A few thoughts (too busy for much else)

Harvest has been in full swing, so not much time for extras. But, a few things that have come to mind recently:

1.) Why do we charge more for some apples, i.e. Honeycrisp? Supply and demand? Are they really that much better than say, a good Jonagold, Gala, Empire, and many more 'commodity' apples. Please vote at right.

2.) NPR Saturday (29-Sep) Weekend Edition, an interesting story on how codling moth has become resistant to the granulosis virus in Germany.

3.) 2nd leaf Liberty planted on B.9 rootstock yielding a bit more than 5 lbs. (or more) per tree, if you could get $1 a pound retail that should pretty well pay for the cost of the tree -- well, if you get a good deal on the trees!

4.) September has been significantly warmer (and dryer) than average, yet drop has been minimal and fruit quality seems to be holding very well. Particularly trees treated with ReTain® PGR. You be the judge.

5.) Now finishing Macoun's, last of Honeycrisp (unbelievable), McIntosh (more unbelievable), and Cortland. In the middle of Jonagold. Empire just starting.

6.) Spent last Friday at the Big-E handing out slices of Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Macoun, and Gala in front of the Massachusetts Building. Massachusetts specialty foods on the lawn sponsored by Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources. Honeycrisp clearly a winner. Jonagold almost as good, and I think this apple is every bit as good as Honeycrisp and not promoted as such. "I did not know you could grow Gala here" a common comment. These eastern grown Gala (Buckeye and Brookfield) are again in a class with Honeycrisp I think. Macoun for those who like tart apples -- we in Mass. kind of have a cult following for them. Funny, apple tastes seem to fall in to either liking it sweet or liking it tart and never should the two cross! Although I think Jonagold comes closest, being a nice blend of sweetness and tartness. Sweet-tart? Tart-sweet?

:-)

Early Fuji's, Crimson Crisp, and some yield observations

Harvest is cranking and we are amidst McIntosh and Honeycrisp. Recently, several new 'early' Fuji strains have become available that are in this mid-September harvest window. They include September Wonder (formerly Jubilee), Auvil Early, Daybreak, and Rising Sun. There are probably others. We have September Wonder, Daybreak, and Rising Sun at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard. I favor Daybreak which is available from Adams County Nursery. September Wonder, although good in appearance, lacks flavor IMHO. Rising Sun, an International Plant Management introduction, I don't have much experience yet. My colleague Win Cowgill from Rutgers has done significant testing of these early Fuji cvs. but I am not sure if he has published any of his results yet -- Win?

Mo Tougas (Tougas Family Farm) just told me he thought Crimson Crisp (pictured) was looking nice. Crimson Crisp is a scab-resistant apple recently introduced by PRI and tested in the 1999 NE-183 planting. I looked at it too, and indeed among scab-resistant apples it has merit. See my latest round of apple maturity reports.

Finally, a couple quick yield observations. 6th leaf Lindamac on M.9 planted at 4x12, 675 boxes/acre. 2nd leaf Honeycrisp on B.9 (Stark Bros. trees) planted at 3x12 app. 230 bushels/acre. (See Sep-12 video post.) Both nice, easy to manage trees. The way to grow apples.

Ciao until next time.

2nd leaf Honeycrisp on B.9 rootstock

Blushingstar a fine maiden

I think of this very early September period as the 'golden time' for tree fruit. Early fall apples are starting to come along and peaches are still going strong. It is the start of a rapid transition to true fall, but summer is still definitely in the air. Case in point is the fact McIntosh has reached acceptable harvest maturity -- at least for a first pick based on color -- as have also Honeycrisp. And I just picked Blushingstar, pictured at left, another of the Fruit Acres series of Stellar peaches. White flesh, aromatic, somewhat firm, large, and very attractive. This is a premium piece of fruit that we can grow here in southern New England that rivals any piece of tree fruit grown anywhere in the world! Absolutely beautiful. Hence, the 'golden time.' Enjoy it's fleeting days while you can.

