Last year I had the opportunity to add some scions of what I simply call the June apples. Of the three I added Stripe June, Big Red June, and Carolina Red June the only one that did not fruit this year was the Carolina Red June. Yesterday I noticed one of the Stripe June had a little amount of stripe so I picked it for a taste test. The apple actually was a little past prime but still pretty good (sweet/tart). This first season I wanted to determine a rough ripening date and if it was good enough to give it a bigger share of my limited space. I only had three of these so I picked another one without any stripes. Well it was slightly on the under ripe side with the balance a little more skewed toward tart/sweet but still decent to me. Now for the real test. Two of my Georgia grands were spending a few days with me so they were ask for taste opinions and both gave a thumbs up. I’m hoping to pick the third one at that perfect stage but that window seems very small. Anyone else growing June or very early apples? What are you opinions of them? Would I be better off focusing on late season apples that store for exceptionally long periods of time?
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For June-bearers, I have Carolina Red June and Lowland Raspberry aka Liveland Raspberry/ Russian Raspberry etc etc. Neither of them have fruited yet.
I like early-season apples. They are refreshing right off the tree in summer.
I have had success with Lodi and Gingergold in July. Gingergold is wonderful here.
I’ve tried - but failed - to obtain the Henry Clay apple, another one for July/Aug.
I have Williams Pride and Baker’s Delicious for late July, but they haven’t fruited yet either.
For August, I have Cherryville Black, but no fruit yet. My Red Gravenstein has its first 2 apples on it right now. I’ve tasted these at other orchards nearby and they are terrific. I have been trying to obtain Pixie Crunch but not yet succeeded. I’ll probably buy a tree from Cummins over the coming year.
I have Lodi - inferior to its Yellow Transparent in almost every respect, except that it is larger.
Best early season apple in my orchard is MonArk…though it’s usually early to mid July before it’s ripe.
I love all apples, but from from what I have seen, most “summer” apples don’t have much shelf life and go from green to mealy quickly. Great for pies or sauce but not much else. Pristine is different - ripens just after Lodi and Yellow Transparent, but before Ginger Gold. Its a beautiful yellow apple with a red bush on the sunny side. Excellent early eating apple- the best I have tried. Its a vigorous grower with some disease resistance (PRI).
Ditto on Pristine. I tried various early apples and Pristine is the one keeper. Its a keeper in more ways than one, it lasts a surprisingly long time off the tree for such an early apple. Most of the early apples have too short a window. Its not a June apple though.
Lucky you sent me MonArk a long time ago. It died but I eventually re-grafted it. Hope to finally get fruit on it next year!
Is Pristine a Stark’s property, genetically?
I’ve been working on collecting some heirloom style varieties of Southern Apples, but none of them are fruiting yet, and it’s left me severely backloaded (Sep/Oct) in my seasons, in theory. I have a Carolina Red June struggling a bit, and my Aunt Rachel tried very hard to die last year but seems to be recovering a little. I was looking to add a Yellow June to it. Does anyone have experience with Yellow June, is it the same thing as Yellow Transparent? The Yellow Transparent sounds really good, how does it tolerate the heat @blueberrythrill?
The description of the Lowland/Liveland Raspberry sounds really interesting, but I’d worry from the description it’d turn straight to mush, and I worry about getting “cold tolerant” apples when what I need are apples that don’t fall down dead when someone plants a juniper within ten city blocks or burn up from fireblight.
Because, you know, when you have 20 apples trees all on their second or third leaf, the most logical thing to do is order a stack of scion wood and graft another 20 right?
Glad to hear such good reports for Pristine, particularly from the humid southeast/mid-atlantic. I grafted it this spring and am looking forward to trying it.
Pristine patented and is owned by PRI which is a multi university project (Perdue, Rudgers, Illinois) that has focused on breeding disease resistance characteristics into apples for things like scab, fireblight or CAR. PRI has produced many fine apples including Goldrush and Crinsom Crisp. I’m not sure about obtaining scion wood on a patented variety like Pristine, but someone here will be.
