Jury still out on the Honeycrisp apple for me

My experience is not every apple turns very red because some are on the side of the tree that gets more shade or under where the foliage grew out more.

Here spring came 2 weeks earlier than last year and days have tended to be hot and clear so things are ripening much sooner than last season. Ground color changes from green to yellow with HC and it pulls free cleanly from the stem. Seeds should be brown- but most of all, any ripe fruit should taste ripe.

These were what my HC last year looked like. I Love HC.

Even though I thought I thinned a lot, it still went biennial on me this year.

7 Likes

Mamuang, in the case a tree is biennial can you ensure yearly harvest by planting multiple trees? Do they tend to “sync up” or can you have tree A produce fruit in odd years and have tree B produce fruit in even years?

Speed,
If I were to plant another one, I would pick the rootstock @Appleseed70
uses. I can’t remember what G rootstock it is. He said his never goes biennial.

I should have thought about grafting it to other apple tree. Never crossed my mind as this is the largest tree in my yard. But if it will continue to be biennial, I might as well graft to other trees.

I guess my climate is just right for HC.

1 Like

What rootstock is your HC on? I think I may have gotten my honeycrisp scions from you in 2015 if I remember correctly. I have a HC tree I grafted to bud9 rootstock and I have honeycrisp grafted to the Franken-apple which is also on bud9. I had another honeycrisp that died last year that I bought from Lowe’s that was on m106. After it died I looked at the roots and found d that they were girdled by a piece of plastic tie from the nursery.

Yes, I did send you HC scionwood in earky 2015. Mine was on an unknown rootstock. It was one of the first few fruit treesI bought. Like many newbies, I bought potted fruit trees.

From what I have read and learned about popular apple rootstocks, I would guess, it is on M 111.

Those are are some very good looking HC.

I can’t speak for other folks, but we have a bunch of old Milam apple trees on the family farm, scattered about in various locations. I think there are about half a dozen total, maybe a quarter mile max distance between the furthest ones.

We had some bloom this year, and others did not. Since they are somewhat wild and way too tall to mess with, they’ve never been thinned that I know of. So they might have maxxed out last year and left nothing in the tank for this year.

Of the two that did flower, I thinned pretty hard, at least the ones I could get to. But, these trees are so big, I bet I didn’t get to a third of all the fruitlets. So, it’ll be interesting to see if they produce next year.

Thanks, Bill. But it should not play hard to get by being biennial :grin:

2 Likes

Last year I bought basket of organic HC (Mich) in Sept. which were really very good, fresh, dried, and sauce. In Oct I went back to get more. Didn’t have any from that grower but had others, commercial grown, still Mich. I figured they’d be similar and bought more. They were not very good at all. In talking to the market later she guessed it had to do with when they were picked (based on her knowledge of the orchards). If I’d had only those 2nd batch to taste I’d never had wanted them in my orchard. But I have two grafts five yrs old so I’m hopeful mine will be good. Unfortunately they are the worst looking trees leaf-wise that I have but seem to be growing fine. BTW, the variety of apples so many of you talk about buying and trying locally amazes me! The most exotic apple I can get is Ida Red. Exotic only because it’s iffy depending on the year.

HC is ripe here. The local u-pick posted on social media that this weekend was HC weekend. They are two weeks early here too.

She may find out that quality is based on more than harvest time. I’m almost positive weather and soil conditions are crucial as well. Some years all of mine drop before ever getting very good and I’ve found them very difficult to manage in clay type soils that stay moist to wet throughout the season.

This may be an apple only worth growing at the right locations. Commercial growers are getting good money for mediocre HCs so they don’t really care about quality if the customer is more concerned with the name.

When I first tasted HC apple from our markets a few years ago it was a really good apple but for whatever reason the quality has suffered. I’m shocked that the price per pound is still as high as it is. For me a good Pink Lady is much better and usually can be bought for much less per pound.

Tip,

Your Honeycrisps look great.

Suppose to start cooling off at nights here with the temps in the sixties. In August its struggled to get below the 80’s many nights. I’ve read that cool nights benefits the flavor of apples and so it seems to me that may be the reason why Honeycrisps has a better flavor in the more northern latitudes. At least thats the theory I have. So I am going to let them hang until they get almost over ripe and hope that my electric fence deters the varmints. Are Honeycrisps bad about dropping when they get really ripe?

I do not pick all my HC at once. Once I see a couple dropped to the ground, I start picking the ones with yellower undertone and left the greener ones hanging. The greener, less ripe usually hang on lower branches and do not get as much sun.

I’ve not eaten overriped HC. Even the dropped ones were crunchy and tasty. I have never had enough apples to store.

Oh, you made me think about Spiced Apple Rings canned in Red Hots syrup! Yummy. Unfortunately, the varmints have taken most of my apples this year so I am not going to have enough to store either.