First some disclaimers: trees are all potted only, mostly on B9, heat wave hit in July right after I left for 2 weeks with an inadequate drip system in place and this was 1st year not to water with AACT at least once. Also no pears period. ( I vow to don my bee costume and do the deed in 2019 if we have another long cool, wet Spring.)
William’s Pride - B grade. Reliable and adequate.
Karmijn - A+ Need a couple more of my fav.
Ashmeads - D. Cracked, irregular. Took out 2nd tree.
Can be much better here.
Alkmene - B. Shy bearer but early tarter Cox-type.
Holstein A+ Sublimely subtle mid Cox. Good disease
resistance. Great cropper on m26.
Spitz- D can be so much better but disease ridden and puny sizing. On probation. Has potential to be in top 5 when happy.
Golden Supreme - meh. Sweet bore. Regrafting.
Margil C. Was an A last year so will try a few tricks to
perk it up. Last year was just like Ribston Pippin.
Pomme Gris C. It is reliable but apples too small on B9.
Rubinette B- Small and sweet/bland only but only 1st real crop.
Smokehouse B. Not that good for eating this year. Tart and bland yet reliable and good pie apple.
Wickson C only sweet boring flavor. On probation.
Christmas Pink - C picked early so Tart but good texture
Reine Des Reinettes A- Think it could get better next year.
Erwin Baur A Nice melon taste.
Sundance- pending for storage. Nice crop!
Northern Spy A Finally! Love this crisp, juicy complex
Worth waiting for.
Discovery only B+ this year. Wet + cool Spring.
Black Twig Mammoth - A Off probation. Loved this hard, juicy tart thing with enough starch to keep.
Airlie’s Red Flesh A. Will grow another as it is great without the “hidden rose”.
Yellow Newtown. Pending for storage first.
Prairie Spy off the tree in late Oct. only C. In storage.
Rhode Island Greening - A. Great cropper, easy, great in pies.
Grimes Golden - B. Consistently easy great cropper.
Edelborsdorfer - B down from 2017 but know it can be nice.
Also loved my 2 plums Imperial Epinuese and Opal. A+ for both for remarkably sweet nuanced fruit.
Thanks for sharing your notes. I’m curious about where in the PNW you are located. I’m in Southern Oregon, and we’ve got a fairly different climate from some other parts of the Northwest. I’ve been planning to put in a wickson and am bummed to see it hasn’t been a special one for you… of heard others say it has a flavor all its own.
Glad to hear another good report on Opal plums. My tree is getting large but has not produced any plums yet. Most of my other euros planted at the same time are smaller trees but have given me at least a few plums. This particular tree is on either Penta or Pumiselect rootstock. The nursery listed it as one but when it came it had the other tag on it, and I can’t remember which was which.
Nice test orchard,
I’m in SW WA, 30 mi N of Portland. Of your list, I only have a few. One is Arlie Red flesh. Mine is a grafted branch, bore well last year but not this year. I like them, tasty apples.
I had Karmijn on M27. It was terrible, splits, rotting sections. I dont know why. Culled it. My Rubinette branch wasn’t doing well but this year were really good.
If you are growing in containers, have you considered columnar apples. North Pole is McIntosh-like and I think it’s quite good. I like Golden Sentinel too.
My best bearing apple here in SW WA is Liberty. Jonagold does well but some scab and so far is alt year bearing. Summerred is very tasty. Chehalis is not is good despite being from Chehalis. Pristine was awesome but overbore and the branch broke off. Will try it again.
I live on the Puget Sound in a Seattle suburb, 8b. Please don’t be dissuaded from trying Wickson from my report. It was my first crop on an experimental step-over frame on B9. What varieties do well for you?
I grafted my Opal onto Krymsk 1 which enabled it to fruit sooner. I am eager to try more Euro/Gage crosses when I get initial fruit of such quality. I hope someone is continuing to make crosses.
Thanks Bear. Nice to hear from you again. My healthiest Karmijn was on m26 at last house. Had to leave it behind. I will try it on m26 again.
I did try to graft a Wijcik scion via cleft graft but it failed. Glad to hear they are good varieties.
I tried Chehalis years ago but allowed it to runt out. I found the apples hard to catch in their prime.
Maybe it is time I try Jonagold.
Great question!.. and I have no idea yet. I am brand new to fruit growing and my trees aren’t producing yet. I have a Honeycrisp tree that seems to be pretty runty and Braeburn and Jonagold trees that are growing well. All three are on m111. I’m hoping to get a few more interesting varieties that I can’t find at the store and to try my hand at grafting over the next few years. I’m having tons of fun learning so far! Thanks for sharing your experience
Welcome to growing fruit. Are you familiar with the Home Orchard Society? They are an excellent resource near Portland. They have 2 yearly shows you would probably enjoy - a harvest-type festival allowing one to sample hundreds of unusual varieties and one around St. Patrick’s Day with rootstock and scionwood galore. I try to at least make it to the latter one. They also have grafting workshops and have an informative quarterly mailing. There are others here who are members.
Honeycrisp makes a lot of fruiting spurs and is naturally smaller. Jonagold, I believe is an especially vigorous tree. Not sure about Braeburn.
