I’ve been wanting to get hold of the 2 new Cornell apple varieties Snapdragon and Ruby Frost. This morning while perusing my local market for my daily fruit fix I noticed they were selling Snapdragon apples. No signs of Ruby Frost but I picked up a couple pounds of Snapdragon for $1.99/lb. It is an attractive apple, darker red color than it’s parent Honeycrisp. I would be curious to know more about the other parent which is apparently some numbered variety from Minnesota. Texture of this apple is very good and very crisp and juicysimilar to it’s parent. Flavor was good as well. Very sweet with a slight tang. Not tart like Sweet Tango but not devoid from tartness like Fuji. I’ve not heard much about the disease resistance of this variety but coming from Cornell University I’d think it might be DR end of the scale. Will be years before anyone can grow it but if it’s DR then it would be worth growing. Not the best apple I’ve eaten but pretty darn tasty and in my store it was cheaper than both Honeycrisp and Sweet Tango.
I just bought two last week, they bite like a HoneyCrisp and sweet. Should do well in the market place. I had a couple of Ruby Frost last year wasn’t as good as the Snap Dragon to me.
Speedster-
Lots of Honeycrisp offspring popping up now. I’ve had a half dozen Pazazz which is an offspring developed here in Wisconsin. One thing I’ve noticed is they are huge…giant apples. I had one that was the size of a softball. Flavor is very similar to HC…although I might like Pazazz a little more then HC. Its also much more red in color.
I keep my eye open, but so far, other than SweeTango (which I think is awesome), I haven’t been able to find any of the mentioned varieties. They look just like HC to me, other than they are better colored as you all say. The large size of HC and these offspring is a negative to me. I tried for the second time to reduce the size of my HC this year, and for the first time, had some success. Still had many, many of the softball sized apples though. SnapDragon was supposed to address to some degree the occurrence of bitter pit, something I had zero problems with this year in HC. I have had it in every year past though, but usually nothing too troublesome.
I’m sure they must be getting to our markets here and I must be just missing them every time.
I don’t know if my snap dragons were typical of the varieties size but I can tell you they were all smaller than your average honeycrisp. For me they are perfect size for eating out of hand.
I agree…i just cut up a Pazazz for the kid and it was a monster. Enough apple there for several children. My kids love apples with peanut butter. good combo.
Appleseed-
thin each cluster to one HC and see how big you can get one!
My snaps were big.
I wonder what the biggest HC has been ever… pounds?
Bought some NY State Snapdragon and Honeycrisp yesterday. The Honeycrisp were larger. Just one comparison but I thought Snapdragon had more flavor and was slightly sweeter. I know Snapdragon is a cross with one parent Honeycrisp.