I would second Matt’s vote for AK. I ate the single specimen from my tree this past autumn, and it was the best tasting piece of fruit I have ever had. An ugly looking sugar bomb, but with complexity and acid. Super excited about this one. Unfortunately, this tree got blossom blight last spring that I didn’t address quickly enough and it got itself into the trunk. Not sure if my late pruning will save it, but I plan to save a couple sticks after pruning this weekend for re-grafting to other trees
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Hi Mike - We quite like Dudley. It’s a large apple, crisp, tart but refreshing and sweet and tasty enough for fresh eating. Good dried, and sauce (with sweetener). It’s ripened end Aug/early Sept for me and not all at once so can be picked thru Sept. if the birds leave it alone.
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I saw that St.Lawrence Nurseries has the Dudley apple. They stopped taking orders in November. I will order one before the deadline next year. Sounds like a good one.
Some other sour ones I like include Ingrid Marie (a Cox type but much more sour), Bramley’s Seedling, Canada Reinette, and Calville Blanc d’Hiver. I can add to the chorus on GoldRush and Ashmeads. Karmijn is no good in my climate.
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I have a Calville, one knotted apple last year, the Bramley’s is more of a cooking apple I believe. I just ordered a GoldRush and a AK. I will try and find a Canadian Reinette ( never heard of that one before) and an Ingrid Marie.
I had an Arkansas Black many years ago. I had a place to store apples back then. Now the house I have there is not a big area for storing to let them ripen. It was as hard as a rock when I picked them.
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They are so hard when first picked it hurts my hands to peel one. After about two months in the refrigerator they go from hard to firm and tend to get a better tart/sweet ratio.
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I may have to retry one of those trees. I can use some but I will have to do something with the rest of them.
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I don’t know if it’s the case with other folks on here, but when we sampled some Jonathan’s, they were super tart, but had just enough sugar too keep it from being too unbalanced. Maybe they weren’t totally ripe? My wife really liked them, but she likes em like that. I’m not growing them now, but maybe in the future? Oh, I forgot, I have enough apple trees!
They do have some disease susceptibility, but if you can work around that, they ought to be a good one for you.
I second Gold Rush. We picked up about two dozen from the orchard last year, and still have some. They’re not as tangy now, and are sweeter. We planted one of those last year.
And, to me, Golden Russet is similar, but sweeter off the tree than a Gold Rush, plus it has that funky russet aspect going for it.
Oops, forgot you have a Golden Russet. I loved the ones we sampled, I’m so glad we planted one of those too.
The York that I sampled at the farmers market sure fits the bill. It seem to be an apple that varies in appearance and taste based on the descriptions and illustrations I have seen. I hope the York that I grow has the same flavor profile.
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I second and triple that opinion
Mike
So which apples are you second and triple ing? For my clarification.
TY
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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