North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard J. Ossolinski" <ossoeo@myfairpoint.net>]

Dan, Donna,

Whereas WP's are not entirely uniform in shape, and some are more conic than others, I've never seen one so conical as to be mistaken for a Red Del.  Ripening unevenly here at about the same time as Williams Early Red (an aromatic and flavorful [though mealy] heirloom with which we make our year's supply of sauce) WP is consistently our best early apple and always our first choice for eating out of hand.  Never scabby, it self thins to some degree, so the fruit sizes well even without much intervention (unlike Pristine!), and after a little polishing is as pretty an apple as you'll see anywhere - and a decent keeper for such an early variety.  One year I made a small batch of cider from those we didn't sell, and, surprisingly, wasn't impressed.  Definitely a fine eater, though.

Richard

Gouldsboro, ME  Zone 5

On Oct 26, 2010, at 11:27 PM, Applesrgoodforu@aol.com wrote:

Donna. I think the Williams Pride apple was mislabeled. They don't come close to looking like Delicious in shape. They are maroon with a bloom. They ripen the first week of August and last about a month. Very scab free. Anybody else want to chime in?

 

Dan Ester

Eugene, Oregon

In a message dated 10/26/2010 1:14:47 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, holycow@frontiernet.net writes:

I saw Williams Pride apples for sale at the Olympia WA farmer's mkt, picked from Burnt Ridge Nursery's stock orchard I assume.  They were smallish, a long Red Delicious shape, red.  I bought 2, one that looked a bit underripe and the other quite dark.  Both were crisp and very boring.  I think I'll regraft that tree to something else.  Seriously, my son and I tasted a lot of apples from unknown old homestead trees while we were there, and WP was way down my list of what I'd like to have at home to eat.  The Liveland Raspberry tree I grafted is not as disease resistant as I'd like, but the fruit from the parent tree are a lot more to my tastes.    

    I have grafted Pristine and some other disease resistant apples, haven't tasted them and just hope I will like them. I know I like Liberty.   Does anyone else have comments on other disease resistant varieties?  My son was selecting for scab resistance since they'd had such a cool wet year, but as I had no info on CAR resistance, I didn't bother bringing anything home.  Anyway, I doubt I could get takes this time of year.  My son said he could get takes about anytime in his climate.  

    I have the Hardy Cumberland released by the Cumberland Plateau expt station, came from the Byron GA breeding program back in the 40's I think.  It's nice and no CAR.  I also have something I grafted from a local tree, can't figure out what it is but it has terrible crotch angles, and no CAR.  It's 20 feet from a YT that gets horrible CAR on it's leaves.    Donna