Red delicious
- Thread starter Charman03
- Start date
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
For the above reasons, and not known as a good DR apple, I've planted no Delicious trees.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
With that being said I have heard that fresh picked off the tree isnt too bad of eating. At last check I am pretty sure they are still the most commonly sold apple. I would agree that all of the red delicious that I have ever tried tasted like a styrofoam apple wrapped in a layer of cardboard! Interesting Stu I grafted some Hawkeye this spring from GRIN so we will see what they turn into.
CrazyEd
5 year old buck +
Well said. I couldn't agree more.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
When I see them in the grocery store they are always the cheapest apple, I suppose thats why they sell. You would wonder what would happen if you offered a free quality apple to every red delicious purchaser. Would they still keep buying the red delicious or would they buy other apples?
CrazyEd
5 year old buck +
Carlisle is 18 miles from Adams County Nursery. Go pickup some disease resistant varieties like liberty and enterprise. While I have never bought a tree from them, I know they are one of the best nursery's around. Surely they can find you something better red delicious.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Its one of the first 8 apple tree varieties I planted, the only reason I know which one it is ("temporarily" misplaced my tree location map about 8 years ago) is because of how bland it tastes and how disappointed i was - and the deer have come to the same conclusion. They clean up under the tree but only after eating up the sweeter ones that drop near by, that being said (bright side to having one) deer & bear never do pull down any branches trying to get the lower hanging ones. I would not plant one again - there are better varieties out there.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Charman - What Ed said. ^^^^ ACN is also on Penn State's list of about 15 nurseries nationwide that they recommend. We've bought trees from them and they are top-notch.
MRBB
5 year old buck +
I guess I'm lucky, I have a bunch of them and there OLD< 30+ yrs old, and the apples they make are some of the best eating apples I have ever had, and several of the tree's produce tons every yr on average
I draw critters to them like a magnet!
like all things today, there NOT made the same as they once were it seems!
way too many folks have tinkered with lines over the yrs, rather than letting nature have her way!
good RD apples are still a GREAT apple!
I draw critters to them like a magnet!
like all things today, there NOT made the same as they once were it seems!
way too many folks have tinkered with lines over the yrs, rather than letting nature have her way!
good RD apples are still a GREAT apple!
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Stu, my experience is like yours. I think letting them fully ripen on the tree is the key for RD. For some reason they are one of those apples that only get full flavor that way. The ones from the supermarket are picked green and just don't develop the same. I've eaten them both ways and there is no comparison.
I planted 3 this year in a wildlife planting and not worried about them eventually doing well. I got them dirt cheap and they were nice trees.
I planted them on semi dwarfing rootstock very deep - with the intention of them taking root above the graft and making full sized trees. I'm perfectly fine with waiting 10-12 years for fruit on them, because I have plenty of other apples already producing.
A friend of mine had a full sized RD in Illinois that made loads of apples every year for 50 years without any spraying or care at all. His father in law planted it as a young man. Finally a severe wind storm a few years ago took the tree down. Up until that time he said the neighbors came over and just loaded up baskets of apples nearly every year.
RD (on a full sized tree) actually has quite a bit if DR to the major apple diseases - enough to do fine in a wildlife planting. Without spraying, SCAB will likely be a problem if someone is trying to sell them, but they will do fine for deer apples and personal use.
There are better choices, but there are also some choices that are a lot worse.
I planted 3 this year in a wildlife planting and not worried about them eventually doing well. I got them dirt cheap and they were nice trees.
I planted them on semi dwarfing rootstock very deep - with the intention of them taking root above the graft and making full sized trees. I'm perfectly fine with waiting 10-12 years for fruit on them, because I have plenty of other apples already producing.
A friend of mine had a full sized RD in Illinois that made loads of apples every year for 50 years without any spraying or care at all. His father in law planted it as a young man. Finally a severe wind storm a few years ago took the tree down. Up until that time he said the neighbors came over and just loaded up baskets of apples nearly every year.
RD (on a full sized tree) actually has quite a bit if DR to the major apple diseases - enough to do fine in a wildlife planting. Without spraying, SCAB will likely be a problem if someone is trying to sell them, but they will do fine for deer apples and personal use.
There are better choices, but there are also some choices that are a lot worse.
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Next-door neighbor had a RD tree back in the 1960's when I was a kid. That RD was really tasty. It was an OLD tree then - surely not tinkered with. It put on a lot of apples every year and the neighbor did nothing to help the tree.
