If you could only grow 1-2 Apples what would they be?

General Fruit Growing
41

@Sharbecr … i have planted and enjoyed growing 7 apples and 3 pears here over the years that in year 3 or 4 died of FB.

Just when they start blooming good FB takes them out.

Since retirement year end 2023… I have decided to simplify things here some… going to focus on low maintenance no spray fruit.

If it does not grow well and produce good fruit without a lot of fuss… I will simply replace it with something that will.

I dont want a lot of fuss…

Spraying anything on my trees especially harsh chemicals, pesticides, fungicides… is too much fuss for me.

TNHunter

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42

I will second Liberty being a bug magnet. If disease resistance is a factor, Nova Mac and Ruby Rush are both great apples that ripen sequentially and pack out more number ones than any of our other 50 varieties. My current fave in terms of flavor, though, is Red Royal Limbertwig.

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43

Wolf River had HUGE apples for apple sauce. The only trees I knew of it dies decades ago.

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44

Red Royal LT was one of the late Lee Calhoun’s favorites (he grew 300 varieties).

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45

For eating raw, I really like Jonagold, a cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious. It retains the best qualities of each - sweet with a hint of tartness, very juicy, more crisp than Golden but not rock hard. Also a good looking apple, yellow with a blush of red on the sunny side. Just a really good fresh apple. It’s my favorite tree in the orchard.

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46

Roxbury Russet

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47

I don’t know if its been mentioned already but Chestnut Crab has to be one of my consistent top go to apples. I’d hate to be without it

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48

I have nearly ordered Chestnut so many times. Guess despite having plenty of small apples and crabapples I will have to try it.

It has the advantage of being an earlier pollinator as well. Perhaps better then our Centurion which flowers to early so far.

It may pollinate our Pink Lady but that is it.

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49

Sundance and Mutsu

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50

What rootstock do you have Liberty on?

I had one on EMLA26. Both it, and Bardsey on EMLA26, were the worst CM magnets I have yet dealt with. Since these were the only apples I had on that stock, I begin to suspect it might be a contributing cause.

BTW, I have Lamb Abbey & Gold Rush on Bud118, in a situation that stunts apple trees. Neither is a large tree & both easy to husband.

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51

I’m not sure of the rootstock for my Liberty apple trees, but if memory serves me well after a decade or so, they were M.9. I have the records for some of the other apple trees I bought from Hartmann’s nursery and they were all on M.9’s. .

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52

If I didn’t mention it previously, having my Liberty apple trees on dwarf rootstock proved ideal as it allowed me to use bee netting to tent my apple trees this last year. This was the first year I tried it after using other produces in hopes of reducing my CM magnet problem (none of which worked). But the netting worked amazingly well. One of the trees I used the apples from to make cider had only two out of just over a hundred showing evidence of CM activity (previous year over 50%). So, guess what I plan to do again this year…

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53

sundance and arkansas black

54

I have Liberty on M.111 and it’s a bug magnet.

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55

Sundance flies under the radar for some reason. I still need to understand better when to pick it but when I do accidentally pick it at optimum taste it’s phenomenal.

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56

It might be at its best eaten after Valentine Day.

I bought two Sundance whips this year & am curious how it will do. My understanding is that it blooms a day ahead of Gold Rush & ripens maybe 4 days before GR. That would prompt a look at it by October 8 in my neck of the woods. Of course, your mileage in MD would vary.

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57

I would continue to grow Goldrush.
And I would continue to keep trying to successfully grow Esopus Spitzenburg.
If I never succeed . . . I would replace ES with Ashmead’s Kernel. Third place.

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58

braeburn definitely, love them

some kind of dark rich apple as a second. would say gravenstein but I love a good russet so

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59

Good to hear about red royal limbertwig…

I have RR LT and Chestnut grafted to my backyard crabapple… also Myers Royal LT and Black LT.

Grafted Chestnut last year and it is blooming this year.

TNHunter

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60

If i were still in CA, it would be Newtown Pippin. Am in FL now, Newtown is supposed to suffer from fruit rot badly here, trying it again with spraying but too early to tell. Goldrush is likely better in FL, or a rot resistant variety like Winesap or Arkansas Black.