'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...)

Early peach/nectarine video

More 'early' peaches

Well, we are approaching the mid-August heart of (Redhaven) peach season here in Massachusetts. But there are still some earlier peaches being picked. Today, at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard I picked Jade (pictured) and Risingstar. Jade is a white-fleshed nectarine from France. Risingstar is from the Fruit Acres/Stellar breeding program. Jade is very aromatic with a rather exotic white-flesh nectarine flavor. But, it has not been terribly bud hardy, except for this past winter, which was an easy one, and it has some susceptibility to bacterial spot. (It appears to be a bad year for this disease.) Risingstar is a typical yellow flesh clingstone peach with 85-90% red skin. Very attractive. It needs to be thinned good to get size. I like Risingstar for an early peach. No split pits. I also looked at Country Sweet peach and Honey Kist nectarine -- both yellow flesh, low-acid fruit from Zaiger Genetics. Both rather heavily infested with bacterial spot. If you are going to grow these unique varieties -- I, and our customers, particularly like Country Sweet -- you need to maintain an aggressive bacterial spot program beginning in the spring. Both ready or close to harvest right now. Be sure to check my 2007 peach harvest record for details. Note these peach varieties are available from Adams County Nursery.

While listening to WAMC Northeast Public Radio this noon, an excellent story on the 2007 New York apple crop. Very well done, I thought. Even got to hear my old friend Tre Green of Chazy Orchard -- largest McIntosh orchard in the world! (Or so THEY say!)

And, related to above, read the NY Times article 'Food That Travels Well' on 'food miles' vs. 'life cycle measurement.' Very interesting.

Ciao.

Cornell/Geneva (Tree) Fruit Field Day video

Japanese beetle and Honeycrisp

Chalk up another Honeycrisp disorder. At the UMass Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, MA, I planted an orchard in 2006 with Honeycrisp and McIntosh (cvs. Rogers and Snappy Mac) on three different rootstocks (MM.106, M.26, and B.9) and three tree training systems (NZ central leader, vertical axis, and tall spindle). The point is to demonstrate training systems and collect some yield and economic data. But, although there has been lots of anecdotal evidence that Japanese beetles are particularly attracted to Honeycrisp, I am now able to put some numbers on it. This morning I did a quick look at all trees (150 total, 75 of each cultivar divided across the three rootstocks) and determined that 36% of the Honeycrisp had reached a treatment threshold -- which to me was active beetle feeding -- vs. 0% (that's right, zero) on the McIntosh. Now, if McIntosh were the only choice, would they be on those? I don't know. But clearly Honeycrisp are significantly more attractive to Japanese beetles than McIntosh, requiring some kind of treatment for control. And although the beetles are largely foliar feeders, which is bad enough in itself, they can also damage fruit. And Honeycrisp are just too darn valuable to lose any!