Tart yet tasty apple varieties

So which apples are you second and triple ing? For my clarification.
TY

@MikeC

Karmijn de Sonneville.

But, Ashmead’s Kernel, when it’s right, takes second place to none.

I’ve had just a couple of Calville Blanc D’Hiver from my young tree, and they were badly damaged by something, but the small bit that I managed to taste made it a serious, serious contender.

We shall see.

Mike

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One more suggestion from me: Trees of Antiquity speaks highly of their Antonovka cultivar as a multi-purpose sweet/tart variety. I have one in the ground here but it’ll be another year or two before it bears.

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Orleans Reinette. It has loads of sugar but also lots of acid to balance that sugar, and keeps for two to three months. It’s also not a super late apple like Goldrush, which is a plus in zone 5b

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I had that one on my short list to look at. I do not hear a lot about this one from people here. If anyone else has some additional comments about the Orleans Reinette that would be great to hear them as well. Mostly an eating apple from what I remember.
I was leery of getting the GoldRush simply for that really late ripening issue. We can get snow and freezing temps mid November. Sometimes freezing rain even earlier. Probably not good weather for a really late ripening apple variety.

MikeC → This link discusses leaving Goldrush on the tree even down to the mid to low 20’s. Do I need to pick GoldRush apples before 27 degree night? - #13 by Matt_in_Maryland . An orchard near me (Youngstown) seems to have good Goldrushes every year and we are a little colder than you are.

I’ve got a few Ashmead’s from my young tree and they were fantastic. I ordered another tree this year.

Here is a link ( https://rittmanorchards.com/apple-chart ) to an orchard in Akron, OH that has good descriptions and appx ripening dates for a list of apples they grow, including some Russets. Several are listed as sweet/tart. The better ones seem to be later varieties. Anything grown in NE Ohio should do as well or better where you’re at. I’ve tried Esopus Spitzenburg and Melrose from that orchard and they were both very good sweet-tart apples. Melrose is supposedly very easy to grow.

Edit → I just realized that if you click on any of the apples in the above list, you get a little more detailed description and many have a picture of the apple variety that appears to be taken at their orchard.

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Goldrush is a favorite of mine. Who is growing it near Red Cedars and how bad is the Rust? Does it totally defoliate the tree or is it tolerable?

Friends of mine want GR but they have Red Cedars very close.

ztom, thank you for this useful information. I’ll have a look at the links you provided here. Again, thank you!

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What I have noticed with Melrose is they get soft faster than what I like. I have a Spitzenburg I just planted last year. I tasted a few the winter before that and they were delicious. I know they are supposed to be hard to grow and not very productive. I didn’t care. I just wanted to be able to taste some of my own. There are no fruit orchards around me that carry this apple. So we will see how well it grows here. I will give it a few years to see if it is worth having it in my orchard.

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we have the old russian variety yellow transparent that has naturalized itself on old farmland. its a rather soft apple , great for pies and applesauce. is pretty tart till almost white but becomes very perishable at that point. its one of the few cultivars that will do well in our zone 3 up here. i have 2 on my lawn and i forage in late july for the wild ones to make my sauce for the winter. they are very prolific.

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Yellow Transparent is a good apple for sauce. A short eating apple period. Then it gets too soft for my family. I had one a few years ago. None of my family members liked that well enough to really use them all. I ended up trying to give them away. It was a very productive apple tree.

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unfortunately up here we don’t have much of a choice . macintosh and cortland even have a hard time making it .

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How about a Wealthy apple variety? You probably know about Fedco Seeds Co-Op? Correct? They have more fruit tree varieties that do well in Maine I would think. They are in Clinton, Maine.

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Here are a few more tart-ish apples to consider, most of which are somewhat early:
Pink Pearl
Elstar
Sansa
Crimson Topaz
Wickson
Rhode Island Greening
Black twig
King David
Baldwin

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I’ve never had an Ashmead’s Kernel that was anywhere near as sweet as the good Golden Russets I have. They always have just tasted sour to me. I’d love to try one over 20 brix, since so many people seem to love that apple.

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I’m growing an Ashmead’s Kernel because so many people have stated this is such a great apple. I will see when it grows here in my orchard. If it doesn’t amaze me with its greatness I will replace it. No reason to a so-so apple growing in my orchard. I have a Golden Russet growing as well. It will produce some apples this year.

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i wish i had more room for another apple. i have the yellow transparent and a cold weather fuji right now. would save me from relying on willd apples for sauce.

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Moose,
What is “cold weather Fuji”? I just planted Fuji last year. I chose the variety that ripens a bit early. Fuji is supposed to be late ripening apple and that is my concern. I am a few zones warmer than you, even.

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Hey Mike, so what apples will you have this year to sample, besides Golden Russet? I know you have a bunch of lesser known varieties.

No apples here from our new trees, but we have a mystery apple out on our fence line that is different than the usual Milam’s we have. It’s just a small branch off an old tree that decided to produce this year. The fruit is right now about 3x the size of the Milam fruitlets. Plus, they look to be tip bearing apples, so not a lot to try. I think there might be about three or four dozen fruitlets on there.

I think I got one to sample one last year from that same tree, it was about the size of a golf ball, but very tasty, kinda reminded me of a Winesap. Hopefully these new apples are the same variety.

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I assumed that’s what he meant by cold weather Fuji. Often referred to as early Fuji. Likely a Fuji that takes fewer days to ripen aka good for colder weather climates.

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