North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Joe and Ellen Hecksel <jhecksel@voyager.net>]

Congratulations!

Sounds like you know what you are doing.  The site sounds good, and that 
is the one thing that cannot be repaired easily.

Zone 4 cider apples is a pretty thin talent pool.  I will comment where 
I feel qualified.  BTW, I am Zone 5 with a 140 day average growing 
season according to the closest weather station.  I think my site gives 
me three more weeks than that, most years.

Lately I have been gravitating toward apples that ripen October 1.  The 
temperatures are cooling rapidly and I can hold the apples in bags on 
the north side of the house very easily.  Your early list looks light on 
the sharp apples and the later apples look to be heavy on the "sweet" 
apples.  Unfortunately, there is almost no demand for sharp apples in 
the marketplace so nobody breeds them.  This is a good avenue for some 
fruit exploring...a sharp apple that is rock-solid reliable in your 
climate and has reasonable disease resistance.


> The site: sloping land, southeast exposure, well-protected by softwood 
> forest. Planting will be at about 1300 feet.  No doubt acidic soils 
> which I will be liming this summer/fall.
> The orchard: I am looking at planting the following varieties:


Ashmead's Kernel : Grafted on MM106 as a side branch.  Never fruited.  

Culled after 6 years.


Chisel Jersey: Literature speaks well of this apple.  Suppposedly an easy 
grower and reliable fruiter.


Dabinette: Similar to Chisel Jersey, easy grower according to literature


Duchess: Earlier than most of your other choices.  The ones I tasted seemed 
to be low

soluble solids.

Golden Russett: Supposed to be a nice grower for a triploid.  It has been a 
dog for

me on M7

Late ripening might be an issue.  


Reinette Zabergau: Vulnerable to cracking at my location. Culled.


Roxbury Russett: Good choice for cider base.  Think of it as the canvas you 
paint

with other flavors.  Slightly more reliable and heavier bearing than 
Golden Russet at my location, otherwise similar.

Sweet 16: Tends to biennial bearing.  Low sugar in "on" years.  Control 
fruiting by thinning

and it is a very good apple.  Tends to be vigorous.


> All trees will be on semi-dwarfing rootstock, M7 or CG30.  Obviously I 
> have included some eating fruit in here, but ones that I do not have at 
> the research orchard.  I will most likely weed out a few of these, and 
> am looking for advice on which to avoid in a zone 4 location.
>
> Any advice?
>
> Thanks,
>
> TerryB
> =================================================================
> Terence Bradshaw
> Pomona Tree Fruit Service
> 93 Stowe St   
> Waterbury, VT 05676           
> (802)244-0953
> madshaw@innevi.com
>
> The views represented are mine and mine only...



--
-Joe Hecksel
My personal website: http://my.voyager.net/~jhecksel
A man can be an idiot and not know it....but not if he has a teenager in 
the house.