Trying to decide between these two for my apple order can anyone recommend one over the other for taste or disease resistance? I really enjoyed my first tree picked golden delicious, however a local orchard owner mentioned that almost all of their trees have been removed due to fire blight. Still might add a golden delicious but thinking I would like to try another yellow apple as a back up. I’m assuming grimes golden is going to be as close to that spicy sweet flavor as any but it’s probably just as susceptible to fire blight? Would just add both but my checkout cart is getting a little out of control. I’m in Northwest IA zone 4b.
Grimes Golden is a superior pollinator, but they do take a while to bear. Tom Buford valued it greatly for taste and versatility. Funny you should mention Golden D as being a fireblight prone apple - could be you should mix something like Cuprofix with your dormant oil and really push Harbour before and after blossoming. Also, consider using some of the Geneva Rootstock that are more resistant.
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Grimes Golden is susceptible to fireblight. It has higher resistance to other diseases than Golden Delicious. See this chart for disease resistance.
I have Grimes Golden and it seems to do well as far leaf diseases. The leaves look fairly clean. It hasn’t fruited for me yet. The flavor is reputed to be better than Golden Delicious but it has more of a tendency to go into Biennal bearing.
Tolman Sweet is a rarer apple and I haven’t seen much information about it’s disease resistance. But it is listed as susceptible to fireblight on the link below.
https://pomiferous.com/applebyname/tolman-sweet-id-6388
If you want a fireblight resistant apple you probably want to look at the chart above and see if you can find something. Normally, I would suggest Goldrush since it is resistant to fireblight but it is a late ripening apple.
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We have experience with Grimes and Goldens but none with Tolman Sweet and we live in an area where FB can be extreme. It’s pretty normal for the Cornel FB model to predict half dozen or more Infections based on the weather data from my local airport. A heavy application of copper early and regular applications of strep (as many as 5) based on the Cornel predictive model help, but we always have some FB.
Although it’s not discussed much we have learned that the key to reducing the number of trees killed by FB is to remove all of the blooms on new trees for several years. The blooms that develop directly on the central leader of a new tree provide a direct path to killing the tree. Its necessary to cut the leader to remove these strikes and the trees rarely return to normal. After a few years it’s easier for the trees to tolerate the infections and removing the FB strikes does not require cutting the leader.
Lime Sulfur will burn the blooms off and Sevin sprayed just before bloom will cause many of the blooms to drop, Need to get the Sevin applied pre-bloom because it’s a bee killer!
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I only have 8 apple trees that have been in the ground for 3 years, no issue with FB yet but since an orchard hr away deals with it I’m assuming I might eventually see it as well. Do you start spraying trees for it every year as a preventative or do you wait until it shows up in your orchard on a tree, remove affected branches that year and begin spraying for it every year after? Maybe I will never have an issue with it?
The commercial orchard I worked at more years ago than I want to remember had Tolman Sweet. I did not notice any issue with fireblight on them the 2 years I worked there…
People LOVED them! We had people calling weeks before they were ready as they wanted to be sure they got them before we sold out as we only had one row of them in the orchard. Some drove 60 miles to get them.
My view on Tolman Sweet? It is an ok apple but did not make me want to drive 60 miles to get it. Just me however as a second orchard I know of had them too and when I went to an apple tasting festival there they ran out of Tolman Sweet mighty fast and those in line sampling them were claiming them to be a fantastic eating apple.
Golden Delicious grows well in my area. Just planted one on Bud 9 this past spring at my new home orchard site.
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My experience with Tolman Sweet is that many people love them (me). However, just as many people do not enjoy them at all. Outside of Frostbite, Tolman Sweet is the most unique flavored apple I’ve eaten.
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The local site can make a big difference. You may not see fireblight or it may end up being a common problem. I don’t spray for fireblight but I don’t think my disease pressure is as high as Blueberrythrill has. The original 4 apple trees have been in the ground 5 years and I have never seen fireblight. The original trees all have some resistance to fireblight. The later trees are variable some have resistance some don’t. I have about fourteen trees now.
