There are thousands of embellished apple descriptions that leave out helpful information like biannual tendencies, poor disease resistance, lack of shelf life, and low vigor. It would be helpful to hear what the total duds were and why.
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Worst apple to grow is no apple.
Really, given the variety, choose things you like. If you want certain traits, perhaps list those so people can point to something more specific. Given one of my local orchards has over 200 varieties alone, picking the âworstâ is a tall order.
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My intent is not to discourage anyone from growing apples.
I just am wondering what as not worked for growers because of location, misinformation and preference. There are tons of best, favorite and tastiest threads. I think a thread with some cautionary accounts might balance them out.
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Egremont Russet: A struggle in my region to get much fruit after the annual excision of fireblight-stricken branches and the unwelcome proliferation of the disease to nearby trees.
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If you made this the worse trees to grow instead of apples i would imagine apricots would make it to the worse list for early blooming . I would then add them to my favorites list when they made a crop. The only bad apple i ever had was an old seedling that tasted like wood. The people who owned it made it work for them. Im joking on the apricots partially because i do love mine but its easier to heard cats than get apricots at my house. Iâm a little jealous of the people who can grow apricots. Bob Purvis grows them very well in Idaho so if anyone needs information about them he knows more than anyone I know. Scott I think has some luck with them as well.
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Egremont Russet may have disease issues, but it can be a very tasty apple. Mine gets lots of rots and damage, but the few which are good are very good. It gets well into the 20âs in brix- I think I had a 24 this past fall.
Ecos Red would be my pick for worst. It cracks, rots (moderately), and has bad bitter pit. And the few which make it arenât very good. When slightly early, they are very acidic and sharp (low brix in the 10-11 range). Then, when they are fully ripe or a day late, they get soft like an old Mac (and around 12 brix). It was the first apple I planted (6 years ago), as it was supposed to be low care, insect resistant, etc. It almost died of CAR the first year (but was fine in later years from that perspective). At least I didnât notice a ton of insect damage on it. It turned out to be a good thing that I got it on a fairly vigorous rootstock, as it is now the host of 22 other apple varieties.
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YeahâŚIâll second that. They are so bad imo to make them unworthy of even plantingâŚperiod. I should admit that I donât like them much to begin with. I think (probably crazily) that they are better when canned.
Strange selection for your first planted tree Bob. What ever lead you that way may I ask?
I agreeâŚvery good idea.
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Worst tasting Apple Iâve ever had was at a pyo orchard in Knoxville, Arkansas Black. As hard as a rock and tasted like a rock too. Yet farther south, and with 6 months aging, itâs supposed to be great. Go figure
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The red delicious purchased from the store is awful here. The ratings are some of the lowest ive seen http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/red-delicious . Had i not tasted red delicious grown here i would say the same as everyone else. It can be a good apple when grown properly but dont buy the store bought.ark black are like that but dont buy someone elses ark. Black
I was initially very hesitant to plant any kind of apple, as I really wanted everything to be no-spray. The first year I moved in and had a yard, I planted almost 2 dozen kinds of berries (mostly raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and blueberries, with a couple elderberries and strawberries thrown in). The only tree I planted was the Ecos Red. Here is the description which hooked me:
Ecos Red Apple â Malus x coronaria x domestica
âGrafted Desert Quality Apple with Disease and Insect Resistance for the Organic Grower in Mind
Found as a seedling in a batch of native crabs, Ecos Red has shown both resistance to insects and fungal diseases like scab. Even without spray of any type the parent tree produces a large portion of perfect fruit with only minor blemishes. Needs to be tested in a variety of climates but would be a great benefit to organic apple growing. Most varieties have been bred with spraying as ânormalâ which is akin to designing an airplane like a kitchen sink. Yields of this selection have not been fully evaluated but we are working on it. This may have been a one in million chance but this is the only fresh eating apple from this rare native cross and feel confident enough to offer it clonally. The tart flavor is similar to McIntosh-juicy but with a denser white flesh. Grafted onto semi-dwarfing super hardy Ranetka rootstock.Height to 20 ft. The round crown is dense and compact.â
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I agree I wanted to cut it down when I tasted the first one off the tree. This year I stored them and they are good for a long storage Apple.
