New apple

[Rebel SS]

Anyone had one of these? I'd like to get my hands on a couple...


http://www.kttc.com/story/39050210/2018/09/07/new-apple-at-minnesota-orchards-the-first-kiss

[delcecchi]

Anyone had one of these? I'd like to get my hands on a couple...


http://www.kttc.com/story/39050210/2018/09/07/new-apple-at-minnesota-orchards-the-first-kiss

Yep, they were being sold at the fair.  Pretty good, actually taste a lot like a honeycrisp.    Also picked up another new apple at grocery store, cross of honeycrisp with monArk, so ripens in washington in late july.   It was also good.     Again a lot like a honeycrisp.  It is also a U of M apple but the rights are licensed by Stemilt in Washington, https://www.stemilt.com/fruits/apples/rave-apples/

Oops, just read another page... First Kiss and Rave are same variety.   First Kiss in MN, Rave in Not-MN

https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/umn-plant-breeders-introduce-first-kiss-apple

Check sly vee barlow plaza, that is where I got the Rave. 

[roony]

I do not like the fact that the U of M will not let people like me purchase their new varieties of trees, only orchards. People like me are paying for the research to develop these varieties yet we cannot have them in our mini orchards.

[Rebel SS]

You didn't tell them they were for Roonstar Orchards? 

[delcecchi]

I do not like the fact that the U of M will not let people like me purchase their new varieties of trees, only orchards. People like me are paying for the research to develop these varieties yet we cannot have them in our mini orchards.

Which varieties are you referring to?      (although the money from licensing probably pays most of the cost of development)
Honeycrisp is available, so is Zestar! and Snow Sweet.  Sweetango is not, until patent expiration.   My personal favorite is HoneyGold which is a great eating apple.   

As for first kiss it is not obvious what the tree situation will be.   Its main advantage is that it is a month earlier than honeycrisp which doesn't seem like a big deal to the home grower, or at least not me.   And I am not a big sweetango fan so that doesn't bug me either but others certainly like it so then you have to wait until 2026 unless you got a friend in the orchard biz.  Even then I am not sure about the licensing.  I think the license is controlled  by Pepin Heights Orchard or the co-op "nextbigthing;  Grown by Pine Tree in White Bear, and Pepin Heights.   

[roony]

SnowSweet® (Wildung variety), Zestar!® (Minnewashta variety), SweeTango® (Minneiska variety), and Rave®/First Kiss® (MN55 cultivar) are registered trademarks of the University of Minnesota. Frostbite™ is a trademark of the University of Minnesota.
If the money from licensing pays for the research than maybe the growers should do their own research instead of having it done at a PUBLIC University.

[delcecchi]

Well, they used to give the product of the research away...  Now they license it.  So, what are you saying you want?   Abolish research at the U?   

You can buy a zestar! tree.  I have a couple in my yard.    not sure about what is happening with snowsweet,  I am guessing you could buy one of those soon.   Too soon to see what will happen with first kiss/rave.   So far, only sweetango is known to not be plantable by the public.   

Perhaps you should make your feelings known to your person on the board of reagents or your state legislators.  Given the number of great apples from U of M and others that I can plant, I can't get very riled up.   Seriously, go eat a honeygold and let me know what you think.   Other than not being red, I think it is close to perfect as an eating apple.   

And Honeycrisp is harder to grow...

[roony]

Picked pretty much all of our Honeycrisp today. Love that apple.
Sweet 16s are very good to but they don't keep as well and sure have a habit of dropping off the tree even before they are ripe.
I just get bothered when I'm told I cannot grow something, not that I'm asking for a free tree or anything.
gold apple.........pffffft
double pffffffffffffffffffft

[delcecchi]

Picked pretty much all of our Honeycrisp today. Love that apple.
Sweet 16s are very good to but they don't keep as well and sure have a habit of dropping off the tree even before they are ripe.
I just get bothered when I'm told I cannot grow something, not that I'm asking for a free tree or anything.
gold apple.........pffffft
double pffffffffffffffffffft

Diversity.   
Go go for the gold.   
Honeygold was the first apple I planted after buying our house.  Fall of 73.   Leaning in like sheryl sandburg but still producing.   
Still my favorite apple.   Spartan was my second fave.   

