JERRED GRACEY
5 year old buck +
If you could only plant one apple tree. Or crab apple. What would it be and why
Your go to apple
- Thread starter JERRED GRACEY
- Start date
For deer, I have found that Liberty is the best apple for me. Highly disease resistant, annual bearer, heavy cropper, bears at an early age and is very dependable. The tree is easy to manage with good shape and crotch angles. The apples ripen in late September/early October and slowly fall through mid December most years. Although some other varieties may be rated higher for personal consumption, I have found Liberties to be slightly tart and crisp, also good for pies and sauce, a good all around apple.
I will be watching this thread closely. I am very early into my apple planting. Unfortunately I planted a bunch of them before I found these forums. Most I have planted have become a pain in my rear. When one dies I usually replace it with a pear. That being said I was at the farm yesterday checking my trees, none of them are heavy fruiters yet. But my wife and I did notice that the two Arkansas blacks we planted a couple years ago are the best looking trees we have. They are the only apples in my orchard that didn't have some kind of spots on the leaves. Bugs hadn't touched them and they have a great shape to them. They have not produced fruit yet but I am optimistic that they might be my favorite apples.
chummer
5 year old buck +
I have planted many and had problems with most. My two fool proof trees are Dolgo and Kerr crab. Very clean trees with no issues, especially coming out of winter. If I could only plant one going forward I would go with Kerr due to their ability to hold on the tree longer.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
What area of the country are you in? I like Liberty too, but it drops earlier for me.
aerospacefarmer
5 year old buck +
There is no such thing as 1 go to apple lol. I can't answer that but I think it would be Honeycrisp because they are sooooo tasty and the deer won't spit them out either
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Liberty is a great one, but I will go with Black Limbertwig for my area. It has all of the positive DR attributes of Liberty and even tastes similar, but it is a later ripening apple.
deepsleep
5 year old buck +
So far, I have had the most consistent production with Centennial/Chestnut for early and Yates/Violi's Hanging for late. These are all crabs of course. As for apples, Pristine for early and Galarina and Goldrush for late seem to be very reliable for me. I got started with Liberty a little later and have grafted a ton of them--the trees look good and I'm hoping for big things! I have to be honest, though--The Kieffers and Asian Pears (Shinko and Olympic) that I started with at the same time have gigantic loads of fruit every year without fail.
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
Diversity is a good thing given that apples need at least 2 varieties blooming together for cross pollination and a poorly timed frost could mean a variety will have no apples for a year. Some varieties can become biennial with bumper crops one year and off the next. Planting a mix of those mentioned here and more is a good idea.
JERRED GRACEY
5 year old buck +
I should have stated. What apple is your favorite. And you have had the best luck with. I know the goal is to plant a ton of variety. But which single apple do you continually plant every year because it works for you
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
It is worth emphasizing the point for the less familiar. You occasional run across the guy who says he planted 10 Red Delicious and wonders why they never produce when he planted plenty for cross pollination.
buckvelvet
5 year old buck +
I am early in my establishment of apple trees as well as I probably won't see a fruit for a few years. I have so many stinkin varieties I can't answer that as my personal experience has not yet been established.
bornagain62511
5 year old buck +
what is it with honeycrisp apple that they need some extra nutrients or whatever it is to thrive? I remember reading something about it years ago, but can't remember what it was. Some nutrient or something that they need more so than other varieties. The leaves on ours are really curled and they grow extremely slow, so I think the soil is lacking something that Honeycrisp especially need more so than other varieties. I can easily spot a honeycrisp tree from a distance out of a dozen other varieties simply by noticing this distinction in the leaves.
thanks
bornagain62511
5 year old buck +
My 4 favorites, in order:
galarina
liberty
enterprise
winecrisp
others that I have lots of tree t-budded with:
northwest greening
gold rush
snowsweet
honeycrisp
honeygold
williams pride (early ripening)
red free (early ripening)
galarina
liberty
enterprise
winecrisp
others that I have lots of tree t-budded with:
northwest greening
gold rush
snowsweet
honeycrisp
honeygold
williams pride (early ripening)
red free (early ripening)
Maya
5 year old buck +
The problem you are referring to is bitter pit. Apples such as Honeycrisp, Cortland, Northern Spy and others are susceptible to it. Excessive tree vigor (because shoots compete with fruit for calcium) due to low apple years, are the years in which it shows up. It's easily remedied with 3-4 preharvest sprays of calcium. If you are eating them fresh it isn't a big deal but it gets progressively worse with storage. Deer don't care about bitter pit though.
My favorite for deer is hands down Liberty and close second is Galarina. Both really spit out good apples but I thing liberty is easier to train. Galarina just put out to many branches.
Honeycrisp is by far my favorite due to taste for me, but Zestar! is a close second. Zestar! are easier to grow and also put out a very good yearly crop. HC's tend to be biennial, but I have found that that is not so on G41 and G11 rootstock. B9 I think too, but I need a couple more years w/ them. For big trees I have them on mm111 and m7 and were pretty biennial up until year 8-10 and then were better. I don't have any on B118, wish I did. I sell approximately 12 varieties at farmers markets and my roadside stand and Honeycrisp more than double all other varieties in sales even despite getting a premium price for them. It's not a real bad deer apple, as they love them and the drop times are great for hunting, but they are biennial bearing if not thinned hard.
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Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Calcium. I am not a believer in HC for a wildlife tree, too many issues.
Native Hunter, My camp is located in Cattaragus County, NY. We usually get our first frost in Late Sept/early Oct.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
That explains the difference. Thanks....
