Is it just me OR ----

[Maya]

Maya ..... post #66 - I have 3 Goldrush planted at camp for the last 3 years. They're planted for deer, but we'll eat a few too. We had our first fruit this past fall and they were really tasty. CAR isn't a problem for us at camp because we don't have any cedars around for miles ( cedars are the alternate host for the fungus - for those who don't know ). When I asked what guys thought of Goldrush, I was asking about taste. Aero and some others were talking about cider apples that were also good tasting - Goldrush fell in the conversation !!

Can you grow Galarina up there ?? What varieties would you recommend for deer plantings for northern growers ?? I have a feeling many guys would be interested in your opinion on that topic !!

Yes I grow Galarina, I think it is a good deer apple in that it is a good DR apple but they are harder to train. They spit out a lot of long upright branches. Along w/ Liberty (my #1 deer apple) and Enterprise, definately throw in Initial as 3 top deer apples. Anything DR to scab is good, but the only other one I have grown is CrimsonCrisp. Again a harder tree to train. They grow complex branches, forking at the tips, so you have to do a lot of pruning in early years. They do put out a good yearly crop though. Two others without great DR that I think are good deer apple are Honeygold and Zestar!. Deer hammer them! Both grow big apples and produce excellent yearly crops w/o any effort! I haven't grown either w/o spraying though so I'm not sure what they would do if left alone. I know Appleman likes Wolf River and Snow Sweet for deer apples, but I haven't grown any. I'm sure they are good though.

Any of these can easily be grown in Zones 4 and 5, no I'm not sure about zone 3 Art! ;)

 

[sandbur]

Yes I grow Galarina, I think it is a good deer apple in that it is a good DR apple but they are harder to train. They spit out a lot of long upright branches. Along w/ Liberty (my #1 deer apple) and Enterprise, definately throw in Initial as 3 top deer apples. Anything DR to scab is good, but the only other one I have grown is CrimsonCrisp. Again a harder tree to train. They grow complex branches, forking at the tips, so you have to do a lot of pruning in early years. They do put out a good yearly crop though. Two others without great DR that I think are good deer apple are Honeygold and Zestar!. Deer hammer them! Both grow big apples and produce excellent yearly crops w/o any effort! I haven't grown either w/o spraying though so I'm not sure what they would do if left alone. I know Appleman likes Wolf River and Snow Sweet for deer apples, but I haven't grown any. I'm sure they are good though.

Any of these can easily be grown in Zones 4 and 5, no I'm not sure about zone 3 Art! ;)

They are now calling me zone 4, but the older Master Gardeners still go by zone 3. I have a snowsweet that produced for the first time in 2015. Well, maybe one apple the year before.

Liberty, Enterprise, and Zestar have survived and grown OK, but no fruit yet.

I have not tried honeygold.

Maya-with the bigger apples, do deer just take a bite out of them? Or do they eventually clean them up?

I have seen deer walk by Red Baron to get to the chestnut crab and they take the whole apple in their mouth and chew them up. I find larger apples on the ground with bites out of them, until the crabs are cleaned up.

 

[CrazyEd]

Yes I grow Galarina, I think it is a good deer apple in that it is a good DR apple but they are harder to train. They spit out a lot of long upright branches. Along w/ Liberty (my #1 deer apple) and Enterprise, definately throw in Initial as 3 top deer apples. Anything DR to scab is good, but the only other one I have grown is CrimsonCrisp. Again a harder tree to train. They grow complex branches, forking at the tips, so you have to do a lot of pruning in early years. They do put out a good yearly crop though. Two others without great DR that I think are good deer apple are Honeygold and Zestar!. Deer hammer them! Both grow big apples and produce excellent yearly crops w/o any effort! I haven't grown either w/o spraying though so I'm not sure what they would do if left alone. I know Appleman likes Wolf River and Snow Sweet for deer apples, but I haven't grown any. I'm sure they are good though.

Any of these can easily be grown in Zones 4 and 5, no I'm not sure about zone 3 Art! ;)

Zestar can get some scab in my experience, but even with minimal spraying it's still my favorite apple for fresh eating, oh they are so good!

Honeygold gets decent CAR at my farm but it was one of the last ones hanging on my farm!

 

[WTNUT]

Goldrush get chewed up by CAR on my farm but it doesnt seem to impact the fruit. I do think they are very tasty and they hang late.

About how old was that tree and what rootstock?

 

[sandbur]

I have stayed away from honeygold because of CAR.

 

[WTNUT]

Aero - got any Pink Lady scions? To spare?

