Fruitgirl:

I agree with you and your great-grandmother that Yellow Transparent is the gold standard for saucemaking apples. I have a 30-year old YT tree on M-7 that has been our primary sauce apple for most of those years. I can't tell much specific about your growing conditions by your PNW designation, but if I can grow this apple here in Northern Virginia, you ought to be able to grow it nearly anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. There are a few people who like to eat this very tart apple right from the tree, but for us it is best used in sauce, although it also makes a good pie. You should have no pollination difficulties with the other apple varieties you have around.

I can't think of anything in particular about growing this apple that would make it different from others, but when it comes to harvest (which is very early), do not allow the apples to begin to color yellow on the tree or their quality is already past prime. Often they will split when allowed to color on the tree. When I see the first of the apples take on a little yellow color, I pick the whole tree at once, and bring the apples into the kitchen. We try to process them within 48 hours, since the shelf life of this apple without refrigeration is very short. The apples produce the best sauce when they are still crisp and green.

I got my tree from the old Southmeadow Nursery in Michigan when the previous management actually shipped trees in exchange for a check. Now, many mailorder and online nurseries have this apple in their heritage section.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks for the comments, Don. I know we have some apple maggot in the area, but hopefully I won't have too much of a problem with it. Besides, a bit of maggot won't hurt too much if they're going in to sauce! I live about an hour north of Seattle, just a few miles inland, so we're quite cool in the summers, making a short-season apple perfect for me!

Fruitgirl:

I doubt you will have apple maggot problems on YT, since this apple is down and off the tree before the maggot flies really get going. One of the advantages of very early apples. My brother grows this apple very successfully in Bellevue, and his theory of apple growing is benign neglect.

You must be somewhere near the Skagit Valley. I have been up there several times with my brother, and it is quite a beautiful place, occasional flooding aside.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Don,
Thanks! I guess I forgot about the apple maggot life cycle. I'm glad to hear your brother neglects his YT, and they still do well. I have a gut feeling I won't get around to doing what I should, even though I very well know they need done.

Hey, what's your email address? I'd like to shoot you a quick email.

Fruitgirl:

The e-mail gizmo on my personal page has an up-to-date address. It is don.yellman@webformation.com.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Don is well experienced with Yellow Transparents.

I try to pick them when they turn from green to a light, almost whitish green. They are still quite crisp and juicy and make excellent sauce. Usually a few apples, particularly wormy ones, will start falling off the tree whenever the wind blows at this stage(the wormy ones ripen faster, so they clue you in that the rest are about ready). When fully yellow, they soften up and get mealy and seem a little dry, work OK in sauce but don't make a real good sauce if all you use are the overripe ones. They really sugar up at this stage and are delicious to eat fresh--and frequently split.

My tree seems to be rather susceptible to fire blight. Blight has a lot of fun with the tree and rarely bothers our other trees. Had fireblight for years and didn't know what it was--it never looked like what the symptoms were described as. Then we had a year with a lot of rain and humid weather in May and got classic symptoms all over the tree. You will want to keep an eye out for fireblight and take precautions as needed, especially if you are in the wetter areas of Washington.

The only pest I've ever had bother the tree is the coddling moth, and they are plentiful. Yellow Transparent trees tend to leaf out and bloom about a week later than McIntosh and usually have an abundance of blooms. Fruit set often runs to biennial without thinning, which I've never done on the tree. One year, it is loaded to the ground with fruit, the next year it just has a nice crop. The apples don't keep too long once picked, but if picked before turning yellow and kept chilled they will last for at least several weeks while you process them. The tree goes dormant relatively early, also, and has no problems with severely cold winters. It is quite vigorous and I haven't bothered to fertilize around it for years now.

Jellyman: Does the Yellow Transparent cook up really well? We had an unknown apple variety that came with our property over 50 yrs. ago that always bore early & bore the green fruit that turned yellow when ripe. Was a good apple to eat out of the hand while still rather greenish but not for pies as it cooked up way too much ... but sure made good applesauce; never had to mash or blend it! Not really knowing for sure if this was really a YT, I was afraid to buy another one when ours died. I still see YT advertized for sale in the catalogs. I wouldn't describe the fruit we had as 'tart' at all ... but crisp & juicy! Didn't resemble a yellow delicious at all either.

Vieja:

Yes, the Yellow Transparent cooks up very nicely for sauce, but we always slice the apples to hasten the process. My spouse likes applesauce a little chunky, but I like it smoother, so I often use the potato masher in the pan to smooth it out. The quicker you can get the heat shut off, the less risk of burning at the bottom, which is to be avoided if possible. But you must also cook at a very low heat to avoid burning, stir frequently from the bottom, and add sugar only when the heat is finally off. We usually add about 1/2 cup water to an 8-quart pan to get the steam going.

When picked while still green, YT holds together nicely for pies. And I would certainly describe YT as tart, even when it begins to color yellow, so maybe what you had was something else. Or maybe they were beyond their ideal picking time.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA