As @mamuang mentioned above (another highly respect forum member ) there is no such thing as a no-spray apple in MA. Well, there is, but it means some really sickly looking trees (scab CAR etc) and lots of gnarled apples (curculio) filled with worms (codling moth). Or it means getting really lucky. It also can take several years before the pests find the trees so it can look good for a few years and then WHAM.
By the way here is my current list of relatively bulletproof apples for me. I find fruit rots to be a big problem so many of these are ones which are not going to rot in the heat. I have lots of stuff rotting now, we are in a long stretch of highs in the 90s.
This will be year 3 of Hunge production on several grafts. Hope the taste (meh mixed with blah) improves a lot or I’ll graft over. Waiting eagerly to see what apples, if any, resist the new Leaf Blotch fungus. Lanternfly has reached two counties north of me (on grapevines), so it’s on its way south.
I expect it is not going to improve for you, it is an odd taste. Blenheim Orange is in a similar category of taste that probably most people won’t like a lot. It is mainly a cooker in any case. All the other ones taste standard-apple-good, but Rambour d’Hiver is more of a cooker as well I would say.
I saw my first lanternfly nymph this year so they are in my orchard now. No appreciable damage found yet though.
For reference for anyone who might have been wondering, this is the turnpike apple, August 25th 2021. Fruit was pretty large, good acid but also pretty sweet (not a spitter by any means)…
With due respect to Scott and Mamuang, I’d like to differ at least a bit. Partly this is based on our own trees, many of which are five or six years old and have yet to be sprayed. The leaves do look a little raggedy by the end of the growing season, but I’d call them closer to mostly ok than really sickly. They have also started to produce fruit, most of which has been sound when I’ve been able to beat the squirrels and birds to it. That being said, I concede that it’s early days yet for our trees and things could certainly change.
What I find more persuasive, at least for myself, is the entirely untended apple trees that I see around where we live. Like our own trees, they may look a little ragged as things wind down, but they seem to be healthy enough overall. Some of them have pretty clearly been growing for decades, and some of them bear a good amount of fruit that I’ve found to be sound in spite of the tree being left completely to its own devices.
@JinMA , this type of discussion always makes me wonder if I’m doing more harm than good. I lived in Manakin-sabot for about 20 years. It’s a small community west of Richmond. When we bought that property, we inherited a moderately sized peach tree and a very large apple tree.
The peach tree was always loaded with yellow peaches. They were real beauties, no disease, and so prolific that I would prop up three or four branches due to the fruit load. So many peaches they could not be harvested, processed, or frozen quick enough before spoiling, no matter how hard I worked.
The apples were about medium sized and red with a touch of green, nicely sweet tart, and were ready for harvest about the time the kids would go back to school. Not real lookers, but not bad either. Very little pests or diseases. I could make applesauce till the cows came home.
I did nothing, absolutely nothing in terms of spraying, thinning, or pruning. I didn’t realize back then how rare that was. Now I work in the orchard all day long. True it’s a labor of love and I enjoy it, but I don’t have a heck of a lot to show for it.
Am I comparing apples and oranges or is this just the difference in 2 hours driving and good variety selection?
First year I’ve got a decent crop of Redfields hanging and they are currently getting destroyed by codling moth. Similar to Liberty in my yard, but the liberty are doing much better bagged this year. I’m considering top working one of my two redfield over to Otterson next year. Anyone had better luck with Otterson and bugs? Trying to keep that tree a red fleshed cider variety.
I gave a seedling apple to my neighbor. It came from a flower bed, along with a couple others.
I am finally going to speculate that it is offspring of a store-bought RED DELICIOUS, pollinated by Golden Hornet.
I’m bringing this up, because the fruits are very nice, getting ripe, golf ball or bigger in size, annd the limb structure looks like Starkrimson, and the fruits are yellow, certainly edible though small,
but it’s the foliage that is so impressive. Dark pretty green, when many trees are nearly NUDE from scab, rust, mildew, etc, etc. Not a blemish on this tree. AMAZING.
Not sprayed. Other apples 100 to 1000 feet away. About 8 years old seedling tree, third crop.
Williams Pride has done well for me with no spray so far. Apples are not perfect, but fair. Liberty apples are eaten up, mostly unusable. I’m just a little north of St. Louis, Z 6a.
I’m wondering if having Liberty actually helps the other varieties. You know, the insects all run to Liberty and leave everything else alone. I’ve been debating on grafting mine over to something else.
Not nearly as ‘prominent’ or ‘pronounced’ in my specimen in comparison to your picture above. But, enough of 5 points are distinct that I don’t see why it can’t be a RD offspring.
Tasty, somewhat sweet, and mealy as it gets dead ripe…a week before ripe, has crunch like a Chinese pear almost, and flavor to match. (Actually flavor before ripe reminds of Kieffer pear,too.)
) there is no such thing as a no-spray apple in MA. Well, there is, but it means some really sickly looking trees (scab CAR etc) and lots of gnarled apples (curculio) filled with worms (codling moth). Or it means getting really lucky. It also can take several years before the pests find the trees so it can look good for a few years and then WHAM.
or is this just the difference in 2 hours driving and good variety selection?