King of Tompkins County

[Lodidian]

One of my favorite apple varieties is the King of Tompkins County. It is also known as the Tompkins King, and it was originally introduced simply as King because of its huge size. Its history is a bit muddled, but I believe it is native to Jacksonville, a hamlet in Tompkins County, New York. I do not think Jacob Wycoff was lying when he said the first King tree he grew was a seedling. Many decades later, long after Wycoff’s death, horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey did an investigation and claimed that the original King of Tompkins County was a grafted tree. Wycoff, however, must have propagated additional King trees by grafting, and since he was not around to direct Bailey’s search, I think Bailey was looking at the wrong tree. The mother of all Kings may have been dead by then.

The story that the tree originated in Warren County, NJ, is based on Wycoff’s migration from a farm near Washington, a borough in Warren County, in 1804. It is supposed, not documented, that he brought scionwood with him.

It was not Wycoff who added Tompkins County to the apple’s name. [Please note that the correct spelling is Tompkins, not Thompkins.] In the 19th Century many apples were called King, so at a meeting of the American Pomological Society in Rochester in 1856, the variety was renamed King of Tompkins County to distinguish from other King apples.

I have a sentimental reason for liking the King of Tompkins County other than having lived in the county. On New Year’s Day in 2004, I had a discussion with my dad about his family’s orchard when he was growing up. He was then 89, but his memory of the 14 apple varieties that grew in the orchard his grandfather started and my grandfather further developed on the farm was quite clear. Dad did need some prompting at times, and when he couldn’t remember the name of his favorite apple and I suggested King of Tompkins County, his face lit up as he said “King” and went on to describe it with crisp detail. He said it was both his and his father’s favorite eating apple. It was large and richly flavored – sweeter than the Baldwin, but with a good touch of tartness. His mother would ask for not-quite-ripe Kings to bake in pies. The apple could get some members of the family in trouble because of its size. Dad’s younger siblings couldn’t finish a whole one, and Grandpap would get upset when he found half eaten apples lying around. Dad remembered his father saying of the King that it “tasted the way an apple is supposed to taste." I’ve heard that phrase used many times about different apples, but this application of those words to the King would have occurred over 100 years ago.

I’m also very pleased this year. There was an old King of Tompkins County tree growing on our property by the creek when we moved here back some 20 years. It died a few years ago, but I was able to take some scionwood from it before it died and used them to graft trees in our orchard. We have been without our own King apples for three years, but there are finally some tiny apples on two King of Tompkins County trees up in the orchard.

Here are pictures of the property where Wycoff planted his orchard. There is no sign or monument nor an orchard. I was told where the location was by the owner of Kingtown Orchard, just over the border from Tompkins County in Seneca County. He grows more Tompkins Kings than any other variety and knows about its history. The house was probably built after Wycoff sold the property. Called “The Trees,” it is now an AIRB&B.

[Newfroot]

Appreciate the post, thanks for the story.

Is it a big deal that the first Tompkin was grown from seedling because the odds of a favourable genetic mutation is so low in apples?

[Lodidian]

Indeed.

[AndySmith]

I’ve had the worst luck with it! My original grafts died and now Russet King (a russeted sport of KoTC) sustains so much winter kill I expect it too will die off. I’ll have to try grafting KoTC one last time next spring.

[JinMA]

Thank you for sharing this, John. I grafted King of Tompkins County this spring and it looks good so far. Happy to hear you think so highly of it.

[Lodidian]

@AndySmith

I’ve had the worst luck with it!

In Apples of New York there is a warning from growers in our state that KoTC needs to be top-worked to hardy stock with strong root growth, so your problem is not new.

[Betweentwoponds]

Awesome story, I work in Tompkins, Schuyler, and Seneca county. I’ll add this to my list of apples to try.

[Lodidian]

From a display at Kingtown Orchard.

A correction: more Cortlands are grown than any other of Kingtown’s 20 varieties, but Kings must be a close second.

[DennisD]

Thanks for the article John,
I had always wondered about its origin and unique name. I was introduced to Tomkins King by a fellow worker in the city where I was employed and purchased my King in1995. There was at the time a huge King tree growing in the city where I would go collect some to eat, but it was removed by a new development. I learned about Cortland while at Ft Devens, Ma in the Army, so I have both now and have enjoyed their fruit many years. If I were only going to grow 2 varieties, these would be my choice.
Dennis,
Kent, wa

[Mtncj]

I am thinking there was a semantics argument at play over “The original” being a seedling. The Tompkins county was added later, so the first with the modern name likely was grafted, but all scion wood comes from somewhere, so the true original of any variety would obviously have been either a seedling or a sport.
I grafted a bunch of apples last year, mostly for practice, and had decent take. However, I did not really attend to the results over winter and their protection was mostly sitting exposed in the lee of a japanese maple. Most have yet to leaf back out, and I’ve confirmed root death on several. KoTC is one of the few that definitively came through for me.
I’ll do a better job of protection of this years explorations along with any still potted survivors of last year.

[murky]

I really like that apple. I think its the one our neighbors have and it is great for cider as well as eating fresh, plus supposedly for cooking although I haven’t tried it.

