I suspect the lack of insect damage is due in part to the wet conditions the tree is growing in. Any larva(or adults) trying to over winter in the ground would be killed due to high water at snow melt time. Although there are trees nearby on higher ground for insects to migrate from…The opposite effect should be the case for the common diseases. The tree gets little air to dry out and is in a area that any humidity/fog collects . And yet the tree still looks that good!
Appleseed
I have done a lot of home brewing in my days but have never made hard cider. I see talk about using dolgo for cider making (my tree is loaded every year) and that got me thinking about trying !
I would like to find maintenance-free apples with a juicy-tart profile for my cider mix. I already have too many trees that produce sweet sub-acid apples.
I am about there as far as numbers go over many years .
But Alan also posted
And there is truth to that statement. I have found several apples that have made me think about looking further into them but my attachment /fondness is toward the sweet apples . Although I did find one sweet/tart apple a couple weeks ago that got me excited at first . Not good at describing flavors but in my mind it had a cinnamon taste . The problem was that cinnamon flavor only seemed to be in the apples that were in a narrow window of ripeness. Although we did picked the apples from that tree the next day , put them through the press and shared the fresh cider around getting rave reviews!
Went out to a spot I remembered picking good apples as a kid ( do not have permission yet to all the propertys and trees). And my memory was correct on the quality of some of these apples( more sweet/tart ) although they are still green. The reason I bring this post back up is that one of the apple varieties has apples with around a Dz. seeds per apple! I picked several and they were all like that. To be honest I never really paid that much attention to the seeds in an apple over the years so thought I would ask about if this is common ?
I’ve been fooled by the “apparent” tartness of under ripe apples before. The apple seemed ripe with a sweet tart taste when eating, but the cider was so astringent that I could hardly finish a glass full. My tongue literally felt shriveled and dead. When the apple finally ripened it was sweet with no tartness.
Chartman,
It’s not common to have a dozen with the domesticated varieties I grow such as honey crisp, prairie spy, and harlson. Most of the wild varieties I grow do produce more seeds than normal grafted varieties. You can always determine the ripeness of an apple by the color of the seed and with most that correlates to dark brown in color. I have limited knowledge on replying to the question on seeds and can only speak to the experience I have.
Thanks Clark
These several apple varieties have a long way to go yet as far as ripeness. The seeds are still white and remembering from the past some of these apples were still dropping into Nov. Many of these trees are getting in rough shape and may not make it much longer
I think dark brown seeds indicate that it can be picked and will continue to ripen off the tree. Dark brown seeds don’t necessarily indicate it is ready to eat. The amount of additional ripening off the tree depends on personal preference, which would also depend on the apple variety. The seeds were dark brown in the under-ripe, astringent example I mentioned above.
All apples do some conversion of starch to sugar after picking, which is why cider makers often store them at room temps for a couple weeks before pressing them. Nevertheless, many varieties taste best IMO right off the tree. Many I wouldn’t eat any other way.
Was able to take a look at some of the trees on the property I mentioned earlier. I posted in another thread that there were hundreds of seedling apple trees . I think I under estimated by a lot! The property is an 80 I think (maybe a little bigger) and in many places it is hard to tell what apple goes with what tree they are growing so thick. Haven’t been able to look at the whole property yet but in some ways it is a disappointment as most of the trees are not disease immune as most wild ones tend to be. Lots of scab and many of the trees are naturally dwarf or semi dwarf. However the range of apples is unlimited ( none the same) Tried looking for the most disease resistant ones and did find several decent apples . The hard part will be locating those trees come late winter even with being marked. Here is a couple pics
This one did have a lot of scab in places but is the best tasting . Sweet and juicy but not real crisp ( but not soft and mealy either)
The last three I posted are all good eaters off the tree. The last one I would say is more a sweet/tart apple but not very tart. It is also the most crisp one and does not brown when cut . The other two are more on the sweeter side. With the first of the most recent ones posted being an exceptional eating and sized apple . However it does have some scab issues ( not as bad as most of the surrounding trees though). The second one of the recent pics tastes sweet with good flavor off the tree but has a slight ,what I call a “cellar” taste . That taste an apple gets after it has been stored in the cellar for a long time. That taste does not bother me in the least though. Both those apples are not super crisp but also not mushy or mealy off the tree.
Many more trees to look at on this property . Like I mentioned there are way too many to count and many growing in thickets . I will say I either sampled or disregarded, for disease reasons ,many hundred trees so far to come up with those three! Two others from that property I will post pics of later are a pink/red fleshed large crab and a real crunchy mostly tart type yellow apple . The crab is nothing special eating wise ( neither bad nor good) just the pink/red flesh. The yellow apple is OK because of how crunchy it is. Haven’t decided yet if I will try to propagate either one of those yet. The other three recent ones posted are for sure ones I will be propagating to see how they do in a more controlled crowing condition.
One other pink fleshed apple seedling that I will post pics of at some time is growing along the river in the back yard and looks like it has some promise . Sweet tart(best discription) , crisp, and durable ( not an easy bruiser). Smaller apple but also first time it has had fruit on it ( only about a half dz)
Beautiful apples! You might want to mark which ones are which and trade scion wood this next spring to preserve the varieties. I send people scions of my seedling apples to preserve the varieties.
Some companies and individuals as your aware patent and sell new apples. If you have some perfect seedlings you might consider that if your interested in that.
Right now all options are on the table for the right apple going forward. However like you , right now my interest is in preserving the best of the best for every one to enjoy. Many of these apple trees are ones I have picked apples from off and on for decades and now recently I am going back to after learning how to propagate them by grafting. And of coarse that has branched out into gaining access to ( or finding)apple trees that I have never sampled .
Here is the other two I mentioned from this new property
The chance of producing a superior new apple variety from seed is not very good. It took millions of seedling trees planted over more than 100 years to produce just several thousand named variety. On the other hand it could happen. Just consider Ginger Gold
