I bought some of Greenmantles’ bench grafted last year. Any of your experiences with Rubiyat, Muscat de Venus, and Christmas Pink? Rubiyat and Venus seem to like Iowa. Christmas Pink, not so much. All are on b118. Thanks
I bought Rubiyat and Blush Rosette two years ago. The Rubiyat died early on, I think a bird landed on it and broke the graft. The Blush Rosette is doing great and I may get an apple or two this year.
How did they turn out?
Deer got to and almost killed it, It did regrow some and I put fencing around it. It may take a year or two for it to rebound.
My rubiyats have grown to about 10’ tall on b118. They have fruit spurs and should bear this year. The Venus is about 6’ tall and should bear this year also. The Christmas pink couldn’t stand the powdery mildew and in 2 yrs grew about 6". I used the rootstock as a start of a stool bed. The wickson crab had one apple this year.
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Chikn,
I ordered wickson scions this year. Are they all they are supposed to be? I heard the flavor was incredible!
Steve,
Deer can sure work a tree over quick. Glad you got that taken care of.
I had one apple this year, 2nd leaf tree. It was intensely sweet and intensely sour. Difficult to describe. I’m very excited for next year!
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The problem I had with Wickson was figuring out what to do with them. They are really hard-fleshed and sour so you don’t want to eat too many or you will get a stomach ache. They also stay very firm when cooked so not really a cooker. They are a great cider apple, but not sure what else they are good for besides that once-a-year “wow” when you bit into one. I just removed my last Wickson tree this winter; I still would have kept it if not for the cracking problems.
I got several of the Etter varieties years ago but none of them took off. The rootstocks had almost no roots, they were the kind I would throw out rather than bench graft to.
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Wicksons are loaded this year, Rubiyat and Venus bloomed but didn’t set.
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Venus apple? Speak of which are you familiar with an apple called Jupiter? Is there another series like the etters I’m missing?
I have a step over Wickson that will give me a taste this year, a young Christmas Pink not yet producing and an Etter’s
Gold that will give me year 2 of apples. Thus reserving judgment as of yet here
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Muscat de Venus, one of what they call sweet meat crabs. Can’t say I’ve heard of Jupiter. I haven’t any knowledge on any other Etter varieties yet.
Rubiyat, Wickson, and Venus are all very vigorous for me esp. on b118.
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My 2nd year rubiyats on Bud9 each set 4 fruit. Can’t wait until they ripen!
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Looks like I may get samples of a number of these this year:
- Muscat de Venus
- Rubaiyat
- Thornberry
- Pink Pearmain
- Pink Parfait
- Blush Rosette
- Christmas Pink
- Atalanta’s Gold
- Crimson Gold
in addition to the more common Wickson and Pink Pearl. I have Vixen, Amberoso, and Katharine growing as well, but I don’t think that they’re going to bloom this year. These are all individual trees, but I have healthy scions of Etter’s Gold and Alaska grafted onto a big Golden Delicious this year thanks to @derekamills. The Etter’s Gold wants to bloom immediately, so I may well get a sample of that next season.
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Please give us a write up on these when sampling. I hear Pink Parfait might be the tastiest red/pink fleshes.
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Will do.
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My Rubiayat looked real promising a week ago and now it has no flowers. 4th leaf tree.
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A couple of comments on Etter’s Gold.
I grafted it in 2016 and unbelievably it grew vigorously as a branch on an M7 tree and fruited in 2017. I had 8 rather large apples, okay very large. They were beautiful apples too, grown organically, in ziplock bags. All the bags burst with the fruit size (but then again that happens with most of my medium sized fruit (such as Liberty) as I heavily, heavily thin). The taste was unique, never tasted an apple like that, but it was not really in a good way. The best way I could describe it is as a rather banal combination of fish paste mixed with a rather unpleasant musky mildew type flavor with apple flavor. The flesh was bright white and firm rather than crisp. I was warned by Tom Burford to give an apple 4-5 fruiting seasons before making up your mind about it, so it will persist for a while. I was very impressed by the appearance of the fruit, the fruit size, and the yield but as I said the flavor was very off and odd.
The tree itself is susceptible to CAR.
The fluffy one
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Hi @TheFluffyBunny nice to see you around. Hope all is well. Wickson is growing like a weed here. I like Etter type trees. Any chance the soil or something else could be influencing the Etter Golds flavor?
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