Ate my first properly ripened Sundance today, picked yesterday. LOVE at first bite: crunchy, nicely sweet plus complex lemon, almost pineapple unique flavor with a finishing agreeable tartness that makes my mouth water. Right up there with a perfectly ripe Goldrush, Spigold or Albemarle Pippin on my Mt Rushmore of eating apples.
The kicker: my totally no-spray Sundance tree has never had any disease, not even blight this year, the only tree in my orchard to stay clean. No rust that I see. I hear it can be biennial unless thinned a lot. May be a shy bearer. Already planning on topworking more of my trees.
Last year I picked it mid-October and didn’t get a clue what it could become if I left it to turn deeper yellow. I’ve been searching for this apple for 46 years.
Edit: I now see that ALL my apple trees have Marssonina Leaf Blotch fungus, including Sundance, but it didn’t adversely affect the Sundance fruit.
You didn’t put it on ‘best tasting apples’ thread.
The best apple I grew this year was Fuji. But Golden Sweet impressed. And Arkansas black has more good sweet/tart combination for fresh eating than in most years.
My taste buds are aging but I don’t get any harsh acidity- just a mellow, subtle, complex, pleasant acidity at the end that puts a bow on this apple, right off the tree. Hotter climate here than say New England may improve sugars and hide acidity.
This explains much. Ive had a tree since 2017. It was my first apple tree ever and I was pruning it incorrectly.
It’s never flowered. Granted I’m in a warm climate, but the tree doesn’t have any spurs either. Just grows vertically.
It does not set a lot of spurs, like say a Goldrush. There may be some tip bearing too, I can’t recall. I’d call it a shy bearer and not precocious. That may explain its being seldom planted.