North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

It was fun to read of the experiences of someone trying new varieties, but not necessarily very instructive.  Young trees with just a few fruit can be very misleading.  After 5 or 6 years, when the trees are really plugged in to production you start to get a better idea of the value of the variety.  It is not at all unusual for me to jump to conclusions about the superior quality of the fruit from a young sparsely bearing tree.  It's hard not to scream from the rooftop about a new variety you're excited about, but a reliable evaluation takes about 10 years, IMO.  Not that I'm asking anyone to wait that long- I enjoy that rooftop screaming.