North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Don Yellman <dyellman@earthlink.net>]

Del:  There are two sets of photos there; I guess they are all of the
same apple, right Del?  Whatever they are, they sure are in nice shape,
and the photos are excellent.
    I am amazed at you guys who can identify an apple by looking at it.
Half the time I can't even identify apples from my own orchard if they
get mixed up, and I already know what they are.
    I look at those photos and think: Stayman, no, Spartan, no, some
other Mac cross, no, some kind of Jonathan cross, and so on and so on.
I have some Empires that look a little like that for shape, but the
striping is different. How's the taste?  That's a pretty early apple if
it's ripe now in your neck of the woods.  All of my apples, BTW, seem to
be a little early this year.
    Just took down over 1/2 bu. from a little 4-year Cox's Orange that I
got from Nick Botner.  I wasn't sure I could grow this apple here; last
year it had a few apples but they rotted before I could get them down.
These I picked today are absolutely delicious things to eat fresh, and I
can see that they would also improve my cider if I had more of them.
Freedom also came down today (light harvest), and tomorrow it will be
Empire.  That's about a week earlier than I normally pick Empire, but
they are sweet and full-flavored, although not as good as Cox's Orange,
which is not as sweet but has an extraordinarily complex flavor.
Jonagolds came down a week ago.  Many of my apples develop rotten spots
and fall if I leave them on too long, but they are fine if I get them
down and into the cooler.  Nearly all of my asian pears (Shinseiki,
Nijiseiki and Chojuro) are fully ripe today.  Having the usual trouble
with cracking on Stayman, and lots of rot, but a young Spur Winesap I
got from Stark Bros. (R.I.P.) has a few apples and shows none of those
problems.  Think I might just take that Stayman out, but it's a standard
tree, and one of the first I planted (1977), so there is a sentimental
attachment.
    Has anyone ever figured out why some apples will be covered by sooty
blotch and flyspeck, while others on  nearby trees have almost none?  I
always thought it related at least partly to skin color, with the
green/yellow apples more suseptible.  You can hardly see the skin for
the soot on Mutsu and Spigold, but Yellow Newtown has almost no soot or
flyspeck.  Red. Del. is about half covered, but Jonagold had almost
none.
    For October, I have a very nice crop of Fuji coming along, if they
stay on the tree that long.  As for your mystery apple Del, agree with
Tom that the usual descriptions of apple flavors (i.e. subacid,
breaking) are often not very precise.

Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA


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