I am in the same area as Quill. My apple grafts are young and still havent come into full production.
I got excellent results from Rubinette (A-). But Golden Russet was the most impressive apple. It bore one year after grafting. (tip bearer) and was exquisitely flavored.
Queen Cox on M27 did not produce at all since I butchered it to make it grow more straight. Chehalis on M27 was very productive as usual and a nice tasting apple though not special.
This year I see lots of flowers on Cherry Cox, Akane, Liberty, Enterprise, Karmijn, Hudson’s Golden Gem. Hopefully we will have fruit to taste.
I also added a few new ones this year: Wickson, Pitmaston Pineapple and Bite Me! from Steven Edholm who grew it from a Wickson seed.
Hi I’m new to apples and to this site. Hope it’s ok to join in. I’m in the Maple Valley WA area and looking for info on Buckley Giants. Can’t seem to find anything on pollinators etc. I’m on my father in laws old property and he has a few trees I’m trying to identify (his memory is not the best anymore). I know there is a large (30’ +) Red Gravenstein (OMG best apples I’ve ever had) I’m on year two of rescue pruning, what he tells me is a Buckley (Semi-Dwarf?) with very tasty apples but the wildlife never leaves us many. A few yellow transparents (not sure exactly which trees). Plus I’m putting in a Macintosh and 2 Crown Prince Rudolphs.
Anyway, would love to find some info on the Buckley and Crown Princes pollinators & where I can get help grafting/cloning the Gravenstein & Buckley. I’m way to new and it’s far past my skill level at the moment.
Welcome!
While Buckley and Crown Price Rudolph aren’t listed, this reference for apple pollination partners is worth bookmarking. They invite you to inquire directly about varieties not already on their list.
Trees of Antiquity sells CPR and reports that it’s a mid-season bloomer.
There are a lot of excellent resources on grafting right here, including references to useful external videos. Use the search feature to find them. Don’t be intimidated about grafting; you’ll find that apples are easy to graft and pretty forgiving of beginners. Cleft grafting is simple and works just fine. Line things up, wrap them tight, and you’ll be successful most of the time.
Welcome Tracy! Glad you found us. I just grafted Buckley Giant a couple years ago so am of no help with timing of BG pollination. I can ask around. Buckley Giant, for others reading, is a large August apple from Buckley, WA. It reminds me a bit of a watery Honeycrisp (at least my apple was ) including bitter pit. I would be interested to know how your dad used them. I think they might juice well. There are several fruit organizations in the area that are also great resources. NWfruit.org lists them.
Thanks Jerry! I did in fact get my CPR’s from Trees of Antiquity. Found them on the internet looking for info on my Red Grav and the CPR sounded perfect. I’ll check out those links you have provided.
“don’t be intimidated” yeah, I grew up in So-Cal where they really don’t have trees. People laugh when I tell them growing up I never even saw a riding lawn mower.
Thanks Quill. I’m about 20 min’s away from Buckley so the Giant makes sense. Mine blooms about the same time as the Red Grav and both just started putting on leaves and should bloom soon. The Buckley’s are usually ripe towards the end of september i think just after the Red Grav’s.
My Pa-in-law mostly fresh ate them but I think he planned on making ciders and baking. He used to have an orchard in E. WA. His family has a property out in Holly WA and they have a (regular) Grav.
Anyways, those Buckley’s, the few I’ve had are very good and yes, very juicy. But they attract all the wildlife to it who descend on it like locusts. At least that spares the other trees.
New users can only post 1 image per post so apologies for multiple posts! Some Red Grav’s and Yellow Transparents (I hope) from a few years ago.
Nice looking apples there. Apparently Buckley Giant is self fertile and should also pollinate your Gravenstein which is pollen sterile - won’t pollinate anything. Also the link above should be: WSFS.org
This link will display the various local clubs. Some clubs have yearly grafting shows.Closest to you is Tahoma. I’m not familiar with Crown Prince Rudolph but it sounds like a good apple.
Grafting is alot of fun. Apple scions are cut during Winter as the tree needs to be fully dormant. If you miss this window of opportunity, the are other types of grafting done i.e. chip budding and T budding while the tree is actively growing Youtube has lots of good tutorials. I have better sucess with the dormant grafting personally.
Hey Quill,
Did you end up planting a Jonagold? I have one with 8ish apples that survived the coddling moth plague. I need to bag way earlier next year, because I would have had 50+ ranging from baseball to softball size. I probably lost half a dozen to earwigs. They have been abundant this year. There is at least 1 that has lost all green color, but I am uncertain if it is OK to harvest this soon and I don’t want to waste what is left. I took the sock off for the photo.
Should I pick this, or wait another week for the recommended harvest window?
I will probably have a few feet of scion wood this winter.
Hi Justin, beautiful Jonagold there. Havest windows vary so I would try to see if it would gently pick. I never got to grafting that variety but found a tree at my vacation home. If the seeds are dark then it is ripe. Here the raccoons will sometimes get ripe apples first so I often pick a little under ripe.
Are you going to HOS event in two weeks? I am. If so, I might need to work up a separate message thread.