Every one I’ve eaten has that great sweet+tart flavor no matter how ripe it was when I picked it. But they get noticeably sweeter and in my opinion better if left until they are more yellow than green. I did leave a few on the tree just to experiment with having some out through some very cold nights. Had 23 already once and having it again tonight. I’ll be curious to see how they are. I almost hope they turn to mush or I’m going to be mad that I picked most of them…
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As of now none of my Goldrush have stayed on my trees long enough to test the low temperature tolerance level. As the trees root system becomes more established I hope they will hang longer. The ones that turned bright yellow were awesome tasting. The others that came off early achieved a good taste after several months of being in the refrigerator.
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No GR for me this year 
My tree was far too low, it set very heavily over the years and all the branches were bent into perfect deer range. So I had to butcher it last spring, any branch below 5’ got removed. Hopefully it will be back in production next year. The few apple trees that I have already trained high I am starting to reap benefits on, I picked half a bushel of Yates before the big freeze with not a one taken by deer.
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You are welcome to some of mine if you find yourself in Ellicott City. They are from your scions so it would be fair enough…
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I picked my first Gold Rush apple today. Yes, in January! There are several more on the young tree still on.
It was exceptionally sweet, crunchy and had a unique flavor. This is a young tree on Geneva333 rootstock grafted in 2018 and the flavor was better than 75% of all my apples already. Maybe my #1 green/yellow apple.
If the timing holds next year, this apple will be ideal as a late season apple.
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Would like to see how your GR will do next year. Mine was very produtive GR in 2018. I thought I thinned well in 2018 but it was obviously not enough). It went biennial in 2019. The whole tree had one cluster of flower. I kept one apple.
Turned out GR has a tendency to be biennial. Mine is on a M7.
I believe it will produce a lot of fruit again this year.
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My two GR trees produced similar to your. Looks like I have a bunch of fruit buds for this year. I’m starting to wonder if I need to add more nitrogen this spring along with thinning.
Bill,
I usually put a couple of cups of 10-10-10 in the spring. This year, I may add a bit of urea to see if it would help. We can compare notes or commiserate later 
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I’m jealous, mine got stripped before ripe. I’m assuming raccoons, since they were seen in the adjacent plum tree in the preceding weeks
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My Goldrush tree defoliated early here in 7B leaving a tree full of 90% ripened fruit, as Scott reported happened to him a year or two ago. Lots of rain this year, guess that somehow caused the defoliation. All the other trees in my orchard still have their leaves.
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I did not spray my Goldrush trees this and all of my fruit rotted but the trees still have most of their leaves.
Golden Delicious and trees with Golden Delicious parents like Goldrush are very susceptible to Glomerella in many area with high rainfall which causes the trees to drop their leaves early.
Most of my Goldrush apples split before they ripen and I have not been able to find a solutio
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I had two goldrush split as it was turning yellow. I’m not sure why as it hadn’t rained recently.
One of my goldrush trees also defoliated early. There are only two apples remaining on it and decided to leave them along and see if they will ripen.
Is there a spray that works well to prevent rot? I’ve had that issue as well on my “Goldrush”(look more like Golden Russet) apples and Golden Delicious.
Same here regarding the rot. I lose almost every single one unless I bag them in a Ziploc. Then I lose only around 10 %. I have a hard time judging the ripeness. By the time mine are fully yellow they are past their prime. They are best when a bit yellow on the sunny side and streaky yellow green elsewhere. At that point they are very sweet, but not very acidic so they don’t have that sizzle. And they have a fennel taste which I like. Maybe picking earlier and storing long term would be best but we don’t have enough apples or patience. Also GR seem highly variable from apple to apple for me.
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This was the first year that I had a sizeable GoldRush harvest. They were great here in California, grafted on MM-111. I also have another GoldRush tree on M-7, but it’s still in a pot waiting for a planting space. I picked GoldRush from mid-September to October 7. A really nice apple, my wife’s only complain was the thick skin, but this is what you get with an apple that keeps well in storage. I also have to say that my apple trees fared very well through a very hot summer with many 100+ F days. The trees are on drip irrigation.
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Mine split at the same time - just as they were getting ready to pick
My trees were overloaded with fruit and I wondered if the crop load was part of the problem
The apple pathologist in my state was not familiar with the split problem so it must not be universal and I can’t find much info on the split problem.
Its one of my favorite apples and it ripens at a good time. I have a bunch trees on B9 from 2 nurseries and they all split. It’s really frustrating to have great crop of excellent apples and watch them split after spending a lot of time spraying them to prevent rot We may try grafting some of the bud wood to G41 to see if its a problem on B9
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I try to pick my Goldrush around our first frost date which Thanksgiving time, but I have picked them 2 or 3 weeks earlier to try to beat the fruit cracking
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Captan and Mancozeb are inexpensive but most of the really effective chemicals for rot are not,
During a wet season in my area it takes multiple fungicide cocktails to produce attractive fruit which is why I am cutting back on apple growing
Check out this article from the apple pathologist at NCSU
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I had a visit from three of my grands/family from Georgia today. They picked two Goldrush that were great tasting. I picked the remainder to go back home with them. Today finishes up my fruit harvest for 2020.
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