Same here. HGG was a dud here. Even with all the wonderful reviews I had read about I gave it a lot more time in my orchard that I should have. The fruit was very sparse and not very good or tasty. Glad I am not the only one that had issues with the HGG.
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that one sounds wonderful
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I’ve eaten some really good ones, just not that I grew.
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I never had the chance to eat of those before I planted my HGG. I was anticipating an apple with a wonderful taste. BIG disappointment. SO it was never a good apple here, so out it went.
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If you like cheesy, look no further than Hunge for a cheddar/blue cheese mix. They are not always cheesy but after some storage they often are.
For nutty, Pomme Gris or Swayzie take the prize for me. Or Margil.
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Is anyone having good luck with Milo Gibson (anise?)? Never mind, I now see it up above in this thread. But wait, there’s more! I see NAFEX did DNA test on Milo Gibson with very interesting result: parents Northern Spy x Golden Delicious, same parents as Spi-Gold, my top tasting apple of all time.
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I asked Fedco about Blue Pearmain vs Milo Gibson, this may be useful to others:
"In our experience Blue Pearmain does well in New England with no/low spray. Not prone to fireblight infections, minimal sooty blotch fly speck, not particularly bothered by apple maggot fly. Great fresh eating and all purpose apple. Of course, this may vary a bit in Virginia.
Milo Gibson is not as disease resistant, can have some sooty blotch and we did see fireblight for the first time this past season, but they are pretty rugged as far as pest resistance. Milo can have amazing strong flavor in some years but does not always develop the licorice flavor as described in the catalog."
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Tolman Sweet is one of my favorites. It is definitely “unique”, I’ve never tasted another apple that is remotely similar.
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Roxbury russet makes the thickest, richest cider. High in sugar and superior to others based on my experience testing ciders with @39thparallel. If cider is your goal, adding it to your blend of soft or hard ciders might really be a game changer for you. We have eaten hundreds of different apples and tried hundreds of different pears. We grow a huge variety of fruits. My goal is different than @39thparallel, who grows hundreds of types of apples. I grow more pears than apples. Mike really knows his apples.
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seems to do okay here with a conventional spray program here. I think of HGG as a high sugar high acid cider apple. In that class, Roxbury Russet / Golden Russet are by far my best producers.
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Milo Gibson is my favorite out of the 250+ apple varieties I grow. It’s an intense Apple taste without being overly acidic. Reminds me of apple juice concentrate. It set a nice crop last year and everyone that tasted it wants a tree. I didn’t have any in the nursery this season because I sent all the scion to NAFEX but I will be grafting a bunch this spring.
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That’s great to hear, I just have one branch I grafted 2 or 3 years ago but I cut a stick off for grafting on one of my other trees. I’ll find a spot Somewhere! Bravo for sending scions to NAFEX, Are you running into Spy genes taking forever to fruit?
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it started setting fruit around year 5 on M111.
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Spigold has the same parents, have you ever tasted one Mike? Growing both but waiting on both to fruit, curious how they would compare to eachother.
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Curious! I don’t have any problems with scabby Hudson’s here in Oregon. But the fruit crack the first couple years, and the aroma appears to call in every insect, bird, and squirrel for miles. If I didn’t like the apples myself, I’d use them for traps.
Even when I bag the fruit, I find ripped up bags mostly under the biggest Hudson.
I lost both my Golden Russett and Pitmaston pineapple (both on bud 9) to fireblight, along with a bunch of other heirlooms I ordered about the same time.
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You might want to make your own custom bags Out of aluminum screen wire.
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Does anyone know if any of these unique apples are resistant to Cedar Apple Rust, late blooming, and would do well in ultra-humid East TN (zone 7a)?
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@39thparallel Mike, would you say your growing experience with Milo Gibson is similar to Fedcos description as far as disease resistance goes?
Also, do you think there’s any improvement in disease resistance to varieties grown on M111 or Standard rootstocks vs dwarfs? I am grafting Milo Gibson this spring and want to give it its absolute best chance of success in my no-spray orchard, which may not be possible either way but worth the try.
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Learning that Milo Gibson has N, Spy genes I will start bending branches and notching under buds at green tip. Otherwise we grow old waiting.
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I like the idea, but not the time commitment!
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