Glad to hear it. I have one but it hasn’t fruited yet, which is a rare exception here. But it is slightly shaded by an oak tree. I need to trim some branches on the oak.
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I grafted Sundance onto my goldrush tree. Sundance tried to take over the scaffold to which it was grafted. It took several years to fruit on a heavy fruiting GR tree. It was a strong grower and a bit of a shy bearer for me. Had to cut it off.
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Shy bearer so far for me too, but it’s still young.
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I bumped the wrong thing & deleted what I had intended to edit, so this is what I intended to write:
OrangePippin.com has a link that shows the breeding line-up of Sundance. That description states the final cross was made in 1964. It also states Sundance blooms slightly later than GoldRush, which I am growing & blooms mid-late in this yard. According to that article Sundance may keep 6-7 months, coming ripe October 10-17 in Illinois, so that’s April-May.
The whip I bought from Raintree stands on MM111, so I hope the tree is precocious & we can share the fruit in a couple more years.
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You’re gonna love it. I would bend branches and defer pruning to accelerate fruiting. Think I did some notching too.
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Hambone
Your Sundance ripened around the end of Oct, right. I wonder if it will run into too late ripening in zones 6a like mine.
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Yeah, it needed all of October to hit peak flavor here in 7 A/B. Purdue (part of PRI that bred Sundance) is Zone 5 so you’d think it would ripen in Zone 5, right? It may need some storage in your zone if that’s not a deal-breaker.
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If it is a very late ripening here in zone 6a, a solid zone colder than yours, it may be in the same category asGold Rush. Excellent apples with iffy ripening ability here.
Places like the midwest that have warm spring and very hot summer may work out better than in New England.
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Sundance is about a week earlier than Goldrush here.
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Hambone: that ripening window corroborates the description from PRI, a week earlier than Goldrush. For my tastes, if its only 60% of the WOW factor of GoldRush, I would consider that a winner. Not everyone is as crazy as myself in liking apples that grab you by the tonsils.
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Just added it to my Cummins order, thanks for the recommendation!
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Do you know if it is susceptible to rot and do you have many rot issues in your orchard? My Golden Russet gets rot (likely bitter rot) fairly easily and GoldRush seems like it might be similar in that regard, unfortunately, so I’m looking for a good late-ripening apple that is more resistant to rot as well as scab.
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@hambone Do you have to spray for pests like codling moth?
Anyone - Are there codling moth resistant varieties?
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There are organic and chemical deterrents for codling moth. I bag most of my apples individually, so no spray. I believe some apple varieties are so hard they deter codling moth, like Arkansas Black.
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Which type of bags do use with apples?
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I use a ziplok bag that I modify with scissors- let me know I can send a video I have on it.
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Have you tried nylon mesh bags? @mamuang did you try these with apples? Are they effective?
Link below:
50 Pack Fruit Protection Bags, Reusable Fruit Protection Bags to Cover Fruit Nylon Fruit Netting Protective Netting for Fruit, Fruit Basket Mesh Cover for Protect Plant Fruits Flowers(4"X6") https://a.co/d/a4l0dRY
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Have not tried mesh- it would have to be very fine mesh to keep out plum curculio.
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The mesh bags, due to its material and the string set up, they don’t close as tightly around the stem as other bags do. The stem ends are where some pests like to do damage. Ziplock bags close tighter/better if you cut a slit in the middle of the zip lock to let an apple stem go through.
I have had plum curculio, oriental fruit moths, coddling moths lay eggs through the materials. They cannot do that with ziplock bags. However, I have not use ziplock bags with thin-skinned fruit like stone fruit. I am worried that plastic would not allow much air flow and could increas chances of fruit rot in platic bags.
@BobVance ’s dad have used ziplock plastic bags on peaches without any issue. I may try it next year.
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