I have tried several of the early old southern apples and did not like any of them, especially Bevens, although it was recommended as one of the best “summer” Old Southern Apples. The recommendation may have come about because the gentleman that wrote the book also “re-discovered” this apple.
Yellow Transparent is very early and is a vigorous tree, but it gets FB bad in my area. My Lodi, Yellow Transparent and Summer Rambo were all clobbered by FB several years ago and I dug all the trees out.
I have been considering adding the Ginger Gold a very good early apple but looks like Pristine which I already added this year will cover that gap in fruiting and offer several great characteristics I’m looking for. I also love most all apples so if possible I will add other types that ripen even earlier. This is just the type information I was looking for. Hopefully it will also help other forum members.
Pristine also apparently goes by “Co-op 32”: Pristine (TM).
The patent on this one should be expired now: USPP9881P - Apple tree `Co-op 32` - Google Patents
MisterGuy,
In case you haven’t already seen this. Liveland Raspberry exhibits some fireblight resistance:
Never liked Yellow Transparent and up till now never talked to any one that did either . I am surprised there are those here that do !
I love my Pristine apples. BUT, since the cruddy weather appeared this spring, I might have eight apples on my tree. It has become totally biennial. Too bad. Great apples! Sweet and juicy! I will miss them,
My pristines (2) are only in their third and fourth year; the few I’ve had taste great! But here in Dallas the Pristine and Pink Ladys seem to have the most problems with fireblight. In the Purdue trials Pristine was impervious to fb but it seems not so in Dallas, at least this year and last., admittedly not a big sample.
Lodi and Yellow Transparent are good for sauce. They really do make a rich applesauce. I made some last year and did see why they were so popular as a homestead tree when making sauce was an important task.
Pristine is a good apple. I will have to find a scion to put on my “early season” tree with Zestar! and Williams’ Pride. Pristine is not as good to me as Zestar!, of which I am the highest booster. But Pristine is earlier here, so it truly is one of the first good eating apples of the season. Pristine is probably much more disease resistant than Zestar too, but I’m having good luck with my sulfur sprays for scab so it isn’t a big deal. The sprays have to be made regardless because of Surround’s short life and curc.
No apple ripens here in Northern California in June. My earliest are in July. I have some of those supposed june types, but I think the evenings are too cold here for things to grow and ripen that fast and most are not worth a second bite. For Early apples, Kerry Pippin, Chestnut Crab, centennial, trailman and William’s Pride have been all very good to excellent eating. St. Edmund’s pippin looks promising, but is just starting to fruit. I’m not sure when those would ripen elsewhere, but here they are july/august with centennial and trailman being the earliest.
Big Red June might get a new name, Little Red June. This apple was chip budded in June of 2015 so I was surprised to get a couple of clusters of fruit this year. I did not thin either cluster so I’m sure that is why this apple is small. To my surprise it appeared to be at a good ripe level. It was mildly sweet with almost no tartness. There are eight more of these apples so I should be able to give a better assessment later.
This is a different apple than Carolina Red June?
To the best of my knowledge these are two different apples but I can’t verify that they are. I have gotten about ten different varieties from the back yard collector and occasional seller and all of these have been true to the label so I’m guessing these June apples are also. My Carolina Red June has not fruited yet so I can’t even make a direct comparison yet. From the pictures I have seen online of the CRJ this apple colors up almost exactly. There is a clear difference between the Stripe June and what I thinks is the BRJ. When I first considered the June apples I was just looking for one that was a decent fresh eating apple that was earlier than Williams Pride, Gala, or Pristine.
Bill, I have found Carolina Red June to be a easy to grow but pretty bland tasting apple. Can’t go wrong with Pristine, I like that Pristine is a low vigor tree, my Pristine is one of the few I have on M-111 but requires very little pruning and I have had no trouble keeping it at 8 feet after 5 years.
For something different you can go with the Hollow Log. Besides having a cool name, the description sounds appealing. Mine is in its 2nd year so no fruit yet, Century Farm has a few for sale.
Just found a better description of Hollow Log from a 1913 North Carolina nursery:
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/187580#page/6/mode/1up