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.
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.
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.
@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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
@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.
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.
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.
There is an enormous difference between Northwest Iowa 4b, and Champaign, Illinois mid state 6a. But none of that means that Gold Rush won’t make it in the 4b.
Yes, I agree. I would like to grow a Gold Rush here but we get snow and freezing temps the first part of November certain years. So growing Gold Rush here in SW Ohio ( 5b) would be a big gamble without a decent return of effort.
They bear within 3 years in my nursery, sometimes the 2nd, where trees are not given the same care as individual trees in an orchard. I put a couple of grafts on a tree in my orchard 2 or 3 years ago that are loaded with fruit. Here it seems to bear on the early side as trees are on 111, certainly not later than average.
I would be surprised if Goldrush can ripen properly in a zone 4, here in S. New York it doesn’t reach peak quality pretty often in my orchard. It seems to generally make it in orchards with dawn to dusk sun though. The manner in which varieties ripen is somewhat mysterious and the further north one goes the longer the days throughout summer which affects different varieties in different ways, I think.
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