My Hood pear bloomed the earliest of my pears but none of the blooms survived the cold weather. I’m going to see if the trend continues before making a decision about it. If I can’t get any fruit I probably will keep a small amount for it’s ability to offer very early pollen.
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I’m interested in learning more about your Yates apple in our area. How is the flavor? Does it get FB bad? Does it exhibit symptoms of lack of chill hours? Applenut does very well under lack of chill but in my area the late bloom due to lack of chill has resulted in poor fruit set from fireblight hitting the blossoms not to mention the subsequent spread into the limbs. My worst in this regard was liberty with ark black and king David also having problems. Goldrush, Wil pride and Priscilla did fine. Goldrush in particular had a pretty compact bloom and good fruit set this year. I like the idea of another late keeper so perhaps yates would work for me too.
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Barry. I have been growing Yates for only three years so my personal experience is limited. During this time it has been problem free. The apple is on the smaller side (small/medium). The person I got the scion from has a small orchard and he told me that Yates and Red Rebel had performed the best over a long period of time, He also said he does not spray his trees which impressed me. I also had a chance to sample his and they were sweet but didn’t have any tartness. It is not like most of the modern apples but it does appear to be an apple that will be good with very little maintenance. Hope this helps. Bill
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Interesting concept. I think I start off as a grower with my fruit trees and if my first fruits are better than what I can buy then, as an eater, I quickly add more trees of that fruit (ie. 7 persimmons and 8 nectarines) to my urban orchard. For my citrus and tropicals I am strictly an experimental grower with a heavy dose of OCT collector-itis since I know the citrus and pomegranate from the store are as good or better & cheaper. Being a grower is especially true with my olive tree since I don’t really eat olives so any that ripen would go to my mom. I would say the grower side for most of us is because we like the challenge of growing fruits most of our neighbours would never try to grow.
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Picked a Red Rebel apple today and it is definitely a keeper. Medium size, sweet, crunchy, with a good tart balance.
Edit added 20170917: Appears to have good disease resistance
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Goldrush apple. After reading all the glowing reports about it’s disease resistance, good taste, late ripening, and long storage capability I felt like it would be a great apple for me in my location. I grafted some of the scions in 2016 and they appear to be growing well at my location and the often mentioned cedar apple rust has only been a minor issue as of now. I’m excited about tasting the eight Goldrush apples that are bagged and hanging onto my trees. Although I have only had this apple a short period of time I will be adding more grafts of it next season.
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Bill,
I’m impressed with the precocity of your GR grafts.
My 3 yr old tree just set fruit this year. The whole tree gives me 7 fruit!!! I think mine will ripen sometime in Nov. There is some risk whether or not GR will ripen in time here.
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My eight apples are actually on three different trees with two of the three devoted mostly to Goldrush. Of all my apple varieties this one seems to handle my low chill hours the best. I have some other good tasting apples such as Liberty and Enterprise but on the years that our chill hours are low they might not set fruit well. I also have three Pink Lady apples this year. I really like the PL but time will tell if it’s lack of disease resistance is more than I want to deal with.
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My goldrush has dropped a few apples that were still green. They tasted very good to me. No battery acid like I have been hearing from others. Mostly sweet with some tart. The kids really liked them. I wish I could say the same for the other varieties that have cropped. I’ve got 20 more GR hanging. 3rd leaf tree on g30. Some sunburn in ziploc bags and I’ve probably lost 5-10 to rot. Maybe I’ll add some red rebel and yates this winter.
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I have my eye on my neighbor’s Sweet Sixteen
It wasn’t sprayed this year but shows no sign of disease, while the tree next to it is riddled with CAR, and my crabapples have been defoliated. I want an apple that disease-resistant and plan to take scions for next season. On Enterprise rootstock, that should be one hardy variety!
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Thanks for the reports Bill. I am taking notes. Goldrush was always one I was interested in but unsure about disease resistance. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to get to hear of your experience on these varieties in our region. Keep up the good work!
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It is a little early to call this one a winner and keeper but I’m going to. I am very impressed with Goldrush from a taste and how trouble free it has been to grow. Picked two more this morning that were taking on a gold color. It was perfect tasting to me straight from the tree.
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I hope you get enough to store a few. When they’re that gold color they are very good straight from the tree (at least in our area). I’ve stored some for months and the flavor really intensifies.
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I only have four remaining on the tree and if I can resist the temptation to taste test all of them I will store one in the fridge. This year I was mostly focused on deciding when they are ripe. Turns out the Goldrush appears to be simple, just pick when they turn golden. GR is a high quality apple in my opinion.
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I have one in the fridge from last year yet. Still looks like it went in yesterday. Amazing storage abilities. Taste for me has yet to wow me.
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I want to plant gold rush because of the many good qualities I hear about it. I would like to taste a few of these first, but don’t know where to find them in my area. I’m in the niagara region of NY. Does anyone know who might have this variety for sale?
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I had the same problem. I have never seen one in any of our stores. This is my second year from grafting them in and I have been pleased with there taste and how easy they are to grow.
I have GoldRush and Sundance trees in Rochester, NY. You’re welcome to stop in and try a couple if you’re ever in the area. GoldRush isn’t ready to harvest until maybe mid-November. I usually let them hang until we get a really hard freeze. I bought both trees without tasting either apple. GoldRush is as good as everyone says, and keeps until at least May in my garage. Sundance is very good, though less complex and doesn’t keep as long. It’s still superior to the apples I can get around here. I like it best right off the tree, but it keeps until February or March as I recall.
I’m in the same boat. The orchards in the Rochester area have almost entirely mainstream apples. It’s really a pity given how close we are to Cornell/Cummins in Ithaca.
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Thank you for the offer!
This list had been super helpful, thank you for posting it.
Any updates for your winners or losers?
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