Red Baron was loaded this year:
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No peaches this year, very few blooms and although we had a ton of snow in 24/25, the temp didn’t drop below -16.7F. This fall I’ve found two more trees with gummiosis so I expect they won’t be waking up in spring. I do believe the peach trial is at an end, they’ll be coming out in spring. What to try in this space…?
I haven’t been able to post an Orchard video for a while as my video editing computer had an OS failure, but I finally dug into it and got it running again. 2025 was a good year for me, new varieties established well and “repair” grafts took nicely (there was a lot of winter damage from 24/25). We started out wet and ended very dry. Currently at 750 trees, 175 varieties of apples, 20 pear and the peach trial is a failure, they’re getting pulled out in spring. I’ll finish planting out Row 14 in the spring and I’m out of room. I’ll prune in Feb or March, should have plenty of scion for those interested, I’ll post a list of what’s available. Happy to have been able to harvest some fruit this year, things are filling in nicely.
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Sorry to hear about your peach trees.
No big deal, thinking of replacing them with blueberries. I have sour cherries at the other end of that row.
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Thank you for this comment. Even years later your experience is helping others. Ive breathed it in before just writing it off as dried mycelium
With snowshoes, you might get out there and not need a ladder.
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I pruned with snowshoes last year, and pulled a sled with my pruning equipment and bags for scion. It really made a difference pruning the taller trees!
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Hewe’s / Virginia Crab; I went after them pretty hard this year, and the Harrison right next to them too. Hewe’s is crazy vigorous for me, I’m already cutting out some larger scaffolds, and I was never happy with the shape of these trees. Harrison is very upright, I really should be pulling the branches down, but I never seem to get to it. I thinned Harrison hard this year. Photo’s are of Hewe’s / Virginia Crab.
I’ll regret this by summer; these trees will put out tons of growth that grows out and then curves straight up.
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Finally seeing some bare ground, looking forward to completing my pruning and hoping the orchard pond doesn’t last long or I’ll be pruning in waders.
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Have you started your cider making experiments yet? Definitely interested in hearing how that goes, given I am about 2-3 years behind you in progress (on a much smaller scale). I planted ~60 trees on my property last year, with 45 being in an orchard (21 apples, 3 apricots, 6 cherries, 4 nectarine, 5 peach, 6 pears). I use chipdrop to get free woodchips to mulch my rows. Maybe that exists in your area (I am in Northern Virginia).
We have some overlap in apple scions for cider (Golden Russet, Dabinett, Arkansas Black, Nova Spy, McIntosh), but it looks like I have a couple you do not (Franklin Cider Apple, Goldrush).
I just love this thread and it gives me hope for my little orchard!
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I haven’t started brewing, I could have this past fall as I finally had a decent harvest. I figure I’ll just start with a simple brewing kit and upgrade as I learn. We just purchased a travel trailer with the intent of going south for a couple months in winter, so I’m not yet sure how that absence will affect my ability to brew. I haven’t tried Goldrush as I’m not sure I can ripen it here in zone 4b. We do have chipdrop here, but I’m far enough out in the country that they’re never nearby working. I think it works better in an urban setting where they need a place to dispose of the chips. The large pile of chips at the orchard is finally gone, but I have some here at the house and we have a pto driven chipper for the tractor. There was a YouTube channel, Cidery from Scratch, that was learning to brew cider. A young couple that are in the process of establishing a Cidery in Michigan. They started with a home brew kit and worked their way up as they went, and they’ll have a full blow cidery eventually. It’s worth a watch.
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Good point about Goldrush. Already ahead of you with respect to Cidery From Scratch. Watching their videos was one of the main reasons I put some cider apples in my orchard. I also repeated one of their videos and brewed 4 different one-gallon batches of Martinelli’s apple juice, where each batch used a different yeast (Nottingham Ale, Cote des Blancs, EC-1118, Cider House Select Premium Cider Yeast). Last year I was hoping to source some apples to make different variations with my preferred yeast, but did not get around to it. Hopefully I will get to that this fall. My favorite cider (Wyndridge) uses Gold Rush, Stayman, Northern Spy, and Jonagold, so may try to do something similar.
I am zone 7b, so I know the results would be totally different than your area, but do you have any cider apple scions that you feel really have stood out from a growth and disease resistance perspective? I only have one of each scion, and most of my cider apples are on M111, which is perfect for where I am and wet feet, but the Arkansas Black seems to be lightyears ahead of everything else. Yes, I recognize these are not all traditional cider apples.
Really well
Arkansas Black (M111)
Crown Empire (G935)
Franklin CIder Apple (G890)
Enterprise (M111)
Okay
Golden Russet (EMLA 7)
NovaMac (M111)
Poorly
Dabinette (M111)
Goldrush (M111)
Pristine (EMLA 7)
Nova Spy (M111)
Granny Smith (M111)
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I’m still following this thread, i really love the photos and video and talk of flavor and how prolific some varieties are.
what happened with smokehouse? did you keep it and had it produced?
