I purchased a home on 1.3 acres this summer and am planning my orchard. I’m in the midlands of South Carolina (Zone 8B) and I have generally sandy soil. I’m told we get a little over 1000 chill hours annually.
I’ve picked out varieties for several kinds of fruit, but I’m posting specifically to get feedback on my selection of apples and pears. My goal is to be able to produce my own ciders and perries using fruit from the backyard.
While we do have commercial cideries within the state, they exclusively use dessert apples and produce generally disappointing cider. In addition to a few others primarily for fresh eating, I’ve selected the following varieties for cider/perry:
Apple (on MM 111)
Amére de Berthcourt
Black Twig
Dabinett
Foxwhelp
Frequin Rouge (on MM 106)
Harrison
Hewes Virginia Crab
Medaille d’Or (on MM 106)
Winesap
Pear (on OHxF 87)
Butt
Hendre Huffcapp
Thorn
Yellow Huffcapp
There’s little information on how these fare in warmer climates, especially the bittersweets of European origin. Has anyone tried these varieties in the South? Is it worth a go, or am I doomed from the start? Thanks!
Ill be curious to see how it goes for you. Im doing the same in the same location. Ive got yates, roxburry russet, harrison, campfield, and white winter pearmain growing.
What I’d like to try is a cider made with both apples, and pears. I think that could be a very interesting combination if you mixed the right varieties, whatever those varieties might be. I wonder if Asian pears could be used for that combination. There is Asian pear Perry cider that is already being sold.
@FullOfFish@lordkiwi hey! Sorry I don’t post on here much - I am happy to give an update on how things are going.
I have planted the following apples (all on MM111 unless indicated otherwise):
Black Limbertwig
Blacktwig
Campfield*
Franklin (G969)*
Gnarled Chapman (G41)*
Harrison*
Hewes Virginia Crab*
Liberty
Pink Lady
Roxbury Russet
Winesap
Yates
And the following pears (all on OHxF 87):
Butt*
Hendre Huffcap*
Kieffer
Seckel
Thorn*
Yellow Huffcapp*
*Asterisk indicates specifically for cider or perry, not fresh eating.
I avoided any European cider apples on the recommendation of @scottfsmith. My hope is that Franklin, Gnarled Chapman, and Campfield will do well since they are said to contribute tannin to cider, which is apparently hard to find among American apples.
Most of my apples came from Century Farms (thanks, @ansayre!), and the remaining apples and pears came from Trees of Antiquity and Raintree.
The trees are leafing out beautifully. With everything planted within only the last few months, it will be a while before I have any fruit, but everything seems promising so far! I’ll share photos tomorrow.
@FullOfFish would love to stay in touch! You are quite literally the only person I’m aware of within 100 miles growing cider apple trees, so hopefully we can be of help to each other.
Your new varieties list looks loads better than the original one! One apple you may have trouble with is Gnarled Chapman, it loves to rot. I finally top worked my tree this spring after having nearly all of them rot last season. I also never grew Franklin so don’t know how that one will like a southern climate. All the other ones worked for me at least. Rot can be minimized by doing biweekly cover sprays all summer, something I decided not to do.
I have a few more apples on trial for cider but so far have not found a single high-tannin low-rot non-crab variety. I have a crab which is high-tannin and low-rot and I made a very nice cider last year with it plus some Harrison.
I am wondering if the Turnball Giant (Turnbull) Asian pear hybrid might be good for making cider, it’s said to be very apple like in flavor, with basically no sweetness.
Online I have read that the following variety combinations are good for making cider.
Chojuro and Seuri varieties.
Chojuro and Mishirasu.
Chojuro and Korean Giant
I have read that someone made a decent cider with the Summercrisp Asian pear hybrid
I was just reading that if Asian pears are picked too early then they have tannins in them, I am wondering how much tannins! Even the least ripe Asian pears I have had from the store, did not appear to be high in tannins too me.
Hewes is great but it ripens really early, and nearly all of the best cider apples for the south are late ones. One potential solution is you could press it and then store it in the fridge for a few months waiting for the other apples to ripen. Or get enough of it to make a single variety..
At some point I decided I’m a once-a-year pressing kind of guy, there is a lot of set-up and tear-down involved in pressing. So I removed my Hewes.
Note that the modern Hewes is not the original one, the original one was much later. There was an article on this that I saw recently which gave all the history.
EDIT: found it. They are calling the modern Hewes “Foster’s Virginia” now since its not the original one.
Any mild tasting Apple or pear just provide bulk juice. You really need the complex flavors of the cider and crab apples to make it worth drinking. Aronia is full of those elements which makes it a great additive.
Aronia sounds interesting but havent tried growing it yet. I did experiment with adding the fruit of Prunus serotina to a cider with excellent results. It provides some nice tannins, a unique flavor - cherry like but a bit more complex than domesticated varieties, and the skins made the cider a dark rose. I harvested them, froze two pints worth of whole fruit, defrosted, gently mashed up with a potato masher (to avoid cracking the pits), added to three gallons of cider. Let it finish fermenting then racked off to settle for a bit before bottling. Carbonated using priming sugar.
the early apple i’m growing for cider is winekist, the plan is single variety but i may end up mixing in my bush cherries too for an even redder, cherry/cranberry punch. I got aronia too if i need more tanin
All I know about crab apples and cider apples is that they are too bitter to actually eat, because they are high in tannins, I had tried eating a crab apple once, I definitely would not eat one as is again. I believe that my favorite apple cider is a mix of both high tannin apples, and low tannin apples, the high tannin apples being the greater portion of the apples. Low tannin apples can add some good qualities to the cider if used sparingly enough.
I’d think that unripe American persimmon fruit would be the best way to add tannins to a apple cider, it is so high in tannins that I think that not much would be needed. Of course this is only a guess.
One apple that is used to make cider is the ‘McIntosh (McIntosh Red) apple. In my opinion it’s not a good eating apple as is. Only good for apple pies, and for making cider, although it’s still can be considered eatable fresh, since the tannins are not very high. Are apples like that considered actual cider apples?
I think pears have a little less acid than apples and also have an unfermentable sugar alcohol that leaves a little residual sweetness. They also have a narrower window between ripe and rotten. Keep those things in mind and you could make a nice blend of the two.