Don't know. But I'd like to try a William's Pride. Can you recommend a good mail order supplier?

I have 6 apple trees and most are disease prone except for a Pristine apple. I can pull out some of the crappers and start replacing them with disease resiant apples.

BTW, nature must have screwed up with apples. They are the sickliest trees around unless they are sprayed to death. (from my very limited opinion as a novice grower).

Hi Chuck-

I have setup friends in much the same way you are setting up your daughter/son in law. CAR is also a big problem here and until I found Ferbam/Immunox (and Disease Resistant trees), it was my biggest disease issue. In the case of my friends, I set them up with a Liberty a couple years ago, and added a Williams Pride and a Granny Smith recently. Their Liberty produced quite well this year, with no spray at all. They simply bag their apples. IÂm sure if they had picked a CAR susceptible tree, they would be much worse off. It really didnÂt seem to be affected by CAR much at all. On my property, before I found Immunox, both of my Liberty trees would get a good amount of shade, and I think this lessened their ability to fight CARÂ so they did get some CAR, but not enough to slow them down.

The fruit snobs out there will tell you Liberty doesnÂt taste as good as say, an AshmedÂs Kernel (and theyÂre probably right). But if youÂre comparing them to a Mac or Cort, then I think they taste just fine (perhaps even better). And anything they grow themselves is going to taste better than something you find in the grocery store. My granny smith does well against CAR with no preventative measures, but itÂs debatable on whether it ripens here in time, so I certainly wouldnÂt suggest that for you in a colder zone. Then again, the link IÂm looking at now shows good ol Ashmed to be Resistant to CAR. It is a bit more susceptible to other things, but if those are not an issue for you, then perhaps itÂs worth looking at. My young Ashmed got sprayed this year, so I canÂt verify how susceptible it is/isnÂt.

I had always thought Golden Delicious to be pretty susceptible to most things.

If the varieties IÂve mentioned above donÂt work for you, then perhaps youÂll find one in the link below.

Good luck,
-Glenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Disease Susceptibility of Common Apple Cultivars

Chuck: My Freedom tree has required no fungicides since the whip was planted 5 years ago. It does show some CAR sign every year but shrugs it off, I live in a heavily eastern red cedar infested area. This year, the bloom period was stretched out longer than normal but was: tight cluster 4/13, pink 4/21, king bloom 4/23, full bloom 4/29 and petal fall 5/4. I live in north-central KS just below the NE border.

As for the organoleptic qualities, it wasn't till this year that I even started to pay attention to the proper time to harvest let alone what refridgerated storage might do to alter the sweet/sour quality. What appears to be nearly ripe off the tree is slightly on the sour side with no astringency. Perhaps good for pies, etc. I have some in the fridge now for tasting after 3 and 4 weeks of storage that will be tried soon. There are about 10 fruit on the tree waiting to be picked later at intervals based on appearance that will also go into the fridge for cold storage evaluation (if the wife will allow me the space or we get a bigger fridge).

Oh yes, so far, no Fireblight or Scab either. I have been bagging the fruit which may or may not explain why no fruit have ever had sooty mold or flyspeck.

Michael

Thanks, guys, especially for the link from Glenn. I'll probably go with one of the special disease resistant varieties. I think my mind was wandering when I mentioned Yellow Delicious as resistant to CAR...I planted that and Gala as my first two apples several years ago and it is the Gala which has some CAR resistance.

I'm not sure of a good source for William's Pride. Burnt Ridge maybe? The other disease resistant varieties seem to be more commonly available. I've got Liberty, Enterprise, Jonafree and Goldrush already, though only Enterprise has produced so far. The birds really liked it.

Chuck

I've always got my WP's as Cummins Nursery... but I don't see them listed this year. The owner had said it was a popular choice among homeowners, so I'm not sure why they wouldn't be listed. Perhaps try giving them a call to see what's up?
-Glenn

Hey Chuck, has your Jonafree been nailed by CAR yet? Mine, right next to the Freedon tree, was hammered in it's 2nd leaf and starting to get it in the 3rd leaf when I figured out what CAR was and started spraying it with Immunox, no CAR since. The Freedom has never had much problem with CAR and has never been sprayed for it.

Michael

grandpas orchard has it on m7 and bud 9

I got a few trees from there and all have done well.

Here is a link that might be useful: granpas orchard.

Michael,

I sprayed all my trees with Immunox this year and had no CAR. Most of my trees are too young for me to know how well they do against CAR, and I was taking no chances because it really did a number on two older trees last year and the year before.

Joe, Thanks. I found Grandpas and also found WP at Burnt Ridge. Neither place has the other trees I was thinking of ordering, but one of them will probably get my business for that variety anyway. I'm doing semi-dwarfs, and though I don't know the root stock of many of my trees, I suspect most are M111. It is my impression that is the most common semi-dwarfing root stock, and I figure that's probably what I got from Starks, Millers and the local places I bought some potted trees from.

Chuck

My WP is on Bud19 because that's what Dr. Cummins said would fit my situation, and he said it made a good match with WP. So far, that tree has grown like no other tree I've seen. About 10' tall and 10' wide in just 18 months, even after pruning it back significantly this winter. It easy gave me 3 very large apples this year. You can see it in the "my page" right up against the house, all the way to the right of the picture. The area has great soil, loam on top of sand next to the house. It doesn't get sun until almost 11 am, but I'm wondering if the bright/light grey paint of the house makes up for it by reflecting back additional sun later in the day? Anyway, I saw that Grandpa's offers Bud19... it's certainly done well for me so far... but, my experience is limited.
-Glenn

chuck60- You may want to send grandpas an email with the varieties and root stocks you want. I have heard they can get almost any variety/rootstock combo. They are part of a large outfit(moser nursery). Worth a try. I bet your trees are M7 that seems to be the semi dwarf workhorse rootstock.

Glen - ever see the 2nd leaf honeycrisps on b9 vid by the msu fruit advisor? insane like a bushel on each tree. My honeycrisp on g11 has not grown much (1st year bareroot) the jonathan on g30 has gone nuts, its shot about 4 foot of growth this year (also bare root this spring) im ready to start a 2nd tier next year.

I think wp on b9 is on my wish list for next year.

Joe-
Yeah, I just re-watched that video now. I'd say my experience with WP on B9 has been pretty much the same. But, instead of going for max fruit in the 2nd leaf the way they did, I only went with 3 apples, and then got a TON of growth. Still pretty impressive either way!
-Glenn

Here is a link that might be useful: UMass Fruit Advisor: 2nd leaf Honeycrisp on B.9

Oh the pain! You guys are gonna make me actually think about the trees I buy, root stock and all.

Chuck

I guess when you let b9 produce like that , that early they will runt out. Still amazing.

Chuck- we're evil muhahahaha

Raintree also carries William's Pride trees, and Maple Valley sells scionwood and benchgrafts.

Carla in Sac