My local orchard which is about an hour away has had fireblight on Northern Spy which is highly susceptible to fireblight. They also use M26 as the main rootstock which is also susceptible to fireblight. But the orchard seems to do okay in spite of these issues.
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@smsmith They might be for me then, I like a wide range of variety and will hopefully be one of those who really like it. Would you compare it to golden delicious, spicy sweet? Tasting a fresh one the other day is the first time I’ve realized what people were referring to by spice in apple flavor. Honestly only tasted one apple I really didn’t care for in my life. Pink lady. Way too dense. Also, it was store bought.
@mroot that’s kind of what I was thinking, hold off and see if it becomes an issue and for now and just add apple varieties that sound good. Maybe I won’t have a problem. I will also remove blossoms until the tree is well established. Would prefer not to be out spraying something every week for my orchard of soon to be 20ish trees, and just sticking with dormant oil and immunox for now because of all the cedar trees. I wonder if FB wouldn’t tend to be a bigger issue for large pick your own orchards where there are thousands of possible host trees, then again they probably have an intensive spray schedule and probably unlikely to miss important spray times.
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I can’t really come up with another variety to compare with the taste of Tolman Sweet. Those who don’t care for them have told me they’re too sweet and don’t have a balanced flavor…and they’re right. They’re very, very sweet and about zero sharp/sour/tart. I like sweet, so maybe that’s why I like T.S.
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What texture do the Tolman Sweet have? My family hates mushy mealy apples. Or ones that get mushy pretty quickly. I had been interested in getting a Tolman Sweet apple but have not know anyone that actually grows them. TY
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Fresh Tolmans have a nice, breaking flesh but they certainly aren’t crisp like a Honeycrisp. They aren’t keepers in my experience. They won’t turn to mush quickly, but they also don’t keep their fresh texture all that long (maybe 2 weeks?)
I’d strongly encourage anyone considering planting a Tolman Sweet to eat a few of them first. Then make your decision
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TY for your answer. I wish there was someone in a local orchard that would have the Tolman Sweet apples to try out. All the local orchards all have pretty much the same apples to sell.
I think the Tolman Sweet is one of those apples you either love or hate.
Like a Sweet 16 apple. I have heard the same thing with those. You either love them or hate them.
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If you ever wanted to graft a branch of T.S. to an existing tree to see if you and the family like them, just let me know. I’d be happy to send you a scion or two come Feb/March.
edit…Sweet 16 gets that unique taste from one of it’s parents, Frostbite. Frostbite can be pretty overwhelming in the taste department, at least when grown in the north.
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Me too - I’d suggest Goldrush. Mine is on M-7 and had very nice apples in its 3rd summer.
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@PomGranny I don’t think I’ve seen a more recommended apple than gold rush on this forum. I think I’m a bit too far north for it to ripen otherwise I would order several trees based off all the positive things I’ve read.
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You are farther North but it may work at your site. You’re in Iowa rather than on the East coast. The summers are hotter than on the East coast and the length of the growing season is more important than how cold it gets in the winter any way.
Goldrush was tested in central Illinois at Champaign/Urbana which is zone 5b or 6a.
I would look at this thread talking about the length of season needed for Goldrush. I think several of the posters were growing Goldrush in Iowa.
I grafted Tolman Sweet onto G-30 in 2016 or 2017…and it’s basically a 6 foot whip that so far has not bloomed or fruited. But, I look forward to trying it whenever it does fruit.
I had Grimes Golden years ago, and have a young tree that has not yet bloomed.
In time, I’ll have side-by-side evaluation to report on. But not now.
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GoldRush offered its first samples last year at my site: fabulous, both at harvest & six months later. Ripe mid-October, no less.
I love living in eastern WA now.