Apple ID help needed???

[aerospacefarmer]

Does anyone have an idea what this apple might be? I have 5 of these trees that were some of my first apple trees planted and at the time I knew nothing about types and rootstocks and just wanted apples for the deer. I am not even sure which nursery I got them from but its either Cummins or Morse Nursery when they were selling apples called 3 is the charm. I wasn't really sure what I was getting and didn't care as they promoted themselves as wildlife apples that would produce quickly. I went through a very cool site that Dan Wombles sent me that takes different apple features and eliminates the ones that don't apply. They have a total of 99 apple varieties on the site and the only apple that came close was an Empire which seems to fit the bill perfectly but strange thing is that I don't ever remember planting or buying an Empire apple from Cummins so if it is Empire it had to come from Morse. Would appreciate any and all comments

Paul

 

[Maya]

Looks like Sansa, for one, to me Paul. What is the flesh like? What are the tree habits?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Flesh is white and juicy. I never planted Sansa either and I have 5 trees like this. To me it has a taste of some sort of Mac and has been ripe since around September 15 and falling easily at end of September. Tree is spreading and its annual bearer even when we have had late frosts and apple grow in clusters and all over the branch and main trunk. They bruise when they fall but not as easily as HC

 

[Rally1148]

Flesh is white and juicy. I never planted Sansa either and I have 5 trees like this. To me it has a taste of some sort of Mac and has been ripe since around September 15 and falling easily at end of September. Tree is spreading and its annual bearer even when we have had late frosts and apple grow in clusters and all over the branch and main trunk. They bruise when they fall but not as easily as HC

Does it taste like a mac? I've got one in our orchard that is definitely some sort of mac, but they drop for about a month.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I think so but not totally It drops over a month time frame

 

[Rally1148]

I think so but not totally It drops over a month time frame

Sounds like what I've got! Unfortunately I don't know what it is, since it was planted by my great grandfather.

Is it a pretty old tree? Mine is super old, and produces yards (literally like over 2 yards of apples) each year. taste pretty good, and it's pretty disease resistant. Great deer apple, just a little early dropping.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Rally I think that Apple would be great for sweet cider and probably hard cide as well. If going for hard cider I would go for Ashmeads Kernel, Kingston Black, Cox Orange Pippin, Dabinett, Chisel Jersey, Northern Spy, Hudsons Golden Gem, and you can look on Cummins new ordering site where they have a list and explanation of what they consider Cider varieties

Paul

 

[Rally1148]

Rally I think that Apple would be great for sweet cider and probably hard cide as well. If going for hard cider I would go for Ashmeads Kernel, Kingston Black, Cox Orange Pippin, Dabinett, Chisel Jersey, Northern Spy, Hudsons Golden Gem, and you can look on Cummins new ordering site where they have a list and explanation of what they consider Cider varieties

Paul

I PM'd you because I didn't know if you wanted to share your secrets! From what I've read, those are the go-to apples. I plan on playing around with it to get it right, but I didn't know if there were any suggestions from one of the experts!

 

[CrazyEd]

Here is my first Sansa fruit. Picked on 9/12. 4th leaf MM111. Tree had 4 fruit total. I transplanted from home to the farm between year 2/3. Tree has been very tall and spindly. The apple was a good eater.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Any chance its a Mac or Mac sport? Morse's 3 times a charm came with what Charlie called a Mac back when you got them (I know because I got the same deal the same year you did).

Very well could be. It looks and tastes a bit different than one Mac that I have and is a bit darker red than the other Mac. I haven't heard of Mac Sport but I will research Did you get any fruit from yours?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Crazy Ed it sure looks very similar but I never planted a Sansa tree. Thanks for the pic

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I PM'd you because I didn't know if you wanted to share your secrets! From what I've read, those are the go-to apples. I plan on playing around with it to get it right, but I didn't know if there were any suggestions from one of the experts!

Well I am no expert for sure and I would share any info I have with any and all guys on this forum. It's where I have learned all I know so I want to do the same but thanks for the confidence lol

 

[aerospacefarmer]

A Mac sport would simply be a naturally occurring variation of the parent fruit. A "redder" variety of Mcintosh for example.
My Morse trees were coming into bearing age when I sold my old place a few years ago.

Ah ok thanks. I wonder if anyone at Morse might be able to help lol

 

[Rally1148]

Well I am no expert for sure and I would share any info I have with any and all guys on this forum. It's where I have learned all I know so I want to do the same but thanks for the confidence lol

Most of these are going to be grafted as limbs onto a full sized ornamental crab (ornamental but has 0.5 inch fruits). I am planning on doing a whole tree that is Golden Russet though.

A Mac sport would simply be a naturally occurring variation of the parent fruit. A "redder" variety of Mcintosh for example.
My Morse trees were coming into bearing age when I sold my old place a few years ago.

I'd say mine is a mac sport then. Tastes VERY similar to a mac, but has some other aspect to it. The skin isn't as smooth and shiny either, but the taste says mac.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

If you start digging through apple lineage, you'll find a very large number that have Mac genetics somewhere along the line. Throw in a number of sports of Mac...and it would get tough for the average apple guy to figure out what the heck kind of apple you've got there :confused:

I've never been a fan of Macs due to their disease issues and texture. I do enjoy the flavor of them however. Spartan is a variety that is more disease resistant, has a better texture (to me anyway) and retains quite a bit of the Mac flavor.

SM

Thanks for the great info I think its definitely some sort of Mac and has been an awesome bearer with no disease issues. If anything it overcrops but still produces every year and apples are good size. I think I will be using it a lot for cider

 

[NE PA QDM]

Paul, I made some apple crisp from the apples referenced above, it was good. I've also been eating a bunch of them and tomorrow I'm going to make a batch of cider that will have a large portion of those apples in it. I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Paul, I made some apple crisp from the apples referenced above, it was good. I've also been eating a bunch of them and tomorrow I'm going to make a batch of cider that will have a large portion of those apples in it. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Sounds good. I started a batch of hard cider last night. Not bubbling yet haha

 

[Maya]

I grow three different macs, all of them have a deeper red than that, more of a maroon. Same w/ Macoun. These are all Macs.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

George

Nice load of apples. How did you do with Honeycrisps. My apples have to be some sort of Mac but at this point it doesn't matter. They are all going to get juiced. Made 3 gallons of pure Honeycrisps cider today and man is it awesome and picked 3 bushels of Macoun as they are starting to drop. Have at least 5 more bushels on my trees and still bushels of HC. A lot of mine now are getting stem split so they are going in cider

 

[Maya]

HC's had a ton of frost damage. Sold about 20 bushel good ones, about 10-15 bushel as 2nds, and threw out 50-60 bushel that were to damaged to do anything with. Just sold about 8 bushel of 2nds to someone for cider.