Hello,
I thought I would make an actual fruit growing post instead of a lounge post this time.
I’ve been growing Newtown Pippin for about 12 years ago with 4-5 years of good crops.
So far it has always disappointed me. I’ve found that it was never any better than any other apples.
The last 2 years however I have figured out how to really grow it and take advantage of it’s qualities.
Many times the common thinking is that you have to give an apple a few years to really reach it’s potential. I think I have discovered that the real reason for this is that it takes a few years for the grower to really understand how to take advantage of it’s qualities primarily exactly when to pick, how long to store and at what temperature
The last 2 years I have finally not been afraid to leave them on the tree even when a freeze is approaching. This apple can take a few freezing nights and improves in my opinion. Most of my other varieties other than Arkansas Black get destroyed by a freeze
Newtown Pippin needs to be stored until at least Thanksgiving to be worthwhile.
In my house, Newtown Pippin is even better as a pie apple. The last 2 years I’ve been making all of my pies with it as a single varietal.
When properly aged they have an intense aroma of grapes and apples. The flavor I guess I would call vinous but I still dont know exactly what that means I just know that it’s intense and greatly appreciated.
I was reading the Kentucky part of the NC-140 rootstock trials. It is amazing how the different rootstocks performed. In cropping, yield weights, apple size and size of tree growth. And it varied over time. Some did nothing early. Some did a lot. A few steadily improved to produce steady, large crops.
Ironic, the best seemed to be a very obscure German rootstock. And not available Polish P-14 did great too.I wish they had a way to rank apple flavor and quality on those tests though.
The vaunted Geneva’s were steady eddy’s but rarely on the top. But rarely died out like a few of the others. It was one of the older releases that made better production of the Geneva’s.
Where is your orchard located? NP (aka Albemarle Pippin?) can be picky where it grows well. I agree that “when to pick” is more important and difficult than I ever realized.
It also does well in the northern part of the Pacific Northwest: southwestern BC, Canada. I have a tree planted about 40 years ago. It has always been tasty and productive. The only disease problem that I’ve experienced is scab, which is controllable with appropriate sprays. This year I also noticed that it was almost completely resistant to Apple Maggots, which devastated all of my earlier apples except Yellow Transparent.
I just planted a Newton Pippin this fall.I appreciate the words of advice for this variety. If you have never had an apple variety in your area ( local orchards or anyone close to you growing it) the " when should I pick it?" become tricky. Like you mentioned, if you pick it early or later then you may think the apple is a dud. When perhaps it isn’t. Just timing is all.
Alber orchard is just about a few miles down the road from me. The have about 80 varieties and I have often paid attention to their harvest times. I think they must have a much different microclimate than I do because they always seem to harvest 1-2 weeks before I do.
Very true, it may be about the different microclimate. I know, for me here, just about 40 miles south of me they get fruit about two weeks before I do. They get their fruit trees and flowers blooming at least 1 to 2 weeks before I do. So I can see what you are saying probably very true.
I picked mine on October 13th in western pa, washed in chlorinated water to get rid of fly spec and stored in plastic bags in the fridge. They are family favorite right now, late December.
Nice looking apples. Mine will not produce any fruit for a few years since I just planted mine this last spring. Makes me want it to hurry up and produce fruit even more now.
