To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Frozen (?) apples
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:53:24 -0500
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
I know what you mean. Since I live too far north for many good fruits, I
sometimes have to settle for a variety based on hardiness rather than
great quality.
These Honeygold apples though will be excellent most years when they
ripen properly. They are very desirable in spite of their good hardiness
BUT then there are the other problems on your list such as disease.
Honeygold was affected worse by scab this year (when I wasn't able to
spray a fungicide) than other less desirable apples. Close behind in
scab damage were the Sunrise and Honey Crisp apples which are also
pretty good otherwise.
I was just now eating one of the 15 degree exposed Honeygolds before I
started typing this. I wish I had picked a few on Saturday afternoon
just before that cold dip, so I could compare. The one I just ate was
still crisp and good with no problems. I do have some stored away that
were picked about 2 weeks ago. I could do a taste comparison with those.
Back to disease resistance once more... the one apple that was
completely disease free this year was Red Baron. Off hand, I don't
recall them being considered disease resistant but they were virtually
scab free this very bad year. I've never been thrilled by their quality.
I find them to have a tough skin and a trace of astringency. They are a
big nice looking apple but I have been grafting most of the branches to
other cultivars. This year they could have been called Yellow Baron
because there surely wasn't much red on them!