Has anyone tried any of the Night Sky Apples?
I’m busy trying to plan my grafts for this spring (bad apple year here, so fun to think ahead) and stumbled across their site.
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I would hesitate. So many apples out there with a lot more data behind them. Reading the descriptions was somewhat uninspiring to me.
Yeah id want to see things like brix, acidity detailed flavor. Many of these are just described as tastes good basically
Ah. Owned by the folks who would not sell scions or trees of a public use USDA/ Cornell apple. NY75413-30.
Whiners, lol.
My wife’s fam was too impoverished and frugal to buy apple trees. They grew the from roots yanked from another family member’s tree
My father got into apples in the early 80s. Stark Bros mentioned no negatives. Only great pics and lovely descriptions. Some apples like the much celebrated and well-known Freedom, Empire, Enterprise looked good for a while but spectacularly crashed and burned in NE NC. He also grew the Ark Black, JonaRed, Braeburn, Earliblaze, Lodi, Baldwin, Northern spy and a few others.
I got into apples after a Monticello visit because in my dim mind, if Jefferson could grow them without spray, so could I. I knew there were heirloom apples lurking out there because my MIL grew a couple but had no idea where find them. WWW was in it’s infancy but I did find a small add in the rural electrical coop mag. This was Maurice Marshall’s outfit in Pinnacle NC. He was an acolyte of Lee Calhoun. Maurice was the first person I met that had a clue and would steer a customer away from lousy trees. Maurice was in the business of curating more than selling. I came across a now well known outfit I believe in 2001. The proprietor seemed to be a curator-seller and critical information on many of these trees were not published in the profile. Lots of disasters and disappointment and lousy apples along the journey.
Things have certainly changed, but the conditions we’re growing in are changing as well. There seem to be fairly new apple varieties moving the needle in the right direction, but I would like to see more daring and boldness in breeding ideas. Coupling the improved York Imperial with other late apples to come up with an apple that keeps as well as the York Imperial without the blight issues would be great. Coupling a Evercrisp with Brushy Mt. Limbertwig, then pairing the best of that offspring with the York Imperial would be interesting. There is certainly room for new apple varieties that don’t meet commercial production requirements.
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That is why I wish there was an American version of the UK’s National Fruit Collection and Fruit ID. Lots of useful information compiled between those sites.
There are also some wonderful membership type fruit groups in the UK as well.
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You mean this description didn’t inspire you? 
Given how much some sites seem to oversell their apples, part of me questioned if these folk were simply more honest.
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yeah i mean there can be more detail without overselling, but if its just “fairly sweet” apple with appley flavor i wonder what the point is of even releasing it. no info on ripening time, no info on keeping time.
Edit: it does appear theres more info when you click in Carina — Night Sky Apples
Like here is Capellas
"Capella produces large, red-striped, greenish yellow fruit that ripen in late early season. The fruit is slightly tart with a distinctive, complex fruity flavor and firm texture. Storage life is relatively short. The tree blooms moderately early, appears relatively annual bearing, and is of high vigor. Capella trees and fruit are quite susceptible to scab and somewhat susceptible to rust. The cultivar appears tolerant of mildew and fire blight. No summer rots have been observed. Capella is only suitable for conventional production.
Pros: Unique appearance, very good distinct flavor at appropriate maturity, very attractive bicolor apple in retail displays
Cons: Very scab susceptible, firm but not particularly breaking texture"
this seems pretty uninspiring to me. it doesnt have a unique experience either it basically looks like a gala. Idk i think just looking at it i dont get really what their mission is with apple breeding and it somewhat feels like they just selected random seedlingsthey had
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Search the forum and read my description for Hudson’s Golden Gem or Eden. Search for others reviews of just about anything else here. Search the internet for descriptions of Cox’s orange pippin or any of it’s offspring. That’s inspiring. So much more that deserves space on my 2 acres.
I’ve definitely bought scion after reading glowing descriptions of many apples on this site (which I weigh much more heavily than any seller’s descriptions)… you all feed my habit.
Thus, if nobody has tried any of these apples, I’ll keep searching for a couple fun kinds to try this spring.
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That was me also. Except I lived in California so it worked. Then I moved to Virginia.
Also, could not stop laughing at: “Farily sweet with an appley flavor”
It looks like they do a better job of selling their apples on their farm store page. Probably you could taste a bunch of them at their farm store if you went at the right time. (Though likely not this year because it looks like they got hit by the freeze):
@GrumpyPantsPlants, I have no idea how long you’ve been in the apple business and what you’re growing, but if you’re not growing some of the classics like a Hawkeye Delicious, a Mullins strain or an older strain Golden D, Stayman, Winesap, are the Jonared, you’re missing out.
I fuss and complain about the Golden Delicious frequently, but there are some things about this apple that no other I’ve seen can duplicate. For starters, they ripen differently than many other apples. They are very edible out of hand 4 weeks ahead of being fully ripe, 6 weeks cooked. I suspect commercial growers are picking them 3-4 weeks ahead of being ripe. The GD is among the finest tasting apples when properly ripened on the tree. I would rank it better than the King David here in Western NC.
The Jonared is another banger is some areas. Between all the apples my father and I grew in Franklin Cnty NC, the Starks Jonared was the best tasting apple. The others didn’t come close. The Cox Orange Pippin was interesting there, but the Jonared was better.
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I wouldn’t consider myself in the apple business. Although I do sell at farmer’s markets for the fun of it, I’m mainly a hobby grower who loves trialing as many varieties as I can get my hands on. McIntosh and Fireside are my current best performers, but many of my trees are still fairly young. Maybe I’ll turn my small orchard into more when I retire, but I don’t see the demand for clinical psychologists decreasing any time soon.
I do love Hawkeye (I’m in Iowa, so that’s probably a requirement, haha) and the old golden delicious. I don’t have a Jonared, but from your description, it sounds like one should be my next acquisition. 
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