Ohlson Apple is a whopper too.
Was reading a blog where a guy thought he found a lost Quaker Apple. And his kid’s called it a"Butt Apple" because on one side it seriously resembled a rump. And a day or two later I was looking at a site on UK apples and there it was. A very large apple. That butt shape was a trait apparently.
Maybe they should have named it Plumber’s pants Apple.
Wow, and I thought my 18oz Jonagolds were impressive. I’ve never even seen any apples before as large as ones I grew this year on my own trees. Fortune and Jonagold were equally huge. It wasn’t what I wanted but excess rain made it happen. I bet those big Hokutos are excessively watered.
well the 4 pounder was anyway, for sure. vegetal equivalent of foie gras
The record setting Hokuto indeed looked like a lab created monstrosity. I want to see the pictures of past world record holders. Like the 4lb. Howgate.
I love Mutsu apples in the grocery stores when I can find them. You can at times find some huge Mutsu. I use them to make apple dumplings. I read it gets blister spot so bad. I do not want to have one in my orchard to try and battle that mess and have that spread to my other apples. Thanks but no thanks.
I have not seen Mutsu apples in my one local grocery store in a few years. They buy apples from a local grower about two hours away. They must have had some disease issues as well with their Mutsu apples.
The Mutsu are triploid. Most of the big apples are I expect.
Biggest apple I’ve observed 30 years ago or thereabouts was a “wolf river” about the size of a nice roll of toilet tissue or size of a paper saucer. It took a first place ribbon…displayed at Kentucky State Fair. (It’s not triploid).
(I took home ribbons myself, but not with apples.)
I used to grow Mutsu and considered it a fine culinary apple, even an excellent eating apple, However, that was early in my exploration of a wide range of more unusual apple varieties. I suppose my palate became a bit jaded to apples without anything unusual in their flavor and texture profile, but the real reason I stopped growing it in my nursery is because it is fiercely biennial and a very difficult variety to train, at least on the kinds of vigorous rootsocks I prefer here. Now I much prefer old strain Yellow Delicious because it tends to bear every year and is very easy to manage.
The reason you don’t see Mutsu around much is because it just isn’t very grower friendly, I bet.
A great topic of it’s own. Heard of some tactics to address it. Don’t know if they work.
I have to agree with you about the Mutsu probably not being very grower friendly. You experienced that first hand so you know that very well. Just by what I have been reading about the disease issues and it being biennial. I have only used Mutsu in baked apple dumplings. Taste wise ( fresh eating) it is okay there are other better eating apples I would rather have in my orchard.
Mutsu apples were just stopped being carried by the grocery store. I have not even seen the Mutsu’s in any of the other bigger national grocery store chain stores. Not sure why that is but I would bet it is because of the exact reasons you mentioned. Commercial growers can’t have apples producing every other year. That doesn’t make them any $$$$.
What fruit do you like dried?
I’ve written about biennial bearing extensively here as have others- the problem is searching it up.
Figs, nectarine, apricot, lots of things. The key is that to get good dried fruit one must have good fresh fruit. Drying doesn’t usually make fruit sweeter or better.
Heh, they still sulphur fruit here.
I see it as a real boon since it lessens disease and pest pressure markedly, which is arguably its evolutionary “function”. Im sure Id have a different take if I were in the fruit business
Yes. You would think it is a great survival method by the tree. But Commercial folks, they want that dollar. In planning my first little orchard, there are a few chosen that tend to biennial. And even more “shy bearers”.
Probably the same for Burr Knots and Suckering stock.
In general, I’ve found that softer fruit than I would choose for fresh make the best dried fruit.
My neighbor had a block of Mutsu/Crispin that was planted in the early sixty’s I think. He told me that they changed the name to Crispin for marketing reasons. They were not a good eating apple in my opinion. I always thought of them as a cooking apple. They got pushed out eventually and replaced with Honeycrisp. I ended up owning part of that orchard when my neighbor got out of farming. They taste a lot better than any Crispin. 
Mutsu was very problematic in my orchard. CAR, scab. No apples.
Yes, I’ve found the same. Overripe Winter Banana has turned out to produce some of the best dried apples in my orchard. Water-cored Karmijn de Sonneville is also excellent.
