Anna breaks bud very early so yes be concerned. Scrape the bark and see if it is still green under the bark. If so you still have a chance. If not get another.

Great, thanks -- will do that today. Do you suppose it's too late in the year to plant a replacement, or is it still okay? We just had a string of freaky 80-degree days but are back down to more seasonal highs in the 50s/60s now.

Thanks again!

You can plant another now. I've planted in May and done OK.

Okay I've got good news and embarrassing news...

Embarrassing: I re-checked the labels, and it's the Ein Shemer that's still dormant. The Anna is blooming with flowers and leaves.

So, the good news is that the Anna does indeed seem to be fine, and the Ein Shemer's wood is still green. I thought the chilling requirements on the Ein Shemer were quite low as well, and the three were all recommended as cross-pollinators for each other. Perhaps I need to just wait a little longer?

Whew! I just tuned in to this thread.

We learned we need to plant everything in gopher baskets, and they are not cheap.

Our Anna at our new place has been blooming and leafing for at least 2 weeks, so I did think maybe something was wrong, but San Diego is milder than Hemet, CA so I thought that might be the reason, but it also might be the reason for your Ein Shemer.

Happy it's not the Anna.

Good luck with the Ein Shemer!

Suzi

Thanks Suzi! Seeing the wood still so green under the bark, I'm hopeful it's just a little slower to wake up. Though, at this rate, the Ein Shemer will have no one to happily cross-pollinate with by the time it finally blooms... guess if you snooze, you lose! ;-)

I have Golden Dorsett, Anna, Ein Shemer, Beverly Hills & Fuji on one tree I recently planted... They are all still pretty much dormant but I guess they'll start to bud as soon as it warms up next week. Since they are on one rootstock, it should be a pretty good measure.

Now Anna is starting to break, looks like Dorsett is just a bit behind, and the others still pretty much dormant.

They are in a spot that doesn't get a lot of winter sun, so they are probably quite late for my zone. Microclimate matters.

Ein Shemer blossoms a couple weeks after Anna and Dorsett, which is odd because it's marketed as a pollinator for both of them. The quality of Ein Shemer is very poor here; Shell of Alabama is better quality and spot-on for the blossom timing to pollinate both Anna and Dorsett, and it is completely unrelated to either and so there's no incompatibility.

Hi Applenut,

That's what I was thinking too -- all the buds on the Anna and Golden Dorsett have broken open, with still no sign on the Ein Shemer... it's going to be one lonely apple if it ever decides to wake up. We'll have to see if it ends up pulling its weight enough to keep its spot :-) Thanks for the tip on Shell of Alabama, I've never seen or heard of that one but will keep an eye out for it.

Ein Shemer is said to be self-fertile.

Sunny, if the Einshemer does not pan out, I would consider replacing with a Fuji and a Cripps (Pink Lady). That way, you've got two nice early apples, and two exceptional later apples. Not as much a fan of Einshemer, either.

Patty S.

lots of good info here.... I was surprised AT FIRST to hear about dormant Anna. haha. My Annas are clearly the best/most consistent low-chill apples. I have tried 5 or 6 supposed low chillers. goodluck

Ein Shemer is indeed self-fertile and bears like crazy; there seems to be some unwritten law that the worse the quality, the more you get. Northern Spy bears like crazy here too (photo) with humongous apples, but it is the most awful thing you've ever bit into; just a sack of mush.

Gee...waiting for my first apples isn't quite so thrilling knowing some of them will probably be mediocre to awful.
Disappointment stings for a minute... but anticipating a heavy crop of disappointment...now that's suffering.

Thanks guys!

At least I only have one limb of EinShemer. Anybody want to trade scion next winter? ;-)

Thanks for so much info! Amazingly, the Ein Shemer still has not broken dormancy. Oh well. Somehow I am not as excited about it anymore... ha!

Hoosierquilt, thanks so much for the ideas. For some reason, it never even occurred to me to try for a staggered apple harvest. Which is odd, given that's exactly what we did for peaches... I'll definitely keep that in mind in case the Ein Shemer just isn't quite up to snuff.

Applenut please tell me the apple in the pic is not a northern spy.

ravenh2001:

I'm afraid it is, and that's all they ever color up as they ripen in the worst of our heat (late September). I got the cutting from a tree in the mountains and confirmed the variety, and as you'd expect the quality is much better up there. Odd to think that Northern Spy would be low-chill, but they're very reliable here and get huge. You're probably used to seeing it with red striping and blush. At this stage in the photo about half of them will be brown and rotting on the inside, with just about a 1/4" of firm flesh under the skin to keep the shape. On the other hand, the Bramley tree next to it will have firm, crisp, sweet/tart juicy apples that look much like the ones from a cold climate.

applenut
I learned something new today. the spys here are 2/3 red, stay on the tree till mid november are to hard to eat in october and keep till march. I will have to wait till almost may to see them flower.

ravenh2001

That's probably the problem; the blossoms are at half inch green right now, while most the other apple varieties here are fast asleep. Odd to think of Northern Spy as low-chill, but that's what it is. This dooms it to ripening during the heat, the same fate that doomed Braeburn despite its ridiculously heavy-bearing. Some "northern" apples take the heat just fine (Wealthy, Honeycrisp) and others turn to mush. There's no substitute for just trying them; we had high hopes for Black Oxford, but the ones last year were more like Yellow, Mushy Oxford. Paulared on the other hand was heavenly.