Located just outside of Reidsville, NC. Although their name includes the word " orchard", they are really a nursery selling fruit trees rather than an orchard selling apples. They have an open house on Saturdays in November before Thanksgiving. Last year they had over 50 heritage apple variety available for tasting and some interesting demonstrations. Century Farm grows many variety of heritage apple trees mostly on MM111, but some on Bud9. Knowledgeable and helpful folks, however avoid the Bevens Favorite if you need a summer apple! A few years ago I saw Tom Burford and Lee Calhoon āOld Southern Applesā at the open house. Their website includes some nice pictures and apple descriptions.
Since Iāve bought many trees from David, Iāve always wanted to go up there, but itās a good
4+ hr drive, and Iām a football junkie, so the weekends are shot. Iām giving my Beavanās
one more year, and if it disappoints me again, itās history.
Rayrose
Iām only about 30 minutes away, so its easy for me to drop by. I bought most of my heritage trees from David. After trying a bunch of heritage trees, I understand why some of them went extent!
I tried two of the the trees sold by Lindley Nursery in Greensboro, NC in the early 1900ās, Since I live outside Greensboro, these variety caught my attention. Not impressed with Bevens or Summer Banana. Virginia Gold from VPI looks more promising. My other heritage trees are well known variety that are working well. Va Winesap, OF Winesap, Stayman, Roxybury Russet, Albemarle Pipipn and Grimes. Bought one Hopple Antique Gold this year as a source to top work 40 Bevens.
Thanks Blue for the info, my wife and I are planning on making the drive up there for the 11/7 open house to pick up my tree order. Western and northern NC is beautiful country, we will be making a long weekend out of it, driving thru the blue ridge mountains and staying in some b&bās. Do you have any suggestions on other places to visit in the area?
Summer Banana has not been good for me either. I can never get it ripen, before
it develops brown spot, so Iām top grafting it with Hawaii and Hooples. Dixie Red
Delight has also been a dud for me. Youāre in a better apple growing location than
I am, or I would try some of the oneās you mentioned. I do grow Grimes and itās
become my favorite. Why do you have 40 Bevans?
It came highly recommended, it was a Greensboro Apple and it ripened around July 4, which was the window I wanted to hit. Once I tasted Pristine next to Bevens - Bevens was out!
I now understand why so many old apples have been replaced with something new and better. Its hard to predict which old apples will be excellent in my climate and which ones are dogs. I also have a mixed row of Summer Banana and Va Gold (about 20 tree total) that will get re-worked, unless they impress me next year. The adjacent row is Grimes so I would most likely move to Grimes. Summer Rambo and Lodi are two more that did not work out. The fireblight on both was so bad I pulled all of the trees rather than trying to cut the FB out.
What other varieties have you found that do well here? Iām gathering from what youāve described as your experiences that not all āSouthern applesā perform as well in this location as their descriptions suggest.
Also, what have been your earliest and latest apples?
Muddy, I grow several apples and like most people I did not do proper research when I bought the trees. I have an unknown early apple and an Anna that do very well outside of the tendency to bloom too early and get hit with a late frost. One pc spray after bloom and that is it.
I also have Fiji, Hawaii and Mutsu trees. The Fuji is healthy but I have a hard time getting them to ripen before bitter rot sets in, get very little crop. Mutsu does well and tastes great. Hawaii has also done well, maybe not as great as Mutsu as far as rot goes.
I also have small grafts of Goldrush, Liberty, Enterprise, Blacktwig, and Pristine. Liberty has done well and taste great, love it would like to replace Fuji with this. The one apple Goldrush produced got rot so I did not get to try it. The other grafts have not produced.
I have Arkansas Black on order from Century Farms that I hope does well. Would like to go to the open house but its a little too far a drive.
The only apples that have done really well for me are Grimes and Golden Delicious.
The rest are hit or miss. I have a number of new grafts that Iām waiting to start
producing.
I got some scion from century in the spring. I have watched all their videos. They are the real deal. I would love to see it in person. Tim Hensleyās of Bristol VA youtube videos are amazing and fueled a mission to grow and propagate heritage varieties. There is nothing close in my part of the world. I am hoping that 6a is not to much of a stretch for southern apples.
My guess is that southern apples can take northern winters fine but that they need southern summers to do well and/or taste good.
That place is more in the central part of the state it is flat.
Winesap, Stayman, Grimes, Gala, Fuji (daybreak and regular), Ginger Gold, Goldrush all do well. Lodi was my early apple before it was removed. My latest ripening apple is Goldrush. Crimson Crisp is an apple that I have high hopes for
Cousinfloyd
I first noticed the term āsouthern applesā when Lee Calhoon used it in his excellent book. Many of the so called āsouthern applesā did not come from the south, but they were often grown in the south because they did well there. Winesap is an example. It is sometimes labeled as a southern apple, but I believe the apple originated in New Jersey. Grimes is another example.
Iād stay away from Gala. Mine was a FB magnet and spread to my other trees.
After I removed it, my FB problem was gone.
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Rayrose
I had a huge FB outbreak two years ago. Since then I have been learning to control it. Copper at 1/4 inch green helped. Apogee also helped and I sprayed strep ahead of all the rain events during bloom which helped. After the major outbreak two years ago, I was expecting a lot of bacteria carry over this year. Just a few late strikes on Gala. I plan to follow the same program next year. Its time consuming and expensive, but I have to protect my investment in the apple orchard.
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Chris
Not much to see in the Greensboro area, but in Western NC the Asheville area is a good place to visit. South of Asheville is Henderson county where lots of apples are grown.
Iām about 30 minutes from Century Farm and I plan to pick up my trees early on 11/7. You are welcome to stop by and have a look at my place after you get your trees. We are a little larger than a back yard operation, but nothing like a large commercial orchard. We do well with blackberries and blueberries, but growing apples has been more difficult than we expected. After making a big financial commitment to get the apple orchard started, its too late to turn back now!