Hooples Antique Gold

Are you sure you have Hoople’s. Mine have turned russeted after about 6-8 weeks of fruit setting. I took this pic today to show you. I took a bag out so you can see clearly. The others in bags also turned russeted. Mine ripen in Oct so it is a long way to go.

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I may not have hooples. Zero russet. Heres the unique looking buds. Maybe it does not show in the photo but they are distinctly round. I have a couple dozen varieties grafted and none look like this. Just wondering if anyone elses hooples has that feature. I wonder if its possible they russet less here in AL. Although my gold rush is plenty russeted.

BHC had most of the scions I wanted, but Hooples wasn’t on their list. Anyone know how I could get a scion? And back to the CAR, I don’t grow anything sensitive to CAR because too many cedars around us. There was a nice GD tree in town that I used to pick up apples from (converted to college student housing, they didn’t care). I grafted a potted rootstock and planned to plant it at our then newly bought property. Then I stopped by the tree one day and saw that it had a section of each branch with all the leaves covered in CAR. I looked all around and didn’t see a single cedar tree. I assumed there was a small one had come up somewhere, and that during a rainy spell in that rather sunny spring the new growth of those weeks had been infected. So I gave my tree away to someone in town.
And back when you could find the old russeted GD’s, I always sought them out in the bin, as they were the best flavored. So I know if I can grow Hooples, I will like it. I find it odd that a GD sport has only one person complaining about CAR, which implies that with the russeting there is some other change in the plant.

Grimes Golden is suspectible to cedar rust in my orchard.
I have ordered Hooples Antique Gold and Galarina to try out.

Do the ziplock bags work well in protecting the fruit? If so, great idea. Other cloth fruit bags are available but would be more expensive.

It depends on what you want to protect against.

People have discussed various kinds of bags and bagging methods in several threads including this one.

I generally have trees on hand, and scionwood into July.

I’ve had HAG in the ground for 3 years now, and it’s been decimated by CAR every year, to the point of partial defoliation. It puts out a second flush of leaves every summer, so I’m going to leave it in the ground to see what happens. I have probably 100 cedar trees within 200 yards of it.

Skipley Farm still has scion of Hooples 3/25/22. But after reading this maybe I’ll graft up all that wood!

My HAG toughed out the CAR much better this year than in the prior two. Maybe it’s getting stronger in its age or maybe it’s just a low pressure year.

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In my yard, HAG is about the same as Gold Rush re. CAR susceptibility. Since I grafted it on a Gold Rush tree, they get sprayed together with myclobutanil, 2 spray 2 weeks apart.

Yours may need one more spray.

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I don’t spray anything. It’s survival of the fittest on my property! lol

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Hope you never have to deal with Marrsonina leaf blotch on apples. That is a nightmare. I did not have it until 3-4 years ago. By early fall, no leaves on my apple trees.

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No, so far that seems to be an east coast problem only. I only grow disease resistant varieties, and I put this HAG in being told it has moderate resistance to CAR. I’ll give it time to prove itself, but it’s not looking great so far.

I don’t mind cosmetic blemishes, especially on the leaves. Most of my apples are grown for cider, sauce, and butter, so I’m really not even concerned about cosmetic issues on the fruit either. If HAG just has ugly leaves but produces decent fruit, I’ll call that a success.

I never had CAR make a significant dent in my apple harvest, even when trees looked ugly as sin. I spray for it now though.

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That’s great to hear. I’d love to put in Goldrush, but its susceptibility to CAR is what’s kept me from putting it in. If the CAR won’t kill the tree nor ruin all the fruit, I might give it a whirl.

One reason why it doesn’t do so much harm is it only affects the leaves out when the spores spread in spring. Later leaves are not infected and so will help the tree keep its vigor.

Note that the amount of damage you get is related to how many cedars you have nearby and winds etc so it could be the infection could be so bad as to do in the fruiting. That said I had trees literally 5’ from huge infected cedars and I still got a good crop from them.

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Was it all the trees that suffered badly from the leaf blotch? For me it was definitely some more than others. Goldrush and Ashmead’s were affected the worst.

It started with multi grafted Honey Crisp. It has about 12-15 varieties on it. Most, if not all lost leaves.

Then, a year later, my multi grafted Gold Rush contracted it (next to Honey Crisp). This one has about 6-7 varieties on it. Most leaves were gone.

I cannot remember what varieties were more resistant, if any. The trees pretty much lost their leaves long before the end of a growing season.

My other apple trees are on the other side of the yard. They have not been affected yet. I plan to spray fungicide recommended for leaf blotch this summer.

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Will you spray for the leaf Blotch?