Hello,
I have been growing Rubinette for a while now. Mine has been in the ground for 12 years.
I starting growing it after tasting at Treemendous fruit farm many years ago.
When at it’s best I consider it my all time favorite. Better than anything else in my orchard anyway.
The problem at my location is it’s highly variable from year to year. It also didn’t really get good until the 4-5 years of fruiting. I almost removed it
Some years it is no better than grocery store golden delicious.
At my location Rubinette is relatively disease free. I spray 4-6 times per year with Imidan, Captan and 1-2 sprays of myclobutinil. this is enough for Rubinette here.
Other years it’s great.
Hey, since I’m swiss like Rubinette I can maybe help people who have questions about this variety. I have a good friend, a commercial fruit farmer who has Rubinette. If you have a specific question, I can ask him. I work(ed) for him and his family business and personally I can say the following:
Rubinette is more or less the same difficulty as other commercial varities like Gala.
It is really that good. It’s one of the best-selling apples on the farmers market.
They have a tendency to overset and have to be rigorously thinned. Never leave more than one fruit per cluster.
Thinning is easy because they have very long stalks.
They make a fantastic applesauce.
Compared to other varieties they rot seldom in storage. Other problems like storage scab etc are rare too.
They get wrinkly and soft now (they’ve been in CA storage).
Indeed! I really have to hit my tree hard or I will get a ton of small apples.
One other use I like that you don’t mention is drying. They are simply amazing dried with all the sweets and sours. My kids will inhale dozens of dried Rubinettes in an hour or two.
I can imagine that. The aroma of a Rubinette concentrated through the drying must be heavenly. The Rubinette are so loved by the customers, there’s simply none left for drying
How long do they keep in your fridge?
I ate all mine this year back in December, but I have kept them til Feb before. They start getting softer and wrinkled and they mellow out in flavor but are still good!
The best apple i have grown. Barely makes it a week in the fridge
Wow, You have a lot of Rubinette!
My tree is at a similar stage now, not quite as far along perhaps.
Unfortunately they’re not mine! This is the fruit farm of a good friend of mine. I work for him right now.
Was really hoping I’d get to try Rubinette this year off 2-year old grafts, but though they are easily one of the most vigorous grafts on the tree, nope. (The two grafts each had multi branched and reached 4-5 feet tall, though I cut them back about half – now I wish I’d done summer pruning instead of dormant to encourage fruiting wood, not excess vegetative growth.) Glad to read the descriptions though – maybe next year.
Wondering when are the harvest months for Rubinette in zone 10a? Thanks!
It should be ripening now or maybe done last month.
Here in PNW 8B I am picking rubinette and eating off the tree now. Very sweet.
I’m in 10a, and my Rubinettes are indeed starting to ripen right now.
thanks