@scottfsmith do you have a recommended supplier that has really stood out when sourcing these rarer varieties? I know you mentioned Cummins with respect to the Hawaii. Wasn’t sure if you were primarily sourcing bare root or scion wood, but I am open to either.
Also, there is no such thing as too many Golden Delicious children. It is such an amazing apple (unless you talk to my wife haha)!
Nearly all of my trees are grafted. If you want to grow rare varieties it is many times easier to learn grafting than to try to find nurseries selling trees. The nurseries I have used the most for apples are Cummins and Trees of Antiquity, also Century Farm. For scionwood there are tons of great sources, see the scionwood list here for many dozens of places.
Question about this- everyrhing I read said pristine is a crisp and crunchy apple. But, it sounds like it is soft?
It tastes plenty crunchy in spite of the softness, I was trying to hint at that but I guess I mis-worded things. The softness is only relative to other apples in June, well before they are ripe. It’s almost as soft in June as it is when ripe, whereas most apples are hard balls in June and get softer when they ripen. The only problem with the softness is it makes them more susceptible to bug and environmental damage.
Maybe the term breaking is best way to describe a softer apple that isn’t mealy or mushy.
I believe Vernon from Century Farms uses this term frequently. I like the description.
I thought breaking meant that it will split on its own as you bite into it. Generally more hard apples are more likely to be breaking.
Pristine is relatively soft
I don’t like soft apples but I have a pristine tree because it’s the best early apple period: disease and taste wise for dmv
Thank you. My family doesn’t like anything even remotely soft, so I’m a tad worried. I grafted goldrush and Priscilla to it and will just graft more next year and leave one pristine scaffold.
I am not averse to soft textured fruit if the flavor and taste is good. Crisp is ok but it is not a defining trait I live or die for. So far I find hard and dense fruit are less attractive to me except as storage food.
I have only tried them once, but I did not feel like they were too “soft”. I guess you could say that they are in the sense that it is easier to press into the flesh, unlike goldrush which feels like squeezing a rock, in comparison.
My eating experience found it to be a more “tender crispness”. Still broke off in pieces when I bit into it as opposed to a soft pear like flesh.
I wouldn’t give up on it yet! In terms of an apple that is ripe mid July (where I’m at), nothing comes close.
I ate one this evening, it was tasty and a little tart.
I didn’t think it was soft at all. Bites came out, in chunks, and it was juicy. Not a Honeycrisp, but good. Seeds were dark.
Tried a Zestar and they weren’t ready.
“Kidds Orange Red - A low acid sweet aromatic apple, similar to Gala but more aromatic. The tree sets far too many apples and I often do not get it thinned enough which then causes alternate bearing. It is a bit better than average on rots. They ripen over a long period so it is a good tree for an orchard with only a few varieties.”
Kidd’s must be different for me than it is for you. I find it to sometimes taste like an improved Gala, and to sometimes give the same orangey aromatics that I get from Suncrisp (local orchard, I don’t grow it). To me, if I was going all out, I’d possibly go with Kidd’s AND Suncrisp just for getting that same flavor that must come from Cox. My gut tells me that your more southern location than my CT Zone 6 puts more heat stress on the plant resulting in flavor loss. Up here it’s not consistently the same flavor but I like it either way. One of my kids really likes Kidd’s but the other said it’s too sour.
I just tasted my first ever Hoople’s. I know it’s way too early to have picked it but the squirrels got them every prior year, we are about to get a Noreaster, and there was wasp damage on the one fruit anyways. It tasted like an orchard Golden Delicious, which I really enjoyed. I didn’t get the anise. I know it’ll be better if I let it ripen properly, which I intend to do in the future.
My GoldRush put out a lot of smaller apples. Some are already falling, way too early. I need to go and collect the drops before the storm so I’m not feeding critters. Maybe I can put drops in an apple crisp or a compote, blending it with the Kidds bounty. The local orchard that grows Suncrisp also grows GoldRush. Neither were there when I put my trees in the ground. If I had known I could get beautiful GoldRush from a stand I probably would have just stuck with Kidd’s and Hoople’s. I feel they are better apples anyways, GoldRush is good but not great flavor to me and the utility of being able to store it for months at a time in a refrigerator can be attained from storebought just the same as back yard grown. One benefit to the GoldRush is that it ripens too late for PYO and it’s all picked by the staff. They don’t do a perfect job, but it’s not terrible either.
Kidd’s is growing into a nice looking tree. Hoople’s and GoldRush are far less vigorous. Maybe I need a better pruning strategy with them. Maybe more of the right cuts will force it to push energy into the branches I leave up. All three are on M111 from Century Farm Orchards being trained open center.
I agree on this, it tastes like a good GD. For me I’d just go for GD (as I don’t like eating russeted skin), perhaps Gibson strain which is early and very tasty.
I agree with your observations on KOR. Its negatives for me is that it is early ( it starts dropping fruit in late Aug, and I complete its picking around mid Sep), and it does not store very well. I am not interested in apples in September, when I have excellent pluots and pears. I have been collecting late ripening apples, ones that ripen end of Oct/early Nov, with a couple of early Oct ones (Rubinette and Buckeye Prime Gala).
I don’t like Gold Rush for fresh eating, but it makes excellent pies! My favorite tart apples now are Mutsu, Pink Lady (store bought), Rubinette and Black Oxford.
My impression of russet sports is they add a couple units of brix and a couple units of flavor intensity on average. I’m eating a few Hooples now and they still have a touch of starch in them but are awesome nonetheless. One particular data point I have on that is my Reine des Reinettes is right next to its russet sport King Russet, and the latter are a notch more flavorful. The russet skin supposedly allows more air to evaporate. But if you don’t like russet then you don’t like it! Classic GD is still a pretty awesome apple.
I agree the earliness of KOR is not the best. But I don’t have too many apples in that period so I don’t mind it so much.
This is my Porter’s Perfection this year. Can you tell by color how close it might be to ripe? There is still a hint of green in the yellow on the shade side. It should finish mid-late October, but I have read that apples in the area flowered 2-3 weeks early this year. I don’t remember when these bloomed.
@scottfsmith How much russet do those Golden Nugget get? Something people would buy?
To add to your list it’s looking like Clarks crab might not like the mid-atlantic to much. This is the first year with a large crop and I’m seeing a ton of rot. I’m hoping I am wrong and it’s just severe insect damage. They are for sure popular with PC, but maybe others also.
I have experienced zero rot on clarks crab here in NC……. Because fireblight and marsonina have beat fruit to the punch. One of the most overrated varieties on this forum. (For my region).
Mine had a FB strike this year also, but it was small enough to just cut the branch off.
I’m giving it a go in coastal jersey. Ive lost others to fb so heres to hoping its hearty enough against my particular variety of plague.
I have two Clark’s crabs and both got FB, both survived with repeated pruning. But 2 of the 5 apple trees that got FB is not a good sign. Hoping it was just coincidence/random.
