Old Fashioned Winesap / Red Winter

[blueKYstream]

I received a Fall shipment of apples to plant from Century Farm Orchards. One of the trees I ordered was Old Fashioned Limbertwig, but I received Old Fashioned Winesap by mistake. I called David, the owner, later that day (after I planted it). He said it was probably a better wildlife tree than Old Fashioned Limbertwig and has excellent diseases resistance.

I did a quick search and it seems the ripening dates are about the same. Limbertwig may be a better eating apple perhaps but I'm planting for wildlife predominately. I didn't know it was a triploid at the time I planted it, so I have two triploids together (in order I planted Liberty, Enterprise, Old Fashioned Winesap, Arkansas Black, Yates, Keener Seedling). I planted them at 20-24 feet spacing. My questions are, is the Winesap resistant to diseases, specifically scab and fireblight and will I have an issue with pollination? There were some conflicting things I read with respect to the resistance to fireblight and scab. Most sources seem to suggest it's moderately resistant to everything and immune to CAR. Some growers seem to say it's susceptible to one or both FB and Scab. Perhaps some are confusing it with another variety of winesap though...I'm not sure. David is a great guy. He said he'd replace it promptly. If it's a suitable with a no-spray program, I think I'm fine with leaving it as is.

P.S. This is in no way a knock on Century Farm Orchards for the mixup. I am very pleased with the quality of the trees and David is great to work with! I also ordered some pear trees (Moonglow, Korean Giant and Plumblee) and I'm particulary impressed with the size of those! For comparison, I ordered from The Wildlife Group in the Spring. Century Farm Orchards blows them away! They are bigger than the ones I got from TWG despite those having a growing season. Here's a few pictures I snapped.

 

[blueKYstream]

It doesn't appear that many people have it based on the lack of responses. That's OK. I figured I'd update the thread in the event that someone else is looking for information on this one in the future.

I told David I would reach out to him on the mixup of OF Winesap with OF Limbertwig. I was waiting to see if anyone had experience with it and forgot to get back to him. He emailed me to see what he could do to fix the mixup. He wrote a bit more, but for those interested in information about Old Fashion Winesap:

...Though you received an Old Fashioned Winesap instead of Limbertwig, I think you are just as well off, if not better. It is very resistant to fireblight and does not get scab. I’ve never seen scab on that apple. It ripens a week or so before the Limbertwig, but stores longer.

As long as all of these trees are planted in the same general area, it will not matter that Ark Black and the Winesap are planted beside each other (due to each being sterile). There will be enough pollination activity with the other trees present not to matter.

Thanks again. I do apologize for the mix up. Email me as needed.

 

[Charles Clear]

At my parents house we planted an old fashioned winesap 25 years ago. It has by far been our best tree out of the 50 we put in. Apples hang well into late October and bears heavy every year, tons of apples. I make apple butter out of them most years.

 

[blueKYstream]

At my parents house we planted an old fashioned winesap 25 years ago. It has by far been our best tree out of the 50 we put in. Apples hang well into late October and bears heavy every year, tons of apples. I make apple butter out of them most years.

I like the sound of that! It sounds like a great cultivar! I appreciate you sharing!

 

[Worm]

Old fashioned Winesap is a great tasting as well as wildlife apple. Pollination will not be an issue whatsoever.
I have been ordering from Century Farm Orchards for years . They are always awesome to deal with and the trees are very healthy.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We don't have any Winesap variety at camp. It seems there are several strains of Winesap. I've read of Stayman's, Red, Old Fashioned, and a few others I can't remember. It sounds like a good all-around apple from what you guys describe. I've eaten some kind of Winesap before and it IS a great-tasting apple.