You might appreciate the article I authored (and was subsequently published in Deer and Deer hunting Magazine) I’m learning all the time so I’d make some changes if I updated it. If you read through to the end I listed my primary sources
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You might also find this posting and thread useful:
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my williams pride is ripening its 2nd crop of apples with no spray. i got six last year off of a 6ft trained high and wide tree. i let 30 evenly spaced set on it this summer. they arent even fully red and are delicious already . fruit size is down to 2.5in. from last years 3in. and the flavor is also improved, partially from our dry summer and more fruit set. it has replaced zestar as my favorite locally grown apple for flavor. only damage was 1 apple got a bird peck. leaves and fruit completely clean. only other apple out of the 7 i have that has clean foliage is black oxford, but it hasnt set fruit yet. really looking forward to that one for its long storage abilities. i havent sprayed my apples or pears on purpose. i have 30 on each of my 2 mtn ash/ pears with 6 different cultivars on them. one small branch got killed by fireblight and i pruned it off last month. so far no more strikes. ill graft another variety on it next spring. looking good so far. i got over the pear pollination problem this summer by becoming the pollinator with a small paint brush. i went from 0 pears to probably 2-3 doz per tree, which i pruned down to 30 each on 7ft trees. apparently with all the fruit trees / bushes crowded into this 1 acre, the bees skip my pear blooms. self pollinating isnt as hard as it sounds. ive had some elder bushes get poor pollination but they produce so much ill leave them to do thier thing.
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Mine were probably around 3 inches. I thought that was small. Is that supposed to be the normal size?
Is there a similar list for apple growers in Europe? Many of the varieties on that list is not available here.
not sure. some of those were bigger last year but the trees only been in ground for 3 yrs. im not sure what constitutes a big apple. my zestars were big like that also.
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Bravo for all this work. Well done.
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Having grown apples in Massachusetts, California and now northern Florida, I have gotten an appreciation for how much the challenges change by region. In MA it was all about insect damage to fruit. In CA mostly about Fire Blight. In Northern Florida, so far I have not had problems with neither. I mean zilch. But boy, fruit rots are really bad. Arkansas Black and Goldrush don’t hold up well. Summer Banana is better and Pomme Grise is so far not affected. Dixie Red Delught looks also good. No rot on my few Yates..
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Your article about disease resistant trees is the best available compilation of cultivars, sources, and disease ratings for specific trees. Thanks for compiling it.
As I read through it, I noticed Goldrush was listed as resistant to summer rots. In my zone 8A, multiple years of experience have taught me it is very susceptible. If the tree is unsprayed more than 90% of the fruit will rot and the tree may completely defoliate. This year I tried a single spray of boscalid/pyroclostrobin, which are known to be effective against summer rots. I should have used multiple sprays. The foliage and fruit looked clean for most of our long season, but is now showing a lot of damage both to the leaves and fruit.
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I updated the spreadsheet to indicate Goldrush is susceptible to summer rots. Thanks!
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NY 75414-1 looks like a bruiser
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Thank you for alerting me to PDF you shared that details relative susceptibility arthropod pests. I wasn’t aware of such.
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@scottfsmith want to make sure you saw @Loren’s magazine article on disease resistant apples. Is there a place for it somewhere as a permanent reference resource?
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Great article! Thanks for sharing.
Did blue hill nursery speak to the human palatability of any of his trees? Candy crab’s description sounds promising.
During your work, did you get any info on the cultivar ‘butterball’. A few posts about it here on the forum and 39th parallel sells it, but not much data. Intriguing as an orange fleshed apple.
Did blue hill nursery speak to the human palatability of any of his trees? Candy crab’s description sounds promising.
Ryan at Blue Hill represents nearly all of the trees he carries are not only suitable for wildlife but also tasty from a human standpoint. I believe Candy Applecrab is probably the most delicious.
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During your work, did you get any info on the cultivar ‘butterball’. A few posts about it here on the forum and 39th parallel sells it, but not much data. Intriguing as an orange fleshed apple.
Butterball has not been on my radar until your query. I’ll have to do some research on it. Thanks for the lead.
I hope you are on the mend. Thank you for sharing all of your work.
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Interesting reports on summer rot in Goldrush- never a single case of it over many years here 8A Maryland. I bag 95% of my Goldrush but unbagged 5% no rot either. Orchard is in a wind corridor. Edit: forgot to add I do one spray of Immunox at petal fall for rust, maybe it helps with rot too?
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I see major rot on goldrush here in AL if not bagged or sprayed. But outside the deep southeast it seems bulletproof.
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I’m sure this isn’t the help you’re looking for, but you’ve got it opened up backwards, you’ve got that little branch tied to the north post and it will get completely shaded out eventually, it’s still small enough to bend it around and make it face South or South-west to protect the trunk from the hot sun and to collect that light that the main canopy won’t.
You should look at SkillCult’s training methods and how to do delayed open center trees, I wish I could grow branches that low, but at least I can grow wild deer. 
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