoth Black Twigā¦ but I also have newer varieties like Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush. You can see here a summary of different disease resistances of many popular varieties:
Matt:
Being a magnate of any style would make getting the property needed in order to try all the fruit I want to introduce to this area! You and me both, buddyā¦
Since last posting this, I moved one of the GoldRush whips to a friendās orchard and the other nearer the house. I go to the orchard once a week through summer to water the whips, of which GoldRush is but one of six.
Both GR whips are sending branches this year. The one growing at my house is - just measured - 9 1/2 feet tall. Two nicely spaced sets of scaffold branches already begun. That growing in the orchard may be in poorer soil. It is about 6 feet tall with at least one set of scaffold branches.
The one at home may put out debut bloom next year, in which case I might let it grow out two samples. Time will tell.
I am getting rid of Goldrush this year. It ripens properly only about every third year. I know that it is very popular apple on this forum but there are better apples than GR, my family is not impressed either so this is itās last year.
Agreeā¦Lived in south, zone 6 and south eastern zone 5b Ontario all my life and always had apple trees with fully intact fruit after a few frostsā¦trees beginning to flower/fruit much earlier than you would put out tender veggiesā¦and fall frost isnāt going to harm the apple , just the leavesā¦unless it is several degrees below freezing all nightā¦ even then , sometimes only after a repeat frost ultimately causes fruit to be damaged as to be un-storable.
having said thatā¦we never know if the (hard) frost is coming early October or mid Novemberā¦thatās quite a differenceā¦40,ā¦45 days extra growing time if the (hard frost) is late. Itās October 27 now and only the tomato (leaves) have been affected by frostā¦everything else green out there is fineā¦and no sign of freeze for another 2 weeks according to the forceast.
I try to wait until its going to be under freezing for several days in a row (without warming in the day) or a hard frost in the teens with a cold day before / after it to pick apples. It will usually make a one month or so difference and the apples get much better
Good to know about GoldRushās picking dates and cold. Spokane had 27Ā° very early: October 10 and we will be seeing overnight temps of 13 and 15 Monday & Tuesday nights. I cannot remember this happening in my lifetime.
If GR were bearing fruit this year, Iād strip the tree tomorrow.
Well, this is an old thread, but here is my experience. Last year, we had a relatively short season (late spring, early fall). I picked my Goldrush after a couple of frosts, end of october/early november. Still green. I left them on the counter a couple of WEEKS/MONTHSā¦ lol. Then, I put them in the fridge. Thatās how they look today, march 18.
I left Goldrush on my tree until January! They were extremely sweet and flavorful. One of them were still unripe and didnāt have the sugars even after all that time.
But I am very heartened to see @jessica4b post above. Maybe it will ripen nicely in storage.
Yes, thatās a serious drawback. Last year was a good year; so many apples! But I thinned a lot of them hoping it would allow the tree to fruit a little more this year. Weāll see! Fingers crossed!