Smokehouse fruited for me last year. I think I posted pics in the Apples 2025 thread. Those poor trees were set back by deer browsing but finally recovered, The trees are sprawling and a bit droopy. I don’t recall impressions on its taste but do remember I liked it.
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thanks for the answer! I’m thinking about grafting it and was curious
I have scion Anji, let me know if you’d like some.
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I have Ark Black on M.111 and it’s quite vigorous for me too, but it has been slow to produce. It did have a few fruits last season, and it’s been decent as far as disease goes. I have a spray program, so if I say “good disease resistance” I mean WITH my spray program (no experience without). Here’s what I’ve observed with Cider/Multi-use varieties here in the Adirondacks:
Airlies Redflesh - B.118 & M.111 – med-high vigor, decent disease resistance, slow to fruit
Almata – B.118 – med-high vigor, decent disease resistance, slow to fruit
Brown’s – B.118 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Centennial Crab – B.118 & M.106– low vigor, difficult to graft, slow to fruit, awkward tree
form, good disease resistance
Chestnut Crab – B.118 & M.106 – med-low vigor, good disease resistance but may have
experienced blossom blast (?), slow to fruit
Cortland – B.118 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance
Dolgo Crab – B.118 & M.106 – low vigor, good disease resistance
Ellis Bitter – B.118 – med vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Enterprise – B.118 & M.111 – med vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit (had issues with
fire blight on M.111, OK now)
Fauxwhelp – B.118 – med vigor – good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Golden Russet – B.118 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance
Harrison – B.118 & M.111– med to med-high vigor, very upright scaffolds, slow to fruit, good
disease resistance
Hyslop Crab – B.118 – med vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Niedzwetzkyana – B.118 & M.106 – low vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Red Astrachan – B.118 – medium vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Red Vein Crab – B.118 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Whitney Crab – B.118 & M.106 – med vigor – good disease resistance, a bit early
Wickson Crab – B.118 & M.106 – med vigor – good disease resistance
Winekist – B.118 – med vigor – good disease resistance
Arkansas Black – M.111 – high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Ashmead’s Kernel – M.111 – med vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Black Twig – M.111 – high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Campfield – M.111 & P.18 – med-low to low vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Dabinett – M.111 – med-low to low vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Doux Normandie – M.111 – med-low to low vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Egremont Russet – M.111 – med vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Fameuse/Snow – M.111 – high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Golden Nugget – M.111 & P.18 – med to med-high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Hewe’s/Virginia Crab – M.111 – high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious (this tree is
NUTS! Can’t prune it enough, difficult form, sprawling and wide)
Liberty – M.111 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance
Mott’s Pink – M.111 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, (sharp)
Muscat de Venus – M.111 – med-low vigor, slow to establish, good disease resistance, very
russetted for me maybe from my spray program?
Nehou – M.111 – med vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Nova Spy – M.111 & M.106 – low to med-low vigor, good disease resistance, very thin &
whispy, taking time to bulk/strengthen up, slow to fruit
November Peach – M.111 & P.18 – med-high to high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to
fruit, haven’t figured this one out yet
Redfield – M.111 & P.18 – med-low vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Roxbury Russet – M.111 – med-low vigor, prone to fire blight, still in recovery & replacement
Mode
Tolman Sweet – M.111 – medium vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Bramley’s Seedling – M.106 & G.210 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit,
tree was slow to establish for me, but is taking off now
Chisel Jersey – M.106 – med vigor, prone to fire blight, slow to fruit
Grimes Golden – P.18 – med to med-high vigor, good disease resistance, slow to fruit
Harry Masters Jersey – P.18 – low to med-low vigor, prone to fire blight, slow to fruit
Herefordshire Redstreak – P.18 – low vigor, prone to fire blight, slow to fruit
Kingston Black – P.18 – low to med-low vigor, a bit disease prone, slow to fruit
Le Bret – P.18 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Porter’s Perfection – M.106 - med vigor, prone to fire blight, precocious
Somerset Redstreak – P.18 - low vigor, prone to fire blight
Wealthy – P.18 – prone to fire blight, replacing
Medaille d’Or – B.118 – med to med-low vigor, prone to fire blight
Geneva Crab – M.7 – med-high vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Swayzie – G.210 – med vigor, good disease resistance, precocious
Many of the other cider varieties I have are too young to have formed an impression.
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This is so helpful! Thank you for taking the time to provide this detailed response. My liberty is also pretty vigorous, but mine is on M.7. My Nova Spy is also so thin comparatively.
I generally just love cider from the U.K. more than the U.S., so I was considering trying to get Kingston Black, Yarlington Mills, Herefordshire Redstreak, and Medaille d’Or, but your commentary just reminds me I should not do some of these unless I have a more robust spray program other than my one dormant spray and 2-3 copper sprays a year (excluding things for insects like kaolin clay).
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