I remain disappointed/frustrated with my Keepsake tree. My wife and I do love the fruit, but my tree produces so few that it’s frustrating. I have top worked a few wild crabs with Keepsake to see if perhaps I could get better production that way. Time will tell. What fruit I do get matures in early-mid October. They are good fresh off the tree, but better after a week or two in storage. Crisp, juicy, sweet, some hints of malt similar to Frostbite, but nowhere near as intensely flavored. We never have enough to know how they store long term. I won’t be removing the tree, but if I had limited space I may.
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Im growing it as well but on a small young grafted tree so no production to report about. I can’t say I’m all that thrilled to hear about smsmith’s reporting on production as we are in the same general area, but nevertheless I’ve got the room and patients so I’ll give it a go anyways.
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No Keepsake apples yet but last year I pulled scaffolds horizontal and they spurred up nicely so am hoping this year’s the year.
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On the bright side, it has survived winters here since 2013. There were some tough ones in there
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I have it on a wild seedling, grafted in 2016. It bloomed for the first time this past spring (2022), I had one fruit on the tree, it was small and went missing sometime in September. Fingers crossed it will fruit again this year but more heavily and I’ll be able to sample it.
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My Keepsake fruited heavily last season and made some outstanding fruit- nice flavor and great texture. In fact they were so good that I missed the chance to test how well the keep!
A percentage were affected by bitter pit and something else that made them quite lumpy and misshapen and a very few also split, which was weird. Anyways, I will be hanging on to this variety and it will be interesting to see if I get much fruit this season or if it will go biannual due to heavy crop last year
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Have a Keepsake tree which has produced for the last few years. Seems reasonably productive. Still am trying to get the timing right on harvesting it. It produces a decent apple, nothing really special but good. However I have not noticed them lasting any longer in storage than many of our other varieties. That may be due to my picking them too late for storage (I had picked just as they are ripe). Plan to pick earlier next year and see if letting them ripen in storage will increase their store time.
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The best storing apples tend to keep even when picked fully ripe. The early ripening Pink Lady strain (the only one I can fully ripen every season) can keep in common refrigeration for almost a year. Goldrush and Fuji at least into Spring. Goldrush tends to get wrinkly if not protected from dehydration but maintains a healthy crunch even when wrinkled.
I have noticed that Jonagold seems to be a better keeping apple when picked a bit green, which renders it a bit less sweet but still quite good. So you are probably right that timing will help Keepsake store longer- question is whether it’s worth storing, based on yours and other descriptions of it here.
This year my stored apples are only good because I picked them a bit too early due to intense wildlife pressure, but in the long run, the point of growing and storing apples for me is to have much better than I can buy, but we east coast growers are at he mercy of the elements.
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Thanks Alan. I am going to have to get better at storing the apples. In the past the harvests were not big enough to matter, but we are now getting many more apples and I would like to keep them as long as possible.
Currently I have an old Sun Frost refrig that I use for the purpose. It’s main advantage is it has no air circulating in it and the compartments seal up fairly tight so it tends to stay humid. Better than a standard fridge crisper for sure, but I still see some wrinkling of the skins after 3 or more months. Any suggestions on how this can be reduced/avoided? Would plastic bags help?
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It looks like year 10 will be the first year I get a decent crop on my Keepsake tree. The tree isn’t loaded with blossom buds, but it is definitely the most it’s had so far.
I sure hope the crop pans out this year. I’ve been looking forward to having numerous Keepsake apples to eat for years.
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I have 3 Keepsake grafted to G.222 in 2018. It’s blooming this spring, hope it sets fruit. At the house I have a Keepsake on a wild seedling that has bloomed for 2-3 seasons. This spring it has a more blooms and I hope it sets a nice crop.
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I’ve got about 2 dozen apples on a G 30 tree I topworked 3 or 4 years ago. I spread all the limbs horizontal and opened up the center. A bit of blight this year but not bad.
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These apples will keep a very long time. The trick is not eating them before the test is up 
I’ve eaten them into March or April (stored in bags) without signs of going bad.
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Damage report: two thirds of my Keepsakes have big cracks so won’t store- never had this in any other apple variety. Plus they dropped last three days before seeds say they’re ripe. Only faintly sweet, taste under-developed. Not impressed.
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Oh dear. I have lost a lot of Liberty to cracking this year, never had an apple crack before. I have a keepsake on G41 from cummins that arrived with microscopic roots. Its still pretty scrawny after 3 years. Maybe i will let it set one apple next year to sample it.
With some holes in them they help a great deal.
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I haven’t tried this - holes poked in bags but sealed closed?
Fruit purchased from stores are routinely packaged this way. Plastic bags or containers with holes. Fruit is alive and needs some air, I guess. No holes and it tends to rot, in any case.
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I’ve been sampling Keepsake weekly to test for ripeness. Last week, the one I ate had light brown seeds. I’m expecting the one I eat this week to have dark brown seeds. I won’t pick the tree for at least another week, possibly two. Then, they’ll go in the crisper for at least a few weeks before we eat them. Keepsake requires a long ripening season and some cold storage before it hits peak deliciousness.
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Picked a few Keepsakes today because there are a number of frosts in the forecast. I think they’d be fine down to around 30 or so, but any colder than that and I don’t know how they’d react.
I brix tested the one I just ate. A little disappointing at 15. It certainly was very, very crisp and juicy though. I’ll test another one later and then let the rest sit in the crisper for a few weeks before testing again.
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