From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] best apples article
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:18:36 -0500
I've heard we're too far south for some of those great Minnesota
apples (Keepsake, Honeycrisp, although I did plant a Sweet 16.) ...
But I think we're too far north for Fuji, Pink Lady.
They grow Pink Lady apples in Nebraska City, Mark. I called an orchard
there and asked them about it (sorry, I don't remember which one - I
just saw on the Internet that they grew that variety), and they said
that they 'hadn't had any problems' with them ripening. I was very
doubtful that they'd ripen here (still am, actually).
Unfortunately, I planted my apples before I discovered NAFEX. I tried to
research different varieties on the Internet, finding those that were
supposed to keep the best and be excellent eating apples. I didn't have
a clue that our hot summers would matter at all, though I did know I was
pushing the envelope for late ripening - in order to get good keepers.
Well, I've always like green apples, too (as a kid, I liked green apples
far more than ripe ones). And I wanted to get four varieties from the
same nursery, with a dwarfing interstem, so that narrowed my choices.
I ended up planting Honeycrisp, Suncrisp, Goldrush, and Fulford Gala (I
wanted to get at least one early apple). I'd never even seen a Suncrisp
or Goldrush apple before, let alone tasted one. Heh, heh. Then, although
I suspected it wasn't wise, I planted a Pink Lady, too. Well, it's a
pretty little tree, anyway - looks just like a candelabra. None of these
are old enough to produce apples yet, especially with our late freeze
this spring, so who knows? (Well, I had four big apples on the Suncrisp,
but three of them disappeared, so I picked the last one green. As I say,
I like them green, too, with a little salt.)
Good luck,
Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
--
The little shutter at the back of my mind, where I pushed all my
dissonant thoughts, snapped open after the 9/11 attacks, and it refused
to close again. I found myself thinking that the Quran is not a holy
document. It is a historical record, written by humans. ... And it is a
very tribal and Arab version of events. - Ayaan Hirsi Ali