Apples? Anyone - Page 3

I live in upstate NY, about 1 1/4 hours east of Buffalo near Lake Ontario.  It' is awesome apple growing country up here!  There are so many family owned farms in this area that grow apples, you can't go 2 miles down the road without a farm market or roadside stand- and they all grown different things.  I worked at an orchard for several years- they had about 60 varieties they sold (plus lots of fruits besides apples).  They range from new test orchards (with Cornell University) to very, very old varieties that are so delish!  We'd have customer's that would drive up annually from PA to get apples from this area.  There is such a huge variety they grown around here, it would be impossibly to list them all, or to even pick one favorite variety!  Every weekend at the market we'd have samples going on all day, just so you could figure out what kind you like to go pick!  The winters stink here, but we have some awesome fruit/vegetables in the summers. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by rancher hicks 

My DD and hers lived in Lockport. I hated to visit due to Transit and the traffic it had.  If I could find the rarer types I'd have no need to grow them.  I don't mind paying and I just make enough for DW and I.  But they DD and hers are now in TX. 

 

One thing about the winters here is that it 's good for sweetening the apple crop.  1 1/4 hrs would bring you closer to Syracuse.  Where are you talking about? 

 

I had met a guy from Wolcott who had a family orchard business though I'd never been there.  I won't go into how I met him. 

 

I live more towards Rochester (about 1/2 hour west of it), 31 the main road through Lockport, also goes through the tiny town I live in!  The route along Route 104 and surrounding area has a lot of apple orchards in Orleans & Niagara Counties.  Let me get a list of websites together for some of local farms, and maybe you can find something you like!  I think Syracuse is about 2 hours from here if you on the thruway.

Rancher Hicks, I have about 1/4 acre of fruit trees and my son has just over 1/2 an acre of fruit trees.  They aren't much work.  I do all the care for both orchards.

Both of us have irrigation lines laid out so to water, all it involves is turning the spigot on. Neither one of us have any weeding to do.  I've got mulch in my fruit tree area and my son has ducks and geese in with his trees. They eat all the weeds and all the bugs.  However, my son does have wire rings around each tree because the geese will chew the bark.

After the blossoms are off, I spray every 3 weeks up until the end of August.  I only spray the apple trees and I use a hose end sprayer that gets the job done fast.

Of course, if you get a good crop, then the work begins: harvesting, canning, drying, cooking.  There are late apples that will store fresh all winter if you keep them in a cool place and don't let them get frozen.

With dwarf trees, you never need a ladder.  I've got some pretty big semi-dwarf trees and I never use a ladder, either, except to pick cherries.  I can reach a lot of the fruit and I've got a fruit picker, which is a little basket mounted on the long pole. It works really well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imp 

I grew up in Ketchikan Alaska. There were wild crab apples growing in the yard. The growing season was so short that the apples never got to the size of a dime, and were hard, sour and green.

Dad used to pick them and make jelly. They were too small to individually pick so he would cook up the apples, twigs, leaves etc; and strain it. Made the best jelly.

 

 

 

Imp

Those would probably be the variety called 'Wild Sweet Crabapple'.  They do tend to be really small - there are some on my parents property in PA, and were there when they bought the property in 1969.  The 'Sweet' part refers to the smell of the blossoms, not the flavor of the fruit.  The description of the flavor that I read somewhere was something like 'sour enough to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream'. 

One of my favorites in the store is one called 'Pacific Rose'.  They are seasonal, and I always smell them before I see them.  Unfortunately, it's a recent patent so I don't know when the trees will be available.

Is that Miller Nurseries?  They have very mixed reviews on Daves Garden http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/429/  The first time I ordered from them I got some really nice looking plants.  My next order was some really nasty plants including dead strawberry plants.  I contacted them and they sent more strawberries, these were soft and moldy when they arrived.  Like a lot of the reviewers said, their quality is hit or miss.  I won't order from them again. 

1. What are the most common apple varieties in your area? 

The orchard owners typically grow red delicious, golden delicious, McIntosh, Jonathan, jonnygold, and occasionally one of the deep red varieties.  In stores, Granny smith and red delicious are sometimes all you can find.  At our local specialty grocer, you can get all the varieties listed, and other not incredibly rare ones, such as Fuji, Rome, Ambrosia, Honey Crisp, Cortland, Gala, etc.  I don't like golden delicious big grocery chain apples (or really, any kind from them).  I made a pie with orchard grown goldens though, and just about died.  Sooo good.

2. Are there any you know are rarer to the rest of the state you live in?

Not sure

3. Do you grow apples?  Do you have a small orchard?  Do you grow any non common varieties?   What can you tell me of your apple growing experience?

No, I would like one though in the future. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imp 

I grew up in Ketchikan Alaska. There were wild crab apples growing in the yard. The growing season was so short that the apples never got to the size of a dime, and were hard, sour and green.

Dad used to pick them and make jelly. They were too small to individually pick so he would cook up the apples, twigs, leaves etc; and strain it. Made the best jelly.

 

I have no idea about the common or less common apples here in western Washington, but imagine all of them would grow here.

 

I have a Gravenstein and Granny Smith in my yard, both 40-50 years old. I get very few Gravensteins because I have no good polinator nearby. I do maybe get 12-20 a year. The Grannys, I get tons, before I started pruning maybe thousands, now maybe a hundred. The neighbors called them poison apples when I moved in, because they were so sour. I have found if I let the apples get hit with frost they sweeten up a bit and are edible.

I get lots of scab and coddling moth, some apple maggot. I could spray but chemicals are expensive and I can buy all the apples I can eat for the cost of one application. So I only eat a few, and then only cut up.

My next door neighbor has a Golden Delicious, in about the same shape as mine.

 

Imp

You might want to think about putting in a crab apple as a pollinator.