Reviewing what’s been said in this forum about the Mother apple, I ran across this post from 2016. I agree with your comments TFB. I was the enthusiast who sent Adam those apples back in 2014. I sent them well short of the 5 years of fruiting and probably a week later than I should have. Although that was the tree’s first good year, other seasons have produced even better apples. Picked Mothers yesterday and will pick the rest today. Will wait a bit before judging this year’s crop, but I think it will be a very fine one, and it is the best ever for productivity and size.
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I like the Mutsu for Western Washington.
Excessive vigor and pollen sterile, but the fruit is great. Probably best on M26 rootstock.
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I found this thread again because I did a search on Baldwin. Joanie tells me its one of Shaun’s favorites, and I think the one he uses for his apple pies. The pie I tasted was very good. She’s going to collect me some scion from his tree. It’s an old enough apple that I imagine there are sports that may behave differently.
Honestly I couldn’t tell you if I’ve tasted a fresh Baldwin or not, but I like the sound of it. Supposed to be hard, which I like.
She also has a Red Gravenstein that she endorses, so I think I’ll give that a go.
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Have you tried Mammoth Black Twig? It is a very firm apple with good flavor and good disease resistance, at least in the PNW.
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Bear, have you considered Spartan? There is a tree of it here which I enjoyed very much last season. It over produced so I don’t expect to see in 2022. It is a very dependable nice textured Mac sort of apple that I almost regrafted as the tree didn’t produce the prior year. Well that and I already had three semi dwarfs to topwork. Not knowing if I was about to kill those trees gave me pause to do #4. Lucky for me, the grafts took (Karmijn, GoldRush and Yellow Newtown Pippin)-- at least thus far.
I haven’t, thanks for the suggestions.
Baldwin is an interesting apple, and for a time was my favorite, back when most of my experience was with commercial varieties. I still love them when they are perfect but their quality as an eating apple varies a great deal from site to site and also on any given tree and season. When they were featured in taste tests their ratings were mercurial- from top to not even an honorable mention. They have great, real apple flavor with dense flesh and a nice sugar-acid balance when at their best. Commercial growers usually pick them too green because of their tendency to drop. They are droppers and sometimes even before they’ve reached peak ripeness, and once they are at their best they will certainly drop promptly.
I now consider Spitz a superior apple of its type, especially for your purpose of making apple pie. I think the perfect apple pie is half Spitz and half Jonagold.
The reason I have lost my huge enthusiasm for Baldwin is its inconsistency. Tom Burford said it used to be a great apple in the hills of interior VA until the weather got too warm. It seems to need cool nights while ripening to achieve top quality- and sandy soil that doesn’t retain too much water helps.
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Thanks Alan, I appreciate your comments, which have encouraged me.
A quote from the person who will be providing the scions from an old tree in our region “The apples I picked were absolutely gorgeous, delicious, free of disease. I am going to go back to cut scions next month.”
My apples currently are pretty neglected. I check in on them occasionally and give them what care my whims, and tools on my person at the time, can provide spontaneously.
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Except for the Apple scab
I really like the Old McIntosh.
Liberty has some of the flavors and is disease resistant
but
McIntosh had more intense flavor.
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To me, its most distinctive quality is its crunch that compliments its aromatic qualities nicely. Its Achilles heal is its inability to sustain that crunch in storage. For a small percentage of people it is a fav- however I think Macoun has a larger following of those that know both types of apples grown at high quality.
I personally prefer denser fleshed apples and don’t grow either in my orchard. I do have some Macouns in my nursery but they aren’t especially popular, perhaps because I don’t push them. They are difficult to learn how to train- took me about 20 years, but I didn’t have the internet.
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Do you have any Winter Banana Apples?
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