'Early Macs' or the best early McIntosh?

Pre-Labor Day Macs. Yuck. Yet they are always picked and commonly marketed as 'early Macs.' I can't really blame the growers, it is a bit of a herd mentality (sorry) and the customers want them. But no self-respecting Mac should be picked before (an early) Labor Day. Stick with the Paulared, Ginger Gold, Sansa, Zestar! etc. IMHO.

That being said, Marshall McIntosh is commonly one of the earliest McIntosh strains picked, as it does color up a little early, it does mature a little earlier, and it will drop earlier than anything else. All good reasons to pick them IMMEDIATELY AFTER Labor Day! Or before, as you will :-)

But, I have been looking at a new Mac strain which I think represents a superior alternative to Marshall Mac. It is Lindamac, pictured above. Just look at this picture comparing the two side-by-side. (Marshall Mac on the left, Lindamac on the right.) Lindamac has at least 90% red skin, vs. just 65% or so for Marshall. (BTW, both these were treated with ReTain PGR.) Otherwise, flesh firmness and soluble solids were comparable. Interestingly, the starch maturity index was a full point higher (3.5) for the Lindamac vs. the Marshall Mac (2.5). You can bet I will pick these Lindamacs next week, when I expect the starch index to be about 4-5, and they will be very good-to-go, including decent flavor and a nice full red blush over the entire apple.

Lindamac is available almost exclusively through Summit Sales.

Early apple season is here

Early apple season is here. What can I say? Kind of what we have been working towards all season. Picked:

Sansa -- 'an early, fresh-market apple' according to HortResearch NZ. Not to be confused with Sansa® music player, which interestingly enough holds a registered trademark for Sansa®.

Ginger Gold -- discovered as a chance seedling in Virginia. Very good quality and has grabbed a substantial portion of the early market. Available from ACN.

Akane -- a parent of Sansa. Pictured above. Under-appreciated and overlooked.

Paulared -- a McIntosh-type apple with average quality, but large, reliable, and productive. The first apple of the season with true fall-like flavor.

Zestar! -- introduced by the University of Minnesota. Note that Zestar! is a trademark name, the true cultivar name of this apple is 'Minnewashta' (yea, right), the name of a lake close to the U of M arboretum where Zestar! was born. I find the taste of Zestar! to be somewhat lacking, but I probably do not let it get ripe enough. A grower-friendly tree, but fruit readily drops and above average scab susceptibility. Not overly productive, but large fruit. Don't plant too many. More here in this Minnesota Public Radio article.

I collect 10 apples of each when I think they are ready for a first pick and subject them to a number of measurements, including size, skin color, flesh firmness, soluble solids, and starch-index. And taste. All maturity indexes, some better than others. I will be publishing my results here for the rest of the harvest season. Hope it goes well.

The king of peaches

Well I think Redhaven is the king of peaches here in Massachusetts. A fairly bud-hardy, reliable and heavy cropper with classic yellow-peach flavor that ripens in mid-August. Size is very good, almost 3 inches. The only real downside I can think of is it does not have as much red color as some of the newer varieties. BTW, Redhaven was introduced in 1940 by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station in East Lansing. If someone thinks something is wrong with Redhaven, I would like to hear about it. It makes a great perpendicular-V tree.

I also picked my first 'donut' peaches ever -- Njf16 in the ACNursery catalog. (Holy cow! $4.50 royalty -- who's getting rich?) These are young trees, so there were only a few of these 'peento' peaches. Kind of attractive, high in sugar. A little russet where fruit was oriented on top/bottom of branches -- my New Jersey source tells me care should be taken when hand-thinning these to leave fruit on their sides, not oriented up or down. They were quite firm to the touch but clearly ripe. I am looking forward to having more of these next year -- I am not sure why they don't give them a name? Joe? Phil? (You know who your are...)