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[HDessureault <inter.verbis@videotron.ca>]

Hi Jason,
I have a Stayman Winesap in zone 4a and it does really well in terms of
winter survival. But, as you probably know, trees in short growing season
don't grow as fast.  If you go up Mount Washington in New Hampshire, you
will see as you go up the mountain that spruce trees are progressively
smaller the colder it gets.
My Stayman survived really well last winter, when I had die back on other
trees.
Ripening is another story. I had only a few apples twice now, but it seems
to me that full ripening (when seeds turn brown on the tree) would occur
only in the best of year (in my zone). We ate our Stayman apples in
February, they tasted really good but I suspect not as good as they are
reported to be. My experience of that variety is limited though. And of
course, the apple is a winter conservation variety to my knowledge and not
at its best at picking time.
Hélène, in Québec north of Ottawa