[NAFEX] apple opinion/poll
David Doud
doudone at netusa1.net
Sun Oct 12 21:47:12 EDT 2008
I grow several of the mentioned varieties - remember - your mileage
may vary....
Williams Pride and Redfree are roughly the same season - early thru
mid august here in north central Indiana - I consider Redfree
superior over all (tho neither rate highly on the ultimate scale), -
smaller growing tree and smoother apples that are less critical of
being harvested on exactly the right day - best quality is generally
when the back side of the fruit is greenish/striped, if waiting for
full color the texture suffers - the apples are crisp and mildly tart
flavored, good for its season - two or three pickings are required
and fruit harvested at the earliest end of the season are still
palatable -
Williams Pride is more sharply flavored, tart enthusiasts would
prefer it - the apples break from green to purple unevenly and drop
worse than Redfree if not harvested in a timely fashion - the color
causes the fruit to get quite hot in the sun and since it ripens
during hot weather and long days here, trees have to be skimmed every
2-3 days to keep the ripening fruit from cooking on the tree - in my
experience it is more prone to physiological disorders (bitter pit)
and gets 'Brooks Spot', a minor fungal disease of apples that is
controlled by common fungicides, and may not be an issue in some
situations - it is an issue here - there are no savings on fungicides -
Dayton is 10 days to two weeks after Redfree - ripens unevenly on
vigorous trees - it's OK, but not exciting - fully colored specimens
tend to be soft, less than fully colored specimens are unattractive -
multiple picks - eh -
I have grown Beacon (Fenton) in the past - attractive, but uneven
ripening, mid-late august - scab susceptible and very fireblight
susceptible - flavor is not a favorite of mine - brushy tree - better
off growing one of the aforementioned varieties -
Wolf River is early september here - very large fruit of mediocre
quality - cottony texture and little sugar or acid - not much to
recommend it -
Grimes Golden is harvested mid september here (my grandparents were
married on sept 18th and set up housekeeping in a tent in a leased
orchard during Grimes harvest) - they are traditionally harvested
mature, but green - they will drop if not harvested in a timely
fashion and do not ripen to yellow uniformly on the tree - placed in
'common' storage (root cellar or some such) they store well and are
removed and used during nov/dec/jan/feb - the fruit at that point has
ripened to a bright yellow/gold and has quite a distinctive and
pleasant flavor - at that point it is a mellow textured apple, which
didn't use to be considered a bad thing - there is a hint of the
distinctive flavor in the green (crisp) fruit, but only a hint -
I have one tree of Fortune and consider it a very large McIntosh,
ripening about three weeks later - too large, really - looked nice
this year - I'm not planting more -
Enterprise is a modern hard red apple of good quality, good keeping,
and decent tree characteristics - early to mid october here - prime
apple time - we'll see if it can carve out a niche in that tough
season - it might serve as the bright red (tho the red is actually
kinda dark) apple for late season sales -
Melrose is a very good apple across our latitude (40*N) - very
productive, very large fruit, very large tree, consistant bearer -
can be very attractive with a beautiful red side and a less colored
back - also can be quite russeted some years - picked right (october
5-15 or so) and stored well, it keeps modern quality till Christmas -
I generally set it side by side with Mutsu at retail markets - about
the same size (quite impressive, really) - 3 people will pick Mutsu
on taste to 2 picking Melrose - (the other 5 having no idea what they
like.....) - Mutsu has more sugar - I've talked to several growers
south of me that find it unremarkable in their warmer climate -
and a shout out to Hudson's Golden Gem - one of my favorites, it's
still on the tree here, tho it's time now - wonderful sugar and
flavor - also a codling moth favorite -
one that has not been mentioned is Pixie Crunch - quite a fine apple
- early-mid september, dark red, honeycrisp crunch with better flavor
and a lot less cultural issues - size was a worry, but they seem to
chemically thin just fine, and 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" fruit is just the
right size for a lot of people - this recent obsession with big
apples may be less of a factor in the future -
we have the Winesaps, GoldRush, Newto...er...Albemarle Pippin, Black
Twig, Hokuto, and Golden Russet to harvest yet - hope we can finish
most this coming week - too hot here for apples, really - 80*F+ today
- better than freezing tho -
D
William's Pride
Zestar
Melrose
Wolf River
Dayton
Enterprise
Freedom
Redfree
Fortune
Beacon
Norkent
Grimes Golden (any advantage over Golden Delicious?)
Connell Red
Regent
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