I grafted it to my early Fuji, or maybe Belle de Boskoop, and it was afflicted with something this spring, maybe fireblight. so I pruned it out

[stephenlrb]

I’ve only just heard of this apple within the past year or so and suddenly I’m hearing so much about this variety. I discovered that a heritage orchard nearby has this variety. I will have to get some scion wood this winter and try grafting it to my frankentree next spring. I was already concidering doing that since I thought I would give it a try but it sounds like this is one apple not to miss!

[39thparallel]

Had a customer inquire if my “Russet King” was the russet sport of King of Tompkins County or perhaps a Russet sport of King of the Pippins?? Good question… It’s in an axillary orchard I don’t get out to as often as I would like, and I forgot where I acquired it. I found it ripening up today. Looks like the Russet King of TC to me.

[Lodidian]

Whitney Russet King is documented as a russet sport of the King of Tompkins County, circa 1918, according to Roger Way. King Russet is a sport of King of the Pippins according to our Smith non-brothers Scott and Andy. So Russet King could be either or yet something else.

[39thparallel]

Yes, Hard to say. Harvest period and flavor seem to match up with King of Tompkins county.

[alan]

In my more southern NY region TK is not an especially useful variety at many sites. It is a light cropper and tends towards biennial bearing. It ripens too early for me to be useful out of storage. It is also a favorite of squirrels.

In my estimation based only on my particular region and palate it is a good but not an exceptional apple. I judge apples more on how they taste through winter than off the tree.

If an heirloom is no longer frequently grown, even by apple fanatics who grow them, there are usually good reasons. However, TK is certainly a high enough quality apple to try in an orchard with many varieties. It might even end up being your favorite.

[Lodidian]

I’ve found further evidence that the King of Tompkins County really is from Tompkins County. The principal source used to attribute the variety’s origin to Warren county, N. J. is Cornell horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey, and few would have questioned his authority then or now. I tracked down the article where Bailey made his statement about the origin of the tree, and now I am sure he made a mistake. The professor estimated that the tree he examined to have been about 60 years old in 1896. However, in 1860, James Mattison, who bought the nursery from Jacob Wycoff, described the King as being 56 years old. The tree Bailey that looked at cannot have been the original 1804 tree, so it is irrelevant that it was grafted. Bailey’s own remark that Tompkins King trees are not long-lived adds certain evidence that he was at the wrong tree. Jacob Wycoff, according to Mattison, “always claimed it to be a seedling.” I see no reason to doubt him. Both Wycoff and Mattison were dead when Bailey made his 9 mile trek from Ithaca to the edge of the village of Jacksonville where the nursery was, so Bailey would not have been able to consult the two persons most knowledgeable about the King matter.

My interest was renewed because yesterday I attended an open house at The Trees, the well-preserved 155-year-old Italianate mansion that was built by James Mattison. It is now an inn and retreat center. I also walked the grounds. I found no hint of the orchard. All the trees growing there are young, but there was room for a 25 acre orchard.

For those interested, here is the full text of the note about Bailey and the King from an introductory Notes column in an issue of Garden and Forest, Volume 9 (1896):

“There is much uncertainty about the origin of the Apple now known as Tompkins King and formerly called King of Tompkins County. Some people hold that the original Tompkins King tree stands at Jacksonville, six or seven miles north-east of Ithaca, and in a recent lecture to one of his classes Professor Bailey showed a picture of the tree, now about sixty years old and two feet in diameter at the ground. It was plain, however, that the tree had been grafted, and, therefore, it cannot be the genuine seedling. It was brought from Dutchess County to Rockland County by the early settlers, where it was known as the Flat Spitzenburg, and it came originally from New Jersey, though from just what point no one knows. In Tompkins County the tree became best known, where the fruit is large and showy, and would rank ten in the scale of quality in any apple exhibition. It does not thrive, however, over as great an extent of territory as many other apples. The tree is broad, the apples are heavy and they are likely to fall in heavy winds. It is not as productive as the Baldwin and some other varieties. The fruit is borne on the outside of the tree, so that when it comes to be picked it does not fill so many barrels as other varieties do which make less of a show. The trees, too, are short-lived. They begin to die at the base and the bark peels off in strips. Professor Bailey has observed in some places where Baldwins and Greening trees are just in their prime that the Tompkins tree is already going to pieces. It is not so short-lived, however, in Tompkins County and in the adjoining region as it is in other parts of the country. Professor Bailey is not prepared to say whether this failure is due to climate or some varietal weakness, but the fact is that it is an apple of comparatively local merit, and is most profitable in this particular section of New York state. It is almost entirely unknown south of Mason and Dixon’s line and west of Michigan.”

[Lodidian]

James Mattison’ “true history of the King Apple of Tompkins County” can be found in Apples of New York (1905). From Mattison’s account, Wycoff only learned about grafting after he moved to Jacksonville and after he had already planted the seed that became what he called the King.

[alan]

@Lodidian

Bailey’s own remark that Tompkins King trees are not long-lived

Yup, once they reach 100 years of age their days may be numbered.

OK, I’m only talking about in my own region where they were once a popular commercial variety, so I’ve managed a few very old trees. Of course, I can’t speak for the trees that may have died before I got there. .

[Lodidian]

@Lodidian

It is not so short-lived, however, in Tompkins County and in the adjoining region as it is in other parts of the country.

The Hudson Valley is not exactly an adjoining region to the Finger Lakes, but maybe Bailey’s exception applies.