Here, the nearest U-pick had them for sale in their store for $1.99. They were mostly big apples, and they were fantastic until sometime in October when they lost all flavor. I thought they were supposed to do better farther north?
Storability can vary season to season, I suppose. I never try to store Honeycrisp as they are not my cup of coffee but lots of apple varieties hold their texture in storage but lose their flavor. Mutsu, for example.
thats what i thought also but the ones i have seen and tried were a disappointment. right next to the honey crisp was a improved version of cortland and they were huge. noticed the honey crisp trees had some damage. where as the other 5 varieties didn’t.
The Curse of the Honeycrisp Apple Did anyone read this article on Bloomberg two days ago? Easy to google.
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Yes, it was a very interesting article on the difficulties of growing a good crop and what the farmers have to do to the apple to ready it for market. A lot more costs to them despite the higher retail prices.
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I read that article as well. No wonder they cost so much in the stores. They are very huge and so uniform as well. I believe these bigger orchards irrigate them to be that big. Perhaps making them have less taste than they would have if left without being so soaked with water.
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Does Honeycrisp grow well in Zone 7 East Coast? A friend, new to gardening, is deadset on growing HC in 7B, hot, humid, blighty Md. I had the idea it’s hard to grow except in Northern states. Anybody growing it in 7 or 8?
I get the impression soil type is more of an issue.
https://growingfruit.org/t/interesting-article-about-correcting-honeycrisp-fruit-disorders/18563
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Weather affects soil pH and rain can increase vegetative growth that sinks lots of calcium.
I’m planning at trying the manganese, but I’m skeptical. The man may be pumping his consultation business and his claims are anecdotal and not research based.
Is bitter pit significant only to a commercial grower? Would it hurt the eating quality for a backyard grower?
It damages the eating quality of apples and vastly shortens storage life. As soon as it shows up on apples I dispose of them if they are in storage.
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That could be, but there was very low growth here 2 years ago due to drought and I saw the same amount of bitter pit as last year, which was extremely wet. Also, they grow these successfully at commercial orchards in the North West, don’t they?
It depends on how serious the issue is with your HC tree. I eat them bitter pit and all if it’s not serious. If it is, it cut the affected area off (some time all around an apples (it does not go deep). I usually don’t have HC to be stored except for this year but they taste horrible because of excessive water (another story).
I have a HC for almost 10 years. Bitter pit is there, affecting apples more and more lately.
I like this article. I reposted it here what @AJfromElmiraNYhad posted earlier.
Beating bitter pit in Honeycrisp | Good Fruit Grower
It’s easier to understand. I will try to lime the tree more consistently and look for calcium chloride spray. It’s kind of hard for backyard growers to invest when we have only a few apple trees and not all apples suffer from bitter pit like HC.
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Have you tested your soil for excess K? Do you mulch your trees with wood chips or shredded wood?
Potassium is super high here.
Not for the HC. I have stone 3’ around the tree, pull any weeds that come up. I mow everything beyond that.
Are you going to try the manganese cure?
Yes, I want to. I forgot about it until today. I have HC test branches on several other trees now, so I’ll experiment on the original M7 tree. I was going to regraft or remove the tree anyhow.
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I harvested our honeycrisp apples in a couple rounds over the past weeks. With all the rain we’ve had lately, and more on the way, I had a few that were cracking so decided to harvest the rest. Almost 4 whole bushels (150lbs, 259 apples).
These were ones I saw in the store today.
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Very nice, they look so much better than the store apples. How many trees, how old, what rootstock, etc? Good flavor? How’s your other apples doing?
We have one puny tree, three years old, hasn’t fruited yet, gets shredded by Japanese beetles every year.
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These were from just one honeycrisp tree. The three bearing apples that I have were planted in 2013 on EMLA7 rootstock. The other two are sweet sixteen and honeygold. I got about a bushel and half from the sweet sixteen and I’ll probably get 2-3 bushels from the honeygold. The past couple of years the honeycrisp has produced send 2 bushels a year but definitely a big jump this year.
Hopefully I thinned enough that it won’t be biennial. Most of these apples were on the lowest scaffolds.
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