The Liberty I have eaten is a spritely tasting blend of tart and sweet. I like its taste but I think it would be great in pies and cobblers. It had a small crack starting so I went ahead an picked it today. @marknmt
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Very cool, Bill. If you get more I’d be interesting in how you like those, too. I think they make great pies and applesauce, and cider as well. Mine are getting close and I’ll probably start picking them this week.
My wife pointed out the face in the second picture … 
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I hadn’t noticed the face until you mentioned it. I only left this one apple on the tree but it appears to have several flower buds formed for next year.
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Was the flesh not very light or was that the lighting? I think I sort of like them better on the early end of getting ripe (when they are first getting a good purple), but before they start getting soft. But, I don’t understand liberty very well…which I should figure out as it’s very productive. It seems the tree can drop apples over a two month period from totally green onward! I should fine it for littering.
Here is my tree a couple of weeks ago. I need to check it as probably has some apples I should eat. I might not have as much worm damage this year.
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That Liberty tree looks great!
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I guess the flesh browns fairly quickly. My bad!
Mine has suffered terribly this summer from what appears to be fireblight. Could be some other blight but… What’s strange is that well known fireblight sufferers like Pink Lady are all around it and have been fine.
I neglected my spraying this spring and lost most of my crop to insects. All the rest were stolen in one night by what was probably a raccoon.
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Sorry to hear about your crop @haldog . what kind of bugs did you in? I think we have similar conditions. I have minimal bug pressure on apples here. Peaches are different to say the least. I had FB get into the trunk of my 3yr old liberty in 2017 so I cut it down. I’m not offering that as evidence that it is not resistant, just that I suspect any young tree can get nailed if unsprayed. And there seems to be a substantial amount of randomness to it also.
Several different type of damage @barry, but mostly stink bugs with a little coddling moth. Liberty wasn’t the only tree affected, but seemed the most attractive to the insects. This could have been just random bad luck.
I really like the flavor of Liberty here, but this late season blight has me worried.
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Codling moth love Liberty on my tree.
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(Or bear?)
I think it was a racoon(s) or possum(s). It happened at night, no branches were broken, even the apples above deer range were taken. Same thing happened to my peaches and pears just as they started to ripen. Next year it looks like I will need to use some traps if I’m going to get a decent crop.
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I’m going to my orchard location today…so I hope nothing cleaned me out. Last year no fruit due to late freezes, both years before that, all my apples gone in one night. (Bear scat found nearby.)
Early apples unmolested by anything except an opossum this year…
you see teeth marks in fruit on ground if opossum.
I have doubts if raccoons ate a couple bushels in one night and left zero evidence of the deed. But I might need to get a camera. Last year my sister tried to shoot a raiding bear and gun misfired.
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Wondering if my Liberty apples are ripe. The backside is green and the front (sun) side is solid red. University of Minnesota is selling smaller Liberty apples but I thought they were supposed to be ready about the same as Honeycrisp which won’t be for another 2 weeks here in Minnesota.
UM Liberty apples have dark seeds but they are pretty sour.
I have a photo but it doesn’t seem like I can post photos? This site is kind of weird.
Meant to ask straight up - do they get any yellow on them when ripe?
My Liberty took this year off. I have found that I don’t much care for Liberty until they are very ripe. That is usually early-mid October at my location in central MN
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Mine have been really good this year for some reason, even with early ones. I think that hasn’t always been the case.
So should I be picking these or wait 3 weeks? No yellow coloring - except under that leaf lol. Backside is solid green.
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How green? Liberty can turn almost a burgundy color if you leave them long enough. But, the bugs might carry them away if I wait that long.
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Birds really like Liberty here too, especially when they get dark red.
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