[Rebel SS]

Looks like it's Del's for the Halloween apple bob. Just so they ain't all those silly yellow ones. 

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[Dotch]

I have a SnowSweet del. Got it 5 or 6 years ago. Great apple for slicing and dipping in caramel. Doesn't turn brown quickly. Can't remember if I got it at the now defunct Farmer Seed & Nursery in Faribault or Turtle Creek Nursery in Owatonna. Thinking the latter. I would like to get a Honeygold but every time I see one I'm in a hurry to get somewhere else. When I go back they're gone.

Our Honeycrisp apples are a beautiful red and should be ready given the above normal GDU's. First decent picking the birds, squirrels and everything else didn't help themselves to. The Haralson's should also be ready soon. The Fireside and SnowSweet apples probably another 10 days - 2 weeks. Can't seem to get my pears to ripen or at least they sure don't look it. Full size and still green.   

[Rebel SS]

Bobbing for apples switched to Dotch's apple farm.. 


https://mnhardy.umn.edu/varieties/fruit/apples

[Dotch]

Which will be preceded by the hay stacking contest...

[Rebel SS]

Which will be followed by the roll-in-the-hay contest? 

[glenn57]

Which will be followed by the roll-in-the-hay contest? 

there's that seks thing again.

[Rebel SS]

Darned tootin'!!!  *HONK*HONK* 

[delcecchi]

I have a SnowSweet del. Got it 5 or 6 years ago. Great apple for slicing and dipping in caramel. Doesn't turn brown quickly. Can't remember if I got it at the now defunct Farmer Seed & Nursery in Faribault or Turtle Creek Nursery in Owatonna. Thinking the latter. I would like to get a Honeygold but every time I see one I'm in a hurry to get somewhere else. When I go back they're gone.

Our Honeycrisp apples are a beautiful red and should be ready given the above normal GDU's. First decent picking the birds, squirrels and everything else didn't help themselves to. The Haralson's should also be ready soon. The Fireside and SnowSweet apples probably another 10 days - 2 weeks. Can't seem to get my pears to ripen or at least they sure don't look it. Full size and still green. 

My honeycrisp suffer badly from my neglect whilst up north...   The fireside tree bit it a few years ago.   The granny smith is still hanging in there.   I have a couple of the world's tallest haralsons, that i let go for a few years and now they are like 30 feet tall.   No way to pick them without more equipment than I have.   The deer eat good though.   Have a northern spy that I planted when my daughter was in elementary school.   Came home and told me she ate one and it was great.    A few years later she said she wasn't sure that was the right name...
Never grew pears.   Cherries and plums didn't work out so well.   

So, the only UMN apples not available to the home grower are sweetango?   (first kiss is too new to count)

If you are desperate, Jungs sells honeygold...  And a bunch of other intriguing varieties.   If only I were younger.....

[Dotch]

Those Honeycrisp trees are kinda like high maintenance women IMO. I've had to work at making this one into a real tree and it has up until this year been stingy about fruit production. It pissed me off so much I almost cut the SOB down a couple years ago. Glad I hung in there with it now. Prolly 8 - 10 years old. As far as a Honeygold, I'll probably bite the bullet and seek one out locally this next spring. I saw one at FF this last spring but they wanted damn near $70. Nice tree, good shape, no double leader or any of that kinda crap. Thought I'd wait & come back when they were on sale towards the end of the season. Everything else but no Honeygold. 

I was very fortunate my Dad was into the orchard thing. We had many of the apples that were popular back in the day including Prairie Spy, Whitney Crabs (great for tossing at cars) a Haralson, Fireside, Oriole (early apple, great for pies), Anoka, Beacon, Winesap, Cortland and a Patten Greening which was a later absolute knockout pie & sauce apple. There was also a yellow apple that I never got a real name on other than they called it a Harvest Apple. Might've been a predecessor to the Honeygold although it lacked the crisp texture. Seemed mushy to me. There were several others too that were planted later that I was never sure what they were.

