I’ve got to ask to try and narrow down my apple choices for next year. I have about a dozen Antonovka rootstocks I’ll be grafting over next year. I’m looking for a very good tasting apple but not necessarily a canning variety.
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Like many on the forum, I am on the Goldrush as top dog bandwagon. Tastes great, good resistance to fireblight, productive, stores great, about everything you could want in an apple, has even become my wife’s favorite apple. 
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I’m growing goldrush now so that sounds promising Chris! Thank you!
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It would be Goldrush here as well. In fact I’m grafting my most vigorous tree, a Pixie Crunch possibly on seedling, over to GR next yr. The GR trees I have now don’t have enough vigor to make a real tree out of that variety. It’s precocious and productive but lacks vigor. On MM106 the GR is about 4-5ft tall. On M111 about 6ft tall. I’m hoping this other tree will make at least 9ft.
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My pick would be Northern spy. Goldrush is a great apple but it ripens so late here. Some years the fruit is hurt by frost before fully mature. N. Spy is such a good all around apple for fresh eating, drying, sauce, storage, and cider.
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Pink Lady. After I get a better crop I might go with GR.
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I just bought my second GR tree from Edible Landscaping grafted on G935 which I hope is vigorous enough for GR.
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Mindful of its reputation for being disease prone in other locales, in mine, I would grow Esopus Spitzenburg.
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being always the utilitarian, I would grow a storage apple. Right now there are pears, asian pears, and even some late grapes. Come January there will be only apples. So it would be Gold Rush, even though my local favorite is Northern Spy.
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Vohd,
That’s an interesting choice that’s a Monticello variety https://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/in-bloom/esopus-spitzenburg-apple. That really sounds like a good one.
Bill,
Does pink lady do ok when it comes to Fireblight?
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Goldrush does appear to be the only apple I’ve seen that has an exceptional rating on the orangepippin website https://www.orangepippin.com/apples/goldrush.
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Chestnut,
Believe it or not Northern Spy is so good it has an identical exceptional rating with that of goldrush on the orangepippin website! It must truly be one of the best apples there is https://www.orangepippin.com/apples/northern-spy.
Fruitnut,
I did not realize it would be a small tree on mm111. Thank you for telling me that!
Hambone,
Buying GR on g935 sounds like a great idea!
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Everything that I have read indicates that PL is susceptible to FB. I grafted in this variety simply because I really like how it taste. If my mostly organic means of keeping FB under control does not work out I will remove it. A nearby orchard has PL as one of their varieties and according to the owner it had bad water core this year and was not sell-able. I grafted in several PL scions this year and two had flowers that I let mature. These two were a little small but was excellent tasting. Gold Rush might be a suitable alternative if PL doesn’t work out for me. Other than CAR GR appears to do well at my house.
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Good to see all the good rating on GR. I grafted over two young trees to this variety this year. Although I’m new to growing GR I’m confident it will be a great apple for me. The vast majority of forum members have had good things to say about GR and that certainly makes me feel good about grafting it into my orchard.
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I thought this forum was the fruit bible, not orangepippin:wink:. What is their criterion- how are the apples being rated and where are the ratings coming from as far as location of voters?
Glib sums up my appreciation of Goldrush- as far as flavor off the tree, there is no apple that soars above the rest for me. Someone mentioned Spitz, which was my favorite off the tree last year. Pink Lady was better than Goldrush off the tree to me as well. But come about January until spring, there is one consistent winner out of storage for me- miles ahead of the competition. That is Goldrush.
N. Spy is a good apple, but I’ve never craved it and made a point of storing a lot of them- they just aren’t hard enough with high enough brix. It is all in the mouth of the beholder, but so far it looks like Goldrush is winning at growingfruit.org.
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Alan,
Sounds like GR is the way to go since it has keeping qualities with good taste. Orange pippin users are relatively accurate in most cases. Like in the case of pink lady 138 people rated flavor with an overall high rating of 4.6. Pink lady is a very good apple but the other 2 apples rated just slightly higher in the exceptional category. Not sure what all they use in ratings. Growing fruit is the best source for fruit growing. I’m always willing to consider what others from other sources have to say lol. GR must really be good because pink lady I’ve experienced and it is a very pleasant apple. Kansas has a tendency to grow fruit slightly better tasting than many locations but we get Fireblight frequently on most trees. Honeycrisp has never blighted for me which I found odd.
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I prefer taste tests, where people compare varieties side by side without knowing anything about the varieties they are sampling. I’m surprised this has never been done in an organized way by maybe a commercial grower that specializes in a very wide variety of apples. One could do 4 or 5 different tests open to their customers and the general public at different points in the season- with one in late winter. What a great way for a grower of fine apple varieties to get free publicity and bring customers. Advertise it as the worlds most comprehensive apple taste test ever performed and encourage apple fans to attend every test.
If its anywhere near me, I’m in.
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Small here so far. Or at least can be kept small. YMMV