North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Richard Fahey, Nafex's apple interest group chairman, has selected a lot of what he calls "dummy" apples - varieties that will hang on into the winter.  He collects frozen fruit from the trees and presses them for a very sweet, clear juice in the midst of winter.   
-Lon Rombough
NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
For all other things grape,   http://www.vitisearch.com
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
On Nov 5, 2008, at 7:29 AM, kelly@theravenrocks.com wrote:

My experience is that the varieties that survive frost, freezing, disease, drought, etc. are always the least desirable ones.
 
Kelly Coffey
western North Carolina
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D Stubbs [mailto:dsmndel@gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 08:32 AM
> To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Frozen (?) apples
>
>
> This is an important subject to cold climate growers, but so far I haven't found anything that relates why one apple frost damages at 27F and another at 15F.  Makes me wonder if I should get a brix refractometer ( any apple growers out there find them handy?) , but the apples I am thinking of seemed to have a similar sweetness. Does anyone know the mechanism that regulates frost damage - Cell structure? Sugar Starch Content?  Parentage? Ripeness?
> Del,  2b/3a  n. Mn
>
> On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:53 PM, Steve <sdw12986@aol.com> wrote:
> > Lucky Pittman inspired this comment when he asked what temperature would
> > damage his late apples. This isn't intended to be another answer for him
> > but more a story about what I just experienced.
> >
> > Honeygold is about the latest ripening apple I dare to grow here. Some
> > years, they aren't very good because the season wasn't long/warm enough.
> >  I mentioned some months ago about how I didn't spray a fungicide this
> > year due to rain, wind, or both just about every day in the early part
> > of the summer. The Honeygolds suffered greatly from this and were badly
> > spotted and scarred by scab. (The high speed hail storm in June didn't
> > help their looks either.) I wanted to thin them heavily to get rid of
> > the most damaged fruit but they were so bad that I lost interest and
> > never did thin them properly.
> >
> > I picked the best of them before we had a hard frost but left most of
> > them on the tree, thinking I would pick and discard the rest. (I still
> > hope to do that.)
> >
> > I walked out there today and noticed that there were still some decent
> > Honeygolds up in the tree. I tasted one and it was good so I picked a
> > dozen more of the better ones and took them inside. I have eaten two
> > more today. If someone had asked me the same question about how cold can
> > they go without damage, I would have answered upper to maybe mid 20s.
> >
> > Here's the point of all this. We had a prediction last weekend of 10 or
> > 11 degrees for the low. Today I checked my recording thermometer, which
> > is wired to a different apple tree near the Honeygold and my yard went
> > down to 15 degrees Saturday night. I do believe the texture of the
> > apples I picked today is slightly different but they are still good. If
> > you tell me they would now not store as well, I would believe it. I'm
> > just surprised they are still very edible after 15 degrees. Any comments?
> >
> > Steve in the Adirondacks (Zone 4a on the map, zone 3 by the thermometer)
>
>
> -- 
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