He also had apricots for a while and there was a pear tree that bore fruit maybe twice. A friend of mine by Otisco has pear trees, the same varieties that I have (Parker & Patten) only his are older. He's told me to be patient. He was surprised mine were bearing fruit already. His are always loaded. My Mt. Royal plum croaked so that needs to be rectified. Experience with plums at home was they are short-lived. Seems to be running true here as well. We had cherries as well and they made some wicked jam. Alas they too were short-lived. 

[Rebel SS]

Anyone want some crab apples? 

[mike89]

Anyone want some crab apples? 

how ya gonna ship Glenn???

[Rebel SS]

   Crabby Appleton!!!   Remember him on the cartoon "Tom Terrific"?   

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[LPS]

Oh ya!

[glenn57]

Anyone want some crab apples? 

how ya gonna ship Glenn???

awe..............as reb would say................go lay by your dish!!!!!!!!

[mike89]

mornin Bud!!!

[delcecchi]

Those Honeycrisp trees are kinda like high maintenance women IMO. I've had to work at making this one into a real tree and it has up until this year been stingy about fruit production. It pissed me off so much I almost cut the SOB down a couple years ago. Glad I hung in there with it now. Prolly 8 - 10 years old. As far as a Honeygold, I'll probably bite the bullet and seek one out locally this next spring. I saw one at FF this last spring but they wanted damn near $70. Nice tree, good shape, no double leader or any of that kinda crap. Thought I'd wait & come back when they were on sale towards the end of the season. Everything else but no Honeygold. 

I was very fortunate my Dad was into the orchard thing. We had many of the apples that were popular back in the day including Prairie Spy, Whitney Crabs (great for tossing at cars) a Haralson, Fireside, Oriole (early apple, great for pies), Anoka, and a Patten Greening which was a later absolute knockout pie & sauce apple. There was also a yellow apple that I never got a real name on other than they called it a Harvest Apple. Might've been a predecessor to the Honeygold although it lacked the crisp texture. Seemed mushy to me. There were several others too that were planted later that I was never sure what they were.

He also had apricots for a while and there was a pear tree that bore fruit maybe twice. A friend of mine by Otisco has pear trees, the same varieties that I have (Parker & Patten) only his are older. He's told me to be patient. He was surprised mine were bearing fruit already. His are always loaded. My Mt. Royal plum croaked so that needs to be rectified. Experience with plums at home was they are short-lived. Seems to be running true here as well. We had cherries as well and they made some wicked jam. Alas they too were short-lived.

I had a northstar cherry, but the robins got most of the cherries.  Finally some sort of boring insect took it out.   My dwarf apples are all pretty much in decline and it seems sort of silly to replace them since I am not here in the summer to care for them.   Deer like the windfalls though.   

I also didn't have much luck with plums.  Toka was one variety I tried and I forget the name of the other one.   

So, bite the bullet and get a honeygold.    You won't regret it.   

[Dotch]

glenn seems kinda crab apple-ey this a.m. 



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[glenn57]

mornin Bud!!!

mornin!!!!!!!!!

[glenn57]

glenn seems kinda crab apple-ey this a.m. 

awe..........go lay by one of your sheep!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dotch]

I also didn't have much luck with plums.  Toka was one variety I tried and I forget the name of the other one.   

So, bite the bullet and get a honeygold.    You won't regret it.   

We have the wild plum thicket on the edge of our yard. It was there long before we arrived. While providing plenty of pollinators, it may also be a source of disease and insects. The leaves all the sudden fell off the wild plum trees a few weeks ago. That's kinda what happened to my Mt. Royal plum last year on half of it. It appeared to be alive yet this spring. There was still green tissue under the bark. The buds swelled but it never leafed out. Have to yank it out with the tractor and start over. Was a nice tree. 

I agree del. The Honeygold is on my bucket list for spring or if I bumble across one yet this fall someplace. Some friends have given me some of theirs over the years. I love the apples. Plus it would round out our present selection nicely.

[Rebel SS]

I used ta pick sacks of my crab apples for the sisters at St. Marys, before the tree got 25' tall...they'd make crab apple jelly for their yearly bake sale with it, and they always gave me a couple jars.
Now the skwirrels and birds eat 'em and the rest fall all over the backyard to make a slushy, rotten, fermented mess come Spring... but the waxwings sure get wasted on 'em in Spring.