Picked our first Pristine apple of the season here in Southern California; it looked pretty much like all the photos I’ve seen of it. The tree took a while (5 years) to come into bearing on M111 rootstock. It was decidedly tart, but juicy and flavorful; wish I had it as applesauce. The texture was tender but crisp, and the skin flawless. The seeds were dark brown, indicating ripeness. We got an inch of rain last week (extremely rare here in the summer) but it had none of the cracking Hawaii and George Carpenter is suffering from. The bugs seemed to ignore it also, while they ravage the Bramley and Fujis.
The tree needed a bit of training, as it tended to have a vertical habit. Pulling the branches horizontal helped calm it down, but it still sends up a bunch of suckers that need to be pinched back. All in all, not a bad tree, but if you have to pick one, Akane is a better early season apple.
My Pristine here in Tennessee ripened two weeks ago. Tree was 3 years old, and I got five apples. I think the rootstock is M7, but would need to check to be sure. I didn’t notice any tartness in mine. I thought the flavor was very good. The apples were smaller than I expected. Not sure if that was due to the young age of the tree, or if Pristine apples are on the smaller side. Still, overall a very good apple - wish I had more.
I’m getting a few Pristine now, its a nice apple. Nothing out of the ordinary in taste but very nice for an early apple and with a good crunch. They also look flawless and are very consistently sized, they look like “apple models”. Maybe thats why they decided to call it Pristine.
I thought the point of Pristine was primarily its disease resistance. That is is also pretty good eating is obviously also important but a yellow apple that has CAR resistance is rare enough and it also is virtually immune to scab, and resistant to FB and mildew. You CA growers!
I ate a Pristine here in Z6 yesterday, by coincidence. It was refreshing and sweeter than Yellow Transparent, the only other apple I’ve tried so far this year. I have a few ripening Williams Pride dropping off of my own tree but haven’t felt the urge. Too much stone fruit to sample.
Alan; yes, our hot and dry climate means scab, powdery mildew, and CAR are curiosities we just read about. Fire blight does rear its ugly head until it hits 100F, which knocks it out for the season and those dying shoots just turn crunchy until I snap them off in the fall. No worries about winter freeze, we can fertilize like crazy until November.
Williams Pride is just now ripening, a beautiful purple here, but OK flavor. Hawaii is what I’m looking forward to next.
At an orchard I do some work at there is a mature Pristine. We have started picking that tree. The more yellow the apple the less tartness. I like them in the context of grabbing a couple while you you work. But all the ones I brought home are going to become applesause. if it were in my yard I would be planning to make it over into a later apple. My new rule is August is for peaches. Apples start in Sept.
Alan, my Pristines are due in the end of this week. They have never disappointed me. It is one of the most refreshing tasting apples I have. The bonus is all of the disease resistance. Without Captan you still get sooty blotch and fly speck, but thats it. It does make the best applesauce, tart, yet sweet and a very nice light color.
I am getting nothing on my Pristines this year, they literally are pristine. I sprayed some sulphur and serenade on them in May/June and that was about all I did. Sooty blotch is starting to appear on some other apples now, but not Pristine.
Re: Williams Pride @applenut, I am starting to think the heat is not so good for it. Last year I got a lot of watercore on it. So far this year they have been inconsistent, some good some too sour and boring.
I’m sure it would help on some varieties, but I usually don’t spray anything on apples after June. I also don’t ever use Captan. Some varieties suffer a lot but there are many apple varieties that do fine and I have been removing the troublesome ones. 100+ apple varieties removed and counting!
I thought you used them a lot for cooking so those really don’t have to look pristine. One thing that can help is to keep the trees pruned and open all the way through the growing season- removing unwanted annual wood 2 or 3 times, beginning as soon as they start to block sun from fruit in spring. This probably also encourages annual fruiting if you get it done about 2 weeks after petal fall.
Scott probably gets early eastern light on his tree that dries up the dew quickly. The longer the dew stays on the apples the worse summer fungus will be. It would also be helpful if you planted your orchard a bit further from the ocean.
Pristine is the best apple in its ripening window in my area - around July 4. Because its early we don’t have a problem with SB and FS on these. Prinstine is better than any summer apple we have tried. The sunny side of the apple often gets a slight blush. Its beautiful and they keep very well for a early apple. Two thumbs up for pristine!