Duds vary a lot from climate. Many of the English apples are horrible for me. DâArcy Spice and Allington Pippin in particular were truly horrible mush balls. All the 50 European cider apples I tried were horrible in my climate. Many English varieties are not horrible but are just bad: Egremont Russet, Ribston, Cox, etc are all great apples in an appropriate climate but have too many rot etc problems to be worth growing.
I also had bad luck with California-bred apples. Vanilla Pippin was a scab magnet. My Jewel was bland.
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If you grow a lot of different apples you have to grow only known excellent varieties if you donât then you end up eating a lot of apples,it is just like tomatoâs,hard to get rid-off.During my apple growing days i ended-up with only one variety: Melrose on m27 rootstock.Very small tree but excellent fruit.
Sorry canât help you, Bob
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I agree that location is a big part of this question. One of the standard apples people here in Phoenix are encouraged to grow is the Ein Shemer (super low-chill, pollinator for some of the other low-chill apples such as Anna, Dorsett Golden). I havenât had one, but along with the recommendation to grow it seems to generally come with the caveat that itâs kinda gross.
If you ever get a chance to hear Tom Burford talk in person, go. Itâs worth the price of admission to hear him talk about Red Delicious which he finds a way to work into almost any subject. He calls it âRisibleâ and âBiliousâ. I had to look up those terms. Tom uses RD as a symbol of the movement away from thousands of local varieties and local nurseries.
Some day I would like to taste âHawkeyeâ. Anybody growing it?
Iâm planning on grafting Hawkeye this spring. I was born in the Yakima Valley, the heart of apple growing country. 35 years ago, or so, I remember having Red Delicious that were pretty good. Better than most grocery store apples now, even of respectable varieties.
They were dark red, typie apples, definitely not Hawkeye. So if those were palatable, I have high hopes that Hawkeye is at least pretty good.
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Steven Hayesâ Youtube videos were responsible for pulling my into fruit growing. Most of my apples are american heirlooms but I could not resist grafting a handful of english apples. Looking at your average weather, Its not drastically different from the UK other than a bit more rain and warmer summers. I would like to better understand what specifically causes eglish apples to be duds in a large part of the US.
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I remember having Red Delicious that I thought were good also, but they were caramel and/or candy coated apples. When I was a little boy the local Catholic church had apple bobbing for prizes during the towns Halloween parade and festivities night. I forget now just what you could get, but they always gave you these dipped RD and they were awesome. I think the thick skin probably lent itself well to the dipping. I always think of that when I hear about RD because itâs my only favorable memory of them.
I too would like to try Hawkeye. Damn me for not thinking of it when I made my ARS order. Whether we love it or hate it, maybe some of us should grow it, as it stands as an unparalleled icon in the fruit growing industry. It most definitely does not look like the RD we know today.
Have you ever heard the story of RDâŚitâs easily the most fascinating in all of fruit history. If you havenât read about it, doing so will make you want that Hawkeye all the more.
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No apple has been more poorly grown than red delicious. The growers have destroyed the apple. In my area its crisp. Sugary with a good blend of acid / sugars. The first time I ate a homegrown R D I thought the tree was mislabeled. By the time I ate my 3rd from all different trees I realized wow thatâs what red delicious is supposed to taste like. Red delicious from the grocery store truly are so bad that Iâve never had a good one. The opposite is true of honey crisp and some locations grow them better than I do. Ours are good quality but I have had better. Red delicious here taste a little like Jonathan but yet have there own flavor. Completely different apple.
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I have one small branch I could cut into next year, I imagine. Dbens sent me my piece.