New to me apples for 2020

Excited to be able to taste test these apples for the first time. They aren’t ready yet but so I’m going to add screen protectors. Deciding when to pick an apple you haven’t ripened before is difficult. If you know when these ripen please advise me.
Smoky Mountain Limbertwig (5 on tree)


Red Reese (1 on tree)

Sundowner (2 on tree)

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Bill, could the high humidity inside the protective bag maybe affect the quality of the fruit?

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As of now the moisture hasn’t been an issue with apples but it appears to cause some problems with bagged pears.

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I grafted Smokey Mountain LT last year. Eager to hear what you think of it.

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I hope to be able to report on it later.

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I still don’t get how they don’t cook inside those bags in the hot sun.

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I don’t know either but they don’t. My bags have cuts to allow water to drain out but they often stick together. The one thing I have noticed but might not be the bag causing it is that some of my Goldrush apples will ripen early.

@Auburn,
I have several apples that are new to me. However, they are a long way to go so I don’t know if they will survive to maturity.

The ones that I remember are: Claygate Pearmain, Gravenstein, Herefordshire Russet. Mott Pink, Muscat de Venus, Pome Grise, Rosemary Russet and Vixen.

There are a few that I can’t remember the names right now.

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You have a lot to look forward to. Have you got any fruit from the Graventein yet. I had one fruit last year and none this season. I’m not totally sure if it is labeled correctly but it ripened with my earlier apples and I liked the taste.

This is the first year of Gravenstein. I think mine is correct. I only have one or two fruit out of many flowers. I think because it is a triploid, it is harder to find two other deploids to help pollinate it.

This is also first year of Ashmead Kernel and the same thing happened. I grafted them among many varieties. Hopefully, bees will work harder next year.

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Big year for new ones here: Green Pippin; first Monarks from my own tree; Enterprise; Swiss Limbertwig; ArkCharm; maybe Fall Limbertwig; ; Sweet 16; Hall. Yet another year, seems endless, waiting for Dula Beauty and Aunt Rachel to fruit and hang on to it.

New pears: Blakes Pride; Potomac; Warren! and Harrow Sweet (precocious).

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Hmmm. New this year at here at Casa Manana, so long as the codling moths cooperate:

Red Devil
Frostbite
Cornish Aromatic
Chestnut
Margil
Viking
Antonovka
Devonshire Quarrenden
Primate
Golden Russet
Caville Blanc d’Hiver
Esopus Spitzenburg
White Winter Pearmain
Swiss Limbertwig
Black Limbertwig
St. Edmund’s Pippin
Claygate Pearmain
Husk Sweet
Parmar
Keener Seedling
Wyken Pippin
Victoria Limbertwig

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Well I spoke too soon- Squirrel is inside my electric fence- somehow got by several hot and ground wires.

I’m willing to consider poison bait now- inside the cage (one inch wire mesh). Any ideas? Or PM me direct.

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I harvested all my Gravenstein yesterday, they started to get a bit mealy. Last year, they were ripe about a week later. This is the earliest ripening apple among those that I grow.

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I looked back at my last years records and my one apple was ripe on 20190707. I only had a small limb but I liked it so well I added a small tree graft and another limb.

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Gravenstein is a bit of a cult apple here in Northern California, so if you live here you kind of feel obliged to grow it. :wink: I personally much prefer late season apples (perhaps because they don’t have to compete against stone fruit :slight_smile: ), but my wife likes Gravenstein.

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It looks like Black Amish and Winecrisp will be the only new apples for me to taste this year.

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Brand new apples for me are Kogetsu, Buckley Giant (early local variety reminding me of Honeycrisp a bit, Celestia, and Green Newtown Pippin. Fingers crossed. I’ve definitely slowed the grafting of new varieties. Still, there always seem to be a few new ones to try.

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Ain’t that the truth?

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My new apple varieties planted this year are:

Bareroot from fedco:
-Baldwin
-Canadian strawberry
-Black Oxford
-Esopus Spitzenberg
-Blue Pearmain
-Mcdonald crab apple (a 2 inch crab discovered on a farm a town over from me, known for its apple jelly)

Bench grafted onto antonovka rootstocks:
-Adams Pearmain
-Flower of Kent
-St. Edmunds Russet
-Grimes Golden
-King David
-Pumpkin Sweet
-Turley Winesap
-Smokehouse
-Winston
-Honey Gold (I think the caterpillars did this one in :frowning: )

Gifted to me:
-Macoun

I also have 12-15 seedling apple trees (random pollination) planted that I will let grow out just for fun. If they are nothing special they will be top worked in the future.

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