Last year's apple crop here in southwest Wisconsin driftless area was nearly non existent on our farm. April through mid June were very dry which stressed the trees out so much most trees hardly had any blossoms to begin with and we had a lot of frosty mornings in May and a late hard freeze in May. So we ended with hardly any apples on the many hundreds of apple trees on our farm. Over the years I've been able to observe the various varieties and my favorites are Galarina, northwest greening, enterprise, and liberty. After that, snowsweet and winecrisp make my top 6 list. And for early ripening, Williams Pride is my favorite.
One thing I would have done differently if I had known 20 years ago, is that I never would have planted any B-118 rootstock. They grow so flimsy and poorly anchored in the roots compared to Antonovka. I wish I had known that 20 years ago when I began planting them and I read so much positive feedback on B-118. I would have never planted a single B-118 if I had known then what I know now. I'm even cutting out some B-118 that are 3 to 5 years old and many of them have one to three years of growth from the T-bud. I removing the B-118 that are less than 1" diameter and replacing them with Antonovka seedlings that I grew from seed.