 

[WTNUT]

For those of you who wanted scions from me, they should all be mailed out Monday if I don't get too much rain tomorrow. I got several today,but not all

 

[CrazyEd]

About how old was that tree and what rootstock?

This was it's 6th leaf, m111.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[WTNUT]

Aero scratch the Pink Lady, I just looked and the love FB

 

[WTNUT]

Nice tree! I have some really well trained trees that are either going to go full throttle in the next year or two, some this year. One can not overstate the importance of training. Pruning is important, but dang until I started listening to Maya and a few others I had NO IDEA how wonderful training can be. It makes better fruit, and is a heck of a lot easier tree to take care of. Year in and year out.

 

[CrazyEd]

About how old was that tree and what rootstock?

By the way that is the first apple tree I ever planted. M111 just doesn't like my sand, but this one has turned out pretty well. I have some Liberty that also done well. 2 pristine, not so much they are runts at going on 6 years old. B118 is superior on the sand.

 

[Maya]

Thanks for reminding me Ed, Pristine would make a good deer apple, but.........it is very biennial, you have to thin a lot in early years and it will drop by October here in Vermont. I like having some early ones like Pristine, zestar!, Initial and Yellow Transparent, it gets some deer coming early.

I haven't done it, but if you created an orchard of these trees you would set up a great early kill zone to take out some does. This would leave other areas quiet for the rut.

They eat bigger apples just fine here Art. They pass up any wild ones for Honey gold here.

 

[Maya]

Nice tree! I have some really well trained trees that are either going to go full throttle in the next year or two, some this year. One can not overstate the importance of training. Pruning is important, but dang until I started listening to Maya and a few others I had NO IDEA how wonderful training can be. It makes better fruit, and is a heck of a lot easier tree to take care of. Year in and year out.

Don't forget WTNUT, you get apples earlier, greater upward growth, and you get a stronger frame. Ten times easier and you don't get into that over pruning circle!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

WTNUT are you sending me anything? Yes some of my Cripps Pink got some shoot bling and some FB but I also got plenty of apples. I know this past year scared everybody with FB but I am staying the course with other varieties since 2015 was the perfect storm for FB. I had FB in my orchard with Honeygold but it never got a spec of FB on them and got great big juicy amazing apples. Sweet juicy and tasty!!!!!

 

[WTNUT]

You know everyone talks. About liberty and enterprise being good deer. Trees, But they have sucked air for me. I have probably planted a dozen over the years and I don't have one good tree for some reason. I probably have 70 varieties of fruit trees and those two are the worse by far when it comes to growing and surviving. THe only exception would be the ones that I lost to Fireblight last year.

 

[WTNUT]

WTNUT are you sending me anything? Yes some of my Cripps Pink got some shoot bling and some FB but I also got plenty of apples. I know this past year scared everybody with FB but I am staying the course with other varieties since 2015 was the perfect storm for FB. I had FB in my orchard with Honeygold but it never got a spec of FB on them and got great big juicy amazing apples. Sweet juicy and tasty!!!!!

SURe you can have any that I have. What are you looking for. I posted a list on the scion thread. It nearly flooded last night, but looks like the rain has passed. I will put on the mud boots and finding collecting today.

 

[WTNUT]

Don't forget WTNUT, you get apples earlier, greater upward growth, and you get a stronger frame. Ten times easier and you don't get into that over pruning circle!

View attachment 8396

Sooooooooooo. True.

 

[greyphase]

From participating on various internet boards I've heard some people rave about an apple and then have other people tell of their failure with the same apple, as in WTNUT's case. I'm guessing that with apples or really any fruit that the location's climate has much to do with an apple being a good one or not. Just a thought.

 

[WTNUT]

From participating on various internet boards I've heard some people rave about an apple and then have other people tell of their failure with the same apple, as in WTNUT's case. I'm guessing that with apples or really any fruit that the location's climate has much to do with an apple being a good one or not. Just a thought.

I think you are spot on... I have some that are suppose to be tough to grow that do extremely well with minimal effort and others like Liberty and Enterpize that are suppose to be idiot proof that have never produced and apple and nearly always died!

 

[browndog]

I think you are spot on... I have some that are suppose to be tough to grow that do extremely well with minimal effort and others like Liberty and Enterpize that are suppose to be idiot proof that have never produced and apple and nearly always died!

I have one Enterprise tree and the thing was loaded last fall. I haven't done anything to it and it's a mess. I really need to learn how to do some grafting. I want a few more Redfree trees.