The USDA zones being used here are for expected winter injury or you could say cold hardiness.
There are a lot of other factors to consider when comparing locations for growing results.
In apple growing regions varieties like Williams Pride are considered summer apples and in the hotter areas of these the apple just cant be grown. Like most summer varieties WP is delicate in that its subtler flavor and floral bouquet can easily be fried in too intense of environment. With a short picking span between underripe and mush i have in many years devoted the variety to juice.
Huh, I saw nothing on this thread about winter hardiness. Must’ve missed it
Micro climate, soil type, fertilizing and amount of sunlight to name a few plays a role. However, you can get a general idea of ripening dates with similar zones. Especially when its the first year the tree makes fruit and you dont know exactly when to pick. The following year might have a different harvest date but at least you have an idea when to constantly check for ripeness. I really don’t care to much for apples so to be honest I would not know when to harvest. Apparently, you should pick when the sugar content is at its peak. The do not get sweeter once removed from the tree. They just start to lose the crunch but sugar content tends to remain. If you like them crunch which I prefer harvesting them seems a but more difficult so you get the highest sugar content while maintaining the crunch at least for me. I just can not eat a soft apple, it grosses me out. That is probably why Im not an apple person. I buy just about all types of fruit but never buy apples. Maybe after this years harvest if they are sweet and crunchy my opinion of apples might change. I have 4 trees full of apples. They all blossomed and fruited the same year. The WP apples seem to be the first to ripen of the varities I grow, WP, Sansa, Freedom and Liberty.
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Hello. I only have a couple Williams Pride so far since they are recently grafted on Dabinett. But in southern valley Oregon, they’re not ready yet and I am going to try to make myself wait 2-3 more weeks. I picked all 3 of my Blairmonts last week, about 2-3 weeks early, and was sorry I did. Seeds still light brown, skin kind of chewy, flavor just generally tart. I have a ton of Pink Pearl getting close to ripe now, and they have a shorter ripening window than Williams… they don’t hang well on the tree at all. Blairmont below. Too early
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I am surprised your Williams Pride is not ready yet. Just surmising here but I would think that southern Oregon would be past that point by now. And if your seeing your Pink Pearl about ready, for me, PP is 4 weeks later. Generally 1st week of Sep. vs 1st week of Aug for WP.
Of course it could be that the interstem of Dabinett is having an effect on it?
Or is it possible that its not WP?
Just by your like / dislike apples I would say your going to have a challenge with Williams Pride. In many climates it just gets soft fast and is difficult to pick at an appropriate eating stage. Still good to juice though. Sansa, for me was just blandly sweet but if your a Honeycrisp fan this might remind you somewhat of one.
The Freedom and Liberty are definite winners both in eating and growing categories. For us westerners they are like the perfect McIntosh, CRISP, SWEET/TART, !
My info for Freedom comes secondhand but Liberty I have grown for decades and it is the best selling variety at my farm.
Once you have picked Liberty a couple of years at what you think is tree ripe then try moving up a week early on maybe half of them and put those in the fridge. They will keep well. You can experiment with this picking early by up to 2 weeks and get maybe 1-2 months of storage. They will always stay crunchy/sweet but will eventually get an off flavor, kind of winey.
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Had another WP fall off. This one is a bit darker. Has a darker red kinda stipe. It was nice and crispy but very little sweet and a lot of sour. It wasn’t bad but I’m not an apple person and love more sweetness. Yellow peaches are great because they are extremely sweet and the sourness at the end is great.
You mentioned about the seeds being brown. These are a bit darker but not black. I hope they get sweeter.
I will let them hang around a bit longer.
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I had probably better check that WP, huh? It doesn’t LOOK full sized or ripe yet, but maybe it is. It’s been in the high 90’s during the day here and anywhere from 45-65 at night, so it’s been kind of hard to use someone else’s ripening schedule. We are usually later than you would think. We are way behind zone 8 on the east coast.
I wonder if your weather is like my Enumclaw family’s? They have more rain than we do, but generally more even temperatures.
A lot of my PP are sunburned, so I may be picking them early and doing something with them… like feeding them to the chickens.
@MiniOrchardDude
I notice the stem of your WP is kinda green. I don’t think it’s ready yet, either.
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Black seed and a non green stem. Great info I was unaware of.
Thanks!
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