North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[David Doud <doudone@netusa1.net>]

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