Your favorite Apple trees

[Barndog56]

Zestar is by far the best eating apple I’ve ever had. I planted one at the house 3 years ago and am hoping to get a couple off it this year.

Mine had about 2 dozen apples set last year, and I thinned it back to 4. They were amazing! It didn't put on much vegetative growth last year, but has twice as many fruit buds this year, and they are huge! Will have to thin it way back again to try and get more growth.

 

[Telemark]

I can't wait to get Zestar in my orchards.

Also looking forward to Frostbite and Cosmic Crisp.

 

[Apple Junkie]

My top 10 as of today...

1 Florina
2 Franklin Cider
3 Wikson Crab
4 Ida Red
5 Enterprise
6 Galarina
7 Granny Smith
8 Arkansas Black
9 Honeycrisp
10 Goldrush

But I'm fickle, so this list could change by tomorrow!

 

[wooduck]

Do your Sweetango grow well, wooDuck?

Excellent tree takes on a nice form without lots of training much easier to grow than honeycrisp , tree health is good , crop it too hard and flavor will be diminished some so have to manage crop load for high quality fruit .

 

[wooduck]

I just planted mine last year but based on initial growth I’d say Enterprise/Chestnut/Galarina are going to be some goodies.

How did you get SweetTango @wooduck?

We have the contract were planted first year available , also involved with First Kiss a newer uofm cross honeycrisp quality ready 20 aug or so crisp high quality late summer apple its a cross of Honeycrisp and Minark , Apple name released last year in Minnesota it will be First Kiss , Nationally it will be marketed under the name Rave

 

[wooduck]

We belong and are paying members of the Minnesota Apple Growers assoc, and attend yearly meetings and field days , at those meeting the U of m is present and we find out about all the good work they do on breeding and are offered the opportunity to grow some of the newer apples they develop , We Also recently have been given the opportunity to trial some Hardy for Minnesota sweet cherries and some Asian type pears that the u of m crossed for this climate. one thing is if you really have the fruit bug there is a Facebook group you could join lots of new info there North American fruit Explores , search NAFEX

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Arkansas Black is my favorite although i haven’t tried one yet. I say it’s a favorite b/c it seems to be growing the best on our Central Mo farm. Low maintenance Late season food is a void that needs filling at our place.
AB fits the bill. I am planting 3 more along with a liberty and chestnut crab this wk. All on b118 from Chris aka Turkey Creek.
Next yr i plan to focus all on crab at the farm. Just in case these edible apples don’t work out!
I am going to grow some rootstock this spring/summer for grafting

 

[Merle Hawggard]

I wish I could add something meaningful to this list, but as most of mine are young, I've not gotten loads of fruit yet.
I did notice quite a few fruit spurs on my oldest trees last week so hopefully I'll have a breakout year!
My best grower has been Captain Davis. Not really sure if it's the variety itself or the fact it has two root systems feeding it.


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[greyphase]

I never let a ripe Chestnut crab go to waste.

 

[wooduck]

When we started with trees here we planted chesnut crabs throughout the orchard for pollination of our other trees when they started to produce we could not keep up with demand people drove long distances to get them after sampling this went on demand grew , Then we planted 100 in one row we have caught up to demand and now we have some for every cider batch we run . I know this has been said here if you are growing any apples include the Chesnut crab you wont be disappointed

 

[Jhoss]

now we have some for every cider batch we run .

Right On, I have two, one producing, one "nigh-on" probably this year. I remember my small sampling, quite surprisingly nice! You mention cider..Sweet, Hard? Both? I mainly am interested in how it ferments out...single variety capable or for use in blending?...as the base juice sounds awesome, just imagining I have yet to make tests.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^^ It's Sandbur's fault in my case !! I read so many of his posts and saw the pix he posted of his Chestnut crabs - loaded - I had to plant some. Sandbur's description of how good they taste was the clincher. We now have 4 Chestnut crabs at camp, the biggest one is about 13 to 14 ft. tall, 4 years in the ground.

 

[Jhoss]

If I must pick one, its my Pixie Crunch tree.

 

[silver_yummies]

If I must pick one, its my Pixie Crunch tree.

Excellent to hear. I have a couple of those coming from Cummins in a few weeks. Do yours get affected by CAR?

 

[sandbur]

This picture was posted before, but this is the first chestnut crab I planted, about 27 years ago. As you can tell it did not have much pruning.

My relatives have some up in zone 3 and I did see a buck under one of those trees in late August.

Try some chestnuts when they first start to ripen and then try them 2-3 weeks later. They have totally different flavors. Make some applesauce both times and you will also taste the difference.


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[Jhoss]

Excellent to hear. I have a couple of those coming from Cummins in a few weeks. Do yours get affected by CAR?

If I had to answer that yes or no...yes. You can find CAR on the leaves and some on the apples but it is really inconsequential. The tree bares a good load every year, a great load every other year or so. The fruit is spectacular! - rave reviews from apple and non-apple people! It matters not who you put this in front of, they will like it. My 3 yr. old GrandDaughter always asks me for PappaApples. The tree itself is a grower to put it mildly. It puts on wood like no other. Pull a limb horizontal and the next spring you'll have a dozen water sprouts 3 feet tall to prune off...leave some of that wood for more apples - pull them horizontal and whew!- what a tree.

 

[silver_yummies]

Excellent to hear!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice crate-full there, Jhoss !!

 

[Jhoss]

How 'bout the wife's wood burning skills..!

 

[TCW]

After a lot of research, here is my list of favorite "disease resistant" varieties and when they should ripen. The varieties in the () are the trees that I already have. The rest will be added slowly but surely over the next few years. They are all on either b.118 or m.111 rootstock

initial - late aug/early sept
(Dolgo Crab) - aug/sept
(Whitney Crab) - aug/sept
(Chestnut Crab) - sept
(Transcendent Crab) - sept/oct
(Callaway Crab) - sept/oct
(Hewes Crab) - sept/oct
Kerr Crab - sept/oct
(galarina) - late sept
(liberty) - late sept
freedom - early oct
nova spy - mid oct
winecrisp - mid/late oct
kind David - late oct
Yates - late oct
(enterprise) - late oct
(Dozier Crab) - oct/nov
Ark. black - early nov
(goldrush) - mid nov