With all the recent talk (~5 years) of high chill apple cultivars in a low chill area I was wondering if anyone on here has tried MacIntosh? It’s my wife’s favorite apple and was curious if there have been any success stories for my climate. Im in zone 9/10…and probably get 200 CH’s. I might try either way! If you have any LC apple varieties that you’d recommend I’m all ears.
Thanks all.
Sean
I have sought out and tasted many apple varieties last season from Freddie Menge’s orchard. I discovered quite a few nice ones but none were better than home-grown Fuji from a friend’s backyard. Many here in the local CRFG grow so many apple varieties (via multi-grafting) but most have a separate Fuji tree just for this variety.
Fuji seedlings are healthier than average apple pips, it was interesting to see the Chinese using it to cross with native (wild) red fleshed apples.
I’m not a Mac fan, so can’t help in that regard.
Goog search on McIntosh apple chill hours… 900.
I have a early McIntosh… cross with yellow transparent… no luck finding chill hours for it… but chill hours for yellow transparent per starks is 800-1000.
You might have to relocate up to Tennessee to grow your wife’s fav. The early mc grows well here. Below a few from my tree last June.
My chill hours here are in the 1200 range.
Found this online…
Of the 43 cultivars tested, only ‘Anna’ (Figure 1), ‘Dorsett Golden’ (Figure 2), and ‘TropicSweet’ are recommended for Florida. ‘Anna’ and ‘Dorsett Golden’ originated in Israel and the Bahamas, respectively. ‘TropicSweet’ is a relatively new, patented cultivar from the University of Florida breeding program. These cultivars each have a chilling requirement of 250–300 hours. They also require the accumulation of a substantial amount of heat units before trees will bloom in the spring.
@Sean … I wonder what would happen if you had a 900 CH apple tree in a 200 CH location ?
Would it even bloom ?
I do plan to collect and share some scionwood from it… perhaps mid or late January. Surely it will be cold here by then.
I would take a long shot to make my wife happy.
PM me your address and I will send you some.
TNHunter
@TNHunter Works for some varieties apparently!
Really throwing the apple world through a loop…
Also don’t forget about @applenut and his tropical endeavors.
Yellow Transparent grows well down to the Gulf Coast. There are lots of “Northern/Foreign” apple varieties that grow well in the coastal south. Few folks have actually tried is the big problem. Black Oxford and Baldwin for example. Orange Cox and Hauer Pippin too. Even Honeycrisp.
Its not so much can you grow the variety as it is what will be the quality at harvest?
Honeycrisp is a great example! Evidenced by the fact that it is currently the #1 variety being removed. Eastern WA planted it by the hundreds of thousands and mostly in areas that are not suitable for good quality Honeycrisp.
Too hot, too hot, too hot.
The upper midwest where Honeycrisp came from grows the best. There are plenty of other suitable areas but delicate apples require a special terror.
PS i hate Honeycrisp.
I agree with you, I am not a fan of Honeycrisp.
The big box stores sell Honeycrisp to the unknowing by the pallet load here. It and the Delicious twins probably throw more folks off of growing apples then any variety here.
