My Haralson apple was loaded this year with probably 10 bushels of apples. As I was harvesting those lower on the tree, I made a circle around the tree. When I was about done, I noticed the end of a branch had bright red, very large apples compared to the rest of the tree. I have marked the branch and hope to chip bud some buds next spring to Bud 9. The 50 year old tree does not produce very good budwood and I may have to do some pruning to get better budwood. As usual, my camera did not work. It is hard to find the Haralred apple in any nursery catalogs. I wonder if it is loosing favor.
Haralson is a very fine apple here. Unfortunately, my graft was slow to take and I’ve only gotten a few fruit from it. But it’s definitely a great eating apple. I need to regraft.
Haralson is one of the few apples that always does great here. It is very slow growing so it took 10 years before i got apples in poor soil. Once it began to fruit it has done so every year since in normally large quantities.
Keep us posted on your mutation! Congratulations on your 50 year old tree too. Our Haralsons in MN did not live that long. The oldest made it to about 40 years.
My Haralson that I grafted onto seedling rootstock in 2019 finally took off this year and really started growing and filling out. Then at the end of the summer it was the victim of a few rogue cows that got into the orchard and used it as a scratching post until there was nothing left but a stub in the ground.
Several other apple, pear and peach trees were also damaged, but I am most disappointed about the Haralson, as it is probably my very favorite apple. There were fruit buds on the tree so I was so excited for (possibly/hopefully) getting apples in 2024.
I wasn’t familiar with Haralson so I looked it up. There are several mutations reported: Lautz, Haralred, Golden Haralson, Scarlet O’Haralson.
That must have felt really good that they chose your tree to rub to a nub. I hope they fertilized the whole property with their manure and everything starts coming up gangbusters now. That is what happened when the cows broke into our backyard when I was 5.