I like sweet tart apples like Honeycrisp or Pink Lady.
Your list matches up well with others who have posted about their favorite tasting Limbertwigs.
One taste tester at David Vernon’s annual Century Farm Orchards taste test rated SWISS LIMBERTWIG as one of their top tasting apples.
Caney Fork and Brushy Mtn were real duds for me in taste. But other places, soils I hear they can excel.
Brushy comes in real handy if you ever need to use a bridge graft to rescue bark damaged tree. Its twigs are real bendy, perfect for bridge grafting so I’d always cut a few long dormant whips for the fridge every Feb.
Yes, those are both good here (Northern California). Victoria, by contrast, was surprisingly quite inedible.
Myers’ Royal and Red Royal are the best I’ve tried here. White is also good. I haven’t had decent samples of Swiss or Black yet.
Just a bump on this thread about the tastes and results of all your Limbertwigs that you have been trying to grow. Any updates?
I won’t have much to report until Oct-Nov. Limbertwigs seem to be mostly late fall apples.
Will you have any of the Limbertwigs to taste this fall? I know your last posting of what Limbertwigs you were growing was back in 2020. That’s why I was asking.
Right now I’m looking at a good crop of Myers Royal, Red Royal, Kentucky, Watts, Nanthalia, Black, Caney Fork, Smoky Mountain, Hanging Dog, Red, Victoria, Virginia and Weavers Red Sweet. Have a light crop of Bushy Mountain, Ruby, Old Fashion and Fall.
Wow what an impressive accomplishment, to locate and grow all these. Years in the making I’m sure. I’m happy for you. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on each one! Bringing back a piece of history Rick. I don’t see Swiss. I keep waiting for mine to bear but man it’s slooooow. Nice vigorous tree though.
Opps, Swiss LT should have been on my light crop list. Have a B9 tree with a dozen or so apples on.
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I’ve only had a couple Royal Limbertwigs and zero Red Royals. The first Royal I tried was grown in Stokes county NC. To this day, I have not tried an apple as unique and interesting as this first sample. The Royal is a softer apple and looks nothing like the other Limbertwigs. The flavor was sweet with orange and pineapple notes and completely unexpected. I planted one in 2002 in Franklin county NC. By the time it was mature enough to bear in 2007, a record breaking drought/hot year was experienced. I tried a few, but they were not nearly as good. To this day, I’ve never eaten an apple that excited me as much as that first Royal Limbertwig, at least for fresh eating. The Winesap is still my favorite general use apple.
Apple flavor cannot be judged by one taste test. Apple flavor quality varies a lot from year to year. 2023 was a great flavor year in my county. 2024 was the pits.
I’ve tried locally grown Old Fashioned Limbertwigs for two years in a row. Every Thanksgiving Day, I buy several varieties from the local stand, and a blind taste test is conducted with several family members. For two years, the Old Fashioned Limbertwig comes out on top beating out Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, Goldrush. More often than not, the vote is unanimous. I do like the texture of the CC and HC, but there is no apple I’ve ever tried that is a tart and sweet as the OFL. The OFL is is a bit weird and feels like sandpaper and the flesh is dense and stiff, not crunchy. That is the only drawback.
Curious to know your soil type. OFL and Royal are said to be better flavored in sandy loams. Black better in clays.
The Royal was high iron soft red clay. Franklin county where they didn’t do well was yellow granite clay with a thin layer of sandy loam. I think the heat was a factor, not the soil in Franklin.
I believe most of the soil in the Brushy Mountains where the OFLs are grown is clay as well.
Keep in mind the red clay in the Foothills is fairly low density and does not dry out like brick in the Summer.
The Royal and OFL are very different. My gut tells me the Royal requires more precipitation than some apples. Cool Fall bite helps as well. This may explain the poor outcomes in California. The Royal is not a keeper apple, but a fresh eating apple.
I have Red Royal, Myers Royal and Black LTs grafted to my backyard crabapple… no fruit samples yet.
It also has chestnut, trailman and pristine grafted to it.
I will be glad when I get to try some of those.
TNHunter
I find my OFL tree to be a medium vigor grower here in the hot, wet sandy loam. Glad to see it escaping the problems it had it’s first year. I was surprised it survived.
Any blight issues with your Pristine?
@KPS … No fire blight issues here with pristine yet… but I dont normally see fireblight until they start blooming good.
TNHunter