Mutsu ripe

Only had one Mutsu fruit make it. Big and bold.

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That’s one very lovely apple!

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Wow!

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A great variety; they get big in Zambia too.

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Great looking apple Auburn. I really like Mutsu apples. I do not think they would do well here in my area. Seeing your apple here makes me rethink putting a tree in my orchard now.

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Over the last few years when I only had one or just a few new apple varieties I picked more at the wrong stage than the correct time. I finally got lucky. This one was awesome. I have tasted other Mutsu before and they were good but nothing in comparison to this one. Big and bold can now add awesome taste to it’s list.

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I went ahead and picked up at nice looking Walmart Mutsu yesterday. What the hell…only $22. I like the description of the taste I have heard from others. Some licorice taste? Interesting.

I saw one at Lowes nearby for 1/2 off because some of the soil was missing from the container. 6-7 ft tree ~1.25" caliper for only $12.50. I was tempted, but I have no other apple trees, and no room to plant more. I guess I could always try to graft, but I don’t even have enough room for one more tree…(at least according to my wife of 20 years. Yes, she is the boss and knows it.).

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I also picked one up at wal-mart a few weeks ago. But it was just $14. Maybe it was a smaller tree. Seems I remember they had $14 and $22 dollar trees. The only difference I could see was the size of the pots. Trees themselves were all the same size.

My Walmart isn’t carrying trees now…I don’t think they ever have.

Ive got shizuka grafted to my trees and really like the apples, its doesnt alwasy mature here, but when it does its very good. I think this is a sister to mutsu if I remember correctly…

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Sounds good Rob. We both will be growing it in Tennessee so we can compare progress.

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Yeah. That’s why I understand as well. Sisters.

You could always sneak it into a park and keep an eye on it if you have no more space.

Congrats Bill. I know that joy when an apple finally reaches its potential. Here’s to many more of those experiences!

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@Auburn … could you tell me how your Mutsu apple has performed for you FireBlight wise?

I have a friend here that has a Mutsu… looks like it may be 25+ years old.

They just bought the home a few years back… and they had no idea what variety it was. I found the original owner of the home and he told me it was Mutsu.

The new home owners are friends… and we have been to their home a few times.

I noticed the tree which looks quite healthy and last June it had lots of nice clean good sized apples on it. I tried one… not ripe yet… but still tasted pretty good.

This week I went to their place and the tree had several nice clean apples on it and some were good and ripe (sunny side)… and some on the shadey side still a little unripe… but still tasted quite good.

I could see the tree had a few hits of FB this spring … but each one only affected like 3-4 inches if a limb tip.

There were no FB hits where fruit had set… only on the very outer limb tips.

It is a quite large tree and obviously has not been seriously affected by FB in the past 25+ years.

They will let me collect some scionwood this winter.

This Mutsu is reported to be succeptable to FB… which is a little scary to me… but I see this one living and doing well and producing lots of nice clean apples right here in my county (with no spray and no pruning).

I found this post and see that you have or had one. How did it do for you FB wise ?

Thanks
TNHunter

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My family really likes the Mutsu apple. There used to be Mutsu apples in our local grocery stores for a number of years. Even the national chain Kroger’s had Mutsu apples. They were normally not as big at the ones in the smaller local grocery store but at least they had the Mutsu variety. These were grown at a big orchard in our state that were in the local grocery stores. Just about all their apples they have there are from that orchard. I used them to make apple dumplings with the large Mutsu apples.
The last 3 to 4 years the grocery store has not had any Mutsu apples in their stores. Nor has Kroger had any Mutsu apples.
I was going to put a Mutsu apple tree in my orchard since we liked it so well. However, reading more and more about the Mutsu variety it looks like it has a big problem with blister spot. It can also spread to other apple varieties.
Sooooo, that stopped me from putting a Mutsu tree in my orchard. I can only think perhaps, just perhaps that is the reason the grocery stores around here do not have any of the Mutsu apples. Perhaps the orchards have replaced the Mutsu with another variety. Maybe I am wrong.

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I’m not going to be much help on the fireblight resistance of Mutsu. I kept it for a short period of time and I don’t remember much about it other than being a big apple with a decent taste. When my two daughters were growing up we had a nearby upick apple orchard and each summer we took them there to pick apples. The two varieties I remember that they had were Mutsu and Mollie. I would assume that both had some resistance to fireblight but they might have been using antibiotics. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

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