Zestar! has made its first significant crop for me, 7th leaf tree on antonovka roots.
Thanks to U of Minnesota for creating so many great apples for the north, this one is quite a nice summer apple for fresh eating and processing. Certainly has some bite in a subacid kind of way, really nice size to them to. Tree is pretty vigorous and seems scab resistant in my yard. Good crunch, not as dense in texture as many later apples. Certainly a good choice for this time of season, I have top worked over many of my summer apple varieties but this one is going to stay like it is…pictured with a Trailman Crab. 11 Brix (Trailman 13 brix).
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Yes it’s a great late summer Apple. Better for me than Williams Pride or Pristine. I think Gravenstein is still tops for me.
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I tried it last week at a Farmer’s Market in Ithaca. Granted, the apples in the bin were small for lack of thinning. That could affect its taste. However, it’s too sour to my liking. To me, Gravenstein is a lot better as it has a good mix of sweetness and tartness.
My William’s Pride this year were mostly subpar. The texture is more porous than crunch. Its taste was also off, too bland for the most part.
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Sour is not Zestar, those were harvested too early. I like to really let them hang, they don’t go mealy at all. I had one yesterday that was a bomb of fruit-candy flavors. I am getting some spot rots (frog-eye) on them as well as a bit of watercore.
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Glad to know. My impression was way off, then.
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I had that last year. And I got impatient and harvested mine probably 2 weeks too early this year. Now I have a bunch of sour Zestar like mamuang. I need a Pristine graft to fill that late July “must pick apples now” urge.
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I harvested my Zestar too early in the beginning of August, they were nice but sour. I also let some of them to hang on the tree. I still have a couple of them hanging. These late ones became very sweet, like candy sweet, a little bit too much for me. They also are the largest apples between several varieties that I have. Here is the picture of the fully ripe Zestar. They do not color well for me, but the green color is almost gone they are pink and red.
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I tasted Zestar, Gravenstein and Discvery from the same place. They all were small (unthinned) and picked too early.
With that in mind, an underripe Gravenstein still tasted good with a nice combination sweet and sour blend.
I look forward to eating fully ripe Gravenstein in the future.
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My Williams Pride weren’t the best this year.
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A week and a half later, still picking a few from my tree and the flavor has improved quite a bit. Sweeter and a vinious flavor is emerging, still pretty crunchy. Fall is in the air…these certainly taste like it!
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I agree my later WP got more flavorful.
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I am getting a decent crop of zestar! now. What an impressive apple! For 2 years in a row my favorite summer apple. Very sweet with excellent flavor and sub acid balancing tartness. I measured one at brix 16!
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I’ve been picking Zestar for the last few weeks- this is the last 3. It’s not bad…quite good for a summer apple. Even Lee (my oldest who is picky about texture) liked it and said that it was almost fluffy. Light and crisp.
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I picked a few Zestar yesterday and just ate one of them. Every year I’m impressed with them. I’d say they’re the best summer apples I’ve eaten. I need to remember to do a brix test on the next one. The one I just ate was very nicely sweet.
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I’ve had a Zestar for 6 years, I’ve got maybe 3 or 4 off the tree since it started fruiting about 3 years after I planted it. But, the squirrels give it two thumbs up…
@BobVance your Zestars look much darker (purple) than I’m used to seeing. Yours looks more like a Winesap or Macoun.
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Mine is also much lighter in color than Bob Vance’s apples.
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Yeah, the ones I’ve had look more like a Honeycrisp, that is, kinda a golden background with pinkish splotches on it.
At any rate, the first ones we had were from an orchard in central KY, we thought they were like a milder version of a Honeycrisp. So we planted a tree in 2017, but like I said we’ve only had a handful before the squirrels pilfer them. But they were very good regardless.
I’m surprised they’re ripening this early, I know they’re an early variety, but around here that usually means mid September.
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Those were the last 3 that I picked and they were the reddest, maybe 85%+ red. Early on, about 2 weeks earlier, they were maybe 30% red/pink, with the rest yellow. In addition to being the best apple in it’s window, it is always very large. Not a heavy producer though maybe that is why it is large- it thins itself for me 
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Zestar is absolutely the best-tasting of all the apples that I’ve fruited so far.
That said, it has been a frustrating endeavor to try to get apples from this cultivar in my location. I have two Zestar trees that are well past bearing age, but only once did I ever get much (about 40 apples that one year), and that on full-sized trees (by comparison, my full-sized Goodland produces 500+ apples in a normal year). The other 8 to 10 years, I’ve gotten only one or two apples (if any) off of these trees. I have 5 or 6 other apple trees blooming at the same time on my 1/2 acre lot, so they should be getting plenty of pollen – but maybe they are fussy about compatibility? Also, they are highly susceptible to sun-scald, even after taking all the preventative measures. They seem fully winter-hardy, and they are nice trees, but I’m not that interested in apple trees that don’t give me any crop. I’m about ready to cut them down or graft them over to something that will do better here (for reference, McIntosh, Goodland, Norkent, Mantet, Parkland, Kerr Crab and Summercrisp pear have all done well in this short-summer zone 3b/4a spot.
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