For me it is getting toward my late season for apples to ripen. I only have a few varieties compared to many of you. I have some that are still recovering from being planted in 2021 that might be added to my list. A few days ago I picked my Red Rebel and now my remaining four are Pink Lady, Craven Crab, Sundowner, and Gold Rush. I like the taste of all these and I will add a few more limbs to what I already have. Although I don’t have a big presence of these they have been pretty successful for me to get fruit from most years. At my location some apples that would be very good in many locations tend to not do well in my summer heat. As a whole I think with the right selections pears can be a little easier to grow but that is just my opinion. Do you have a favorite late ripening apples for your location?
No Anything that ripens later than June is destroyed by animals.
Some good late apples here in Northern California:
- Hauer Pippin
- Pink Parfait
- Christmas Pink
- Katharine
- Myers’ Royal and Red Royal Limbertwigs
- GoldRush (of course)
I have hopes for Winterstein and Waltana, which I’ll get to sample this season.
I have only one apple left on any tree. Fuji and Arkansas Black and Braeburn and Granny Smith failed to set any fruit on 31 year old trees…winesaps the birds and raccoons got…but most of my trees had nothing due to lack of pollination, being biennial, or lack of blooming, being too young to crop yet. Three winesaps in the fridge, one Odysso laying out and hard as a rock,
and a single Cornish Aromatic on the tree in a pot in the backyard.
Over the span of a lifetime, I’d say a tree-ripe Red Delicious is still my preference…but I’d like to find some other later apples that I could say are my preferred eating apple both at harvest time and in the winter.
I’ve bought and/or grafted nearly 150 apples…both early nd late ones…so maybe one of them
will surpass RD, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Gala…and if not,
maybe I’ll have a seedling someday that does.
I still have some hanging. I’ve tasted Virginia Beauty but picking them slowly and they are still good. Arkansas black of course . I still have Ambrosia getting color which is delicious, one summer banana, and some of my red delicious still hanging which was more tasty this year. I have a Johnson’s keeper. My notes say candy crisp but mine is not bearing yet.
I’m sure others have many more.
My Cortland is the latest I have to ripen. It’s also the best keeper for winter storage in my garage bins. Can easily store until Feb and continues to get sweeter staying crisp until then. If you want an all round good eating apple that bakes well, try this one.
Dennis
Kent, wa
It is cooler overall here so our apple harvests are just starting.
I think of Courtland, like Jonathon, as a very good apple for many purposes. But, not an absolute favorite for any of them.
I have found both apples and pears to grow well where I live. I have found certain apples or pears to struggle more than others though. Many Fuji sports I got from Stark Bros have struggled where I live. My Super Red Fuji is doing decent and my Aztec Fuji is going well but my Red Fuji is struggling from them and my September Wonder I got from Stark Bros did not make it more than a few weeks. My Spitzenberg apple is struggling somewhat but is holding on. For whatever reason those apples are struggling a bit more at this point in the year while my Mountain Rose from One Green World, Pink Lady from Costco and Zestar! from Stark Bros push on easily. Weirdly my Comice and Warren pear from Raintree are doing amazing with little help while my Warren and Comice from Nature Hills is struggling and I am going to try to replace the Warren from Edible Landscaping with another standard sized Warren from there. I think sometimes it is the variety is just not as disease resistant and other times if it is a new tree they sometimes just send you a bad tree or a tree with issues. I am mostly trying a lot of Fuji strains that are later ripening because they are known to be good and store longer but I do understand that they are a bit harder to grow than other apples. I understood many struggle with Spitzenberg apples when I got it but got the Spitzenberg apple because I heard the flavor was hard to surpass.
My Spitzenburg apple tastes very good. One of my favorite later apples. I really like my Idared apple as well.
I would suggest also getting in touch with David Vernon at Century Farm Orchards. He has a lot apples he grows for the Southern region and can suggest some varieties.
David Vernon, I finally ordered from him…last month. Got 5 Sept/October apples coming.
Also have a bunch already…but most are young grafts and have not fruited.
I’m eyeing a Cornish Aromatic every day hoping to get it before varmints do…
anxious to try it.
My Spitzenburg flowered this year but set no fruit. Possibly it pollinated
a couple of my red fleshed.
Tom Brown is another small time NC guy doing old time varieties.
It’s tough to beat goldrush, although it’s a rotter and a dropper in my yard It’s starts dropping around late Aug and gradually drops apples until mid November with peak ripening around mid Oct. The drops taste great though after a few weeks of storage. Yates is decent so far. Pretty sweet. This is my 2nd crop and it’s a big one so will do more sampling when it ripens in late oct-nov. Lady Williams was decent last year but only a few to try. The one I let hang til Christmas was the best. I have a few more this year. Terry winter was encouraging last year but again only had a few and it ripened with Yates. Sundowner is very bland in my yard. It’s grafted as the upper tier of my goldrush tree. I keep meaning to graft it over. It’s just not very flavorful. Ripens after Yates but before lady williams. Old fashioned limbertwig seems to ripen with Yates, but wasn’t very good last year but only had a few. Fugi is pretty bland for me although the kiddos seem to like it. Somewhat sweet. Ripens around Oct. Got my first old strain winesap to try this year, just now showing a little pink. Seems on track to ripen around goldrush or later. I like these late ones. Mid-season ones are tougher for me. For example grimes goes from green to mealy real fast in this heat.
I have bought quite a few trees from David Vernon when I started my orchard. All of his nursery stock has done fine for me. Nice trees. He is very knowledgeable about apples and a very nice guy too.
I have a tree coming from Tom as well here in the fall. I like his tree varieties he carries. I really appreciate all his hard work and effort to save so many though to be extinct apple varieties.
Same at my location. I get some rot and drop on Goldrush but it sets a big crop and I usually end up with a decent amount after the drops.
Yeah GR gives me a big crop of large apples that taste great. And the dropping does not damage them because they are very firm. Some pinestraw softens the landing.
Today we ate a nice red delicious. So much better than the grocery store variety.
My family including my daughter and grandsons jumped on the Cushman and we drove slowly through the orchard while I pointed out different apples, pears, grafts, " This is Red delicious --see the green apple at the bottom. That was grafted. Those apples are pink pearl and they are pink inside …"
It was like something out of a Jurassic Park tour. Funny and lots of fun!
We got our first Ashmead’s Kernels this year. The tree is huge - and wants to grow straight up. That is a constant battle. There were only about 6 apples, and a couple were so high up in the tree that they didn’t get sprayed the way they should have. But - the ones that survived and thrived . . . fabulous tasting apple! Skin is a bit coarse - but apple is crisp and has soooo much flavor. Goldrush had been my favorite until we got some Ashmeads. Friends tried all the apples in a taste test I prepared - and everyone loved the Ashmeads. Others they tried were King David. Keepsake. Goldrush. and Pink Lady.
I have a couple Esopus Spitz branches that I grafted last year - and I am anxious to try those if we get any decent fruit. Also these varieties . . . Priscilla. Belle d’Bosc. Fiesta. Granny Smith. Akane. Wealthy. Sweet 16. Cortland. - - None of these have fruited yet. Same for Wolf River. Arkansas Black. And others. We did get some Pink Ladies . . . but they are misformed and lumpy - and don’t have great flavor.
I am just shocked that we can grow any apples at all! The only varieties I saw in this area, until recently, were little green ‘pie apples’. And I was under the impression that apples just didn’t do well in this southeastern part of VA. - - - Not so.
@MikeC and @Rosdonald both had good advice for you . . . steering you to David at Century Farms. I have gotten some beautiful little trees from them. 