Kevin, this was an exceptionally useful video for me. Thanks for posting the link.
Not that I’m ripping out my one frankentree and going to 100 acres of tall spindle, but comments like “choking the leader”, along with an explanation of why he made certain pruning cuts, were invaluable to an amateur like me. I loved the demonstration of tying down with different materials. I’ve only lately come to understand and appreciate some of these things and this kind of thing is very helpful.
I have been using 7 inch rubber bands for pulling down limbs on my younger trees like shown on the video, I get them from Amazon, they only last a year to 2 but are cheap and work well
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E68510?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
There is a new Sundowner offspring called Bravo.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/food/a/31277192/growers-say-bravo-to-wa-black-apple/
Is there anyone out there in the deep south US that has fruited sundowner successfully. Does it get fireblight bad? I’m looking for more apples that will hang late into cool weather. We are still touching 90F regularly here in AL. I also like the low chill aspect of this apple as our last couple of winters have had record low chill accumulation. Pink lady would be great but I have heard it is really bad with fireblight. Sundowner is its sibling so probably the same with FB but you never know.
I have a branch of sundowner grafted to my goldrush. They must be really late ripening. They are still as green as they can be and still sizing up. No color whatsoever. My GR are already full size and starting to turn yellow. I was expecting some color by now in the sundowner. It must develop much closer to ripening. Unless i have a mislabel. A super late hanger would be perfect here. We get hot weather into october.
I only have two Sundowner apples and they appear to be a long way from ripening which is okay with me. Looking forward to comparing it to the sister Pink Lady.
For me Pink Lady is a little better, the skin is thinner. Both are very good.
This apple never develops much flavor for me. Tastes kind of boring. Barely enough sugar to stay interested and not much acid either. It seems to ripen a few weeks to over a month after goldrush. Gold rush on the same tree are fantastic. I think I’m going to cut it out this winter.