It's the offspring of Honeycrisp and some other variety and I think it's the best apple I've ever had. Outside of Minnesota it's marketed as Rave. I don't know if Rave tastes as good as First Kiss because the growing conditions are different, but they are worth a try if you are outside MN. The apple is somewhat tart, not as sweet as Honeycrisp but not as tart as Haralson, and very juicy and crunchy. It was developed to ripen early, before Labor Day. https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/umn-plant-breeders-introduce-first-kiss-apple

It sounds great.

I like sweet apples and the Ambrosia is all one could want from a sweet, crisp apple.

Rave is good, but more tart than I'd like. I heard the First Kiss apples were going for $6 an apple at the state fair. I got Rave apples at about $3 a pound at the best lace for produce that I know, Bob's Produce Ranch in Fridley

Personally I like them a bit tart, like Haralsons. I don't think First Kiss would be a good pie apple, though, because they might be too juicy, though they are fairly firm and might not cook down too much. Will have to try Ambrosia.

It just started growing and produced some kick-ass sweet apples. They have now gotten enough grafted for it to be commercially produced. Not as available as some of the everyday apples yet, but my absolute favorite.

I don't see those apples at the co-op any more. I think they came from New Zealand.
Are Fuji and Fiji apples the same?

I have a small red delicious tree that fruits every other year (next year). Oh do I look forward to those.

Haven't seen them in years, though, and hardly anyone else knows about them. I got them from an upstate orchard that ran farm stands in the city. I do see Ida Reds around, and they are similar, but, well, red

That family also sold a neighbor's bacon, which was indescribably good.

but you don't see them much any more. We had a Fireside tree when I was a kid. You could eat them and cook with them. Never heard of Ida M but will look out for them.

Northern Spys. I haven't seen them in awhile but then I have been looking either since I rarely bake any longer.

is a much later apple. I see them for sale at the orchards here in NY, in late October I think.

tried arkansas blacks years ago. that one mid 1800 that somebody spotted along a road. its coming back in popularity. tho it is NEVER the same year to year. but its extra hard crisp. but if you wait, it makes great apple crisp.

only available here in MD: Something Red. Available October 19; ask me then!

The harvest is in now. You will be really ready by then!

Stopped by the farm last week, and they had others but not the particular variety I've heard about, which is not ready to be harvested.

And maybe by then I'll remember the name!

My new favorite!

Although, I voted for Granny Smith, because that was my favorite of your options.

I like crisp, crunchy, tangy applies.

The Sweet Tango I tried today had a wonderful "sweet & sour" effect.

Yum

It is my absolute favorite, and it's about time for the Washington State crop to come in.

I'll take one of these over Honeycrisp any day of the week

I take it I should?

I'll be on the lookout....

Are they sour?

Make an awesome Holiday pie.

The pie recipe I have says..If you can’t find Pippins..then you can substitute
Granny Smith apples.

Tikki

My regular grocery store recently got the big Granny Smith apples. They had the smallest ones for a long time. Another store has the big ones, but charges more. A great apple that retains good original flavor, and is unlike a lot of the hybridized apples.

I made a recipe that called for Empire apples and I liked them more than any I've ever had.

I have been planting different mostly heirloom apple trees in my yard for the last seven years. I tend to like sweet and sour/tangy and crisp apples. Some of my favorites are Macoun, Empire, Lady/Api, Stayman Winesap, Ida Red, Paula Red, Northern Spy, SpiGold.

I like some sweet apples too, Snow Sweet and Winter Banana to name a few. I love mixing various types apples for applesauce. Two tangy apples with one sweet makes a good applesauce, no sugar needed.

I planted a McIntosh last year and I had a lot of leaf rust. Yes, I do have cedar trees, but they are a good distance away. I used Neem Oil early on, before budding. I don't know. I hope next year goes better.

Here's an article I found for you on the different oils. Neem Oil you can put on all spring/summer long after leafing/flowering. You want to use dormant/horticultural oil before leaves show/budding. I was just listening to a gardening program on the radio yesterday morning about this.

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-horticultural-oil-1402736

After the flowers are gone you can put Neem or Orchard Sprays every two weeks -- this is what the fellow on the radio recommended.

For pruning you will want to do that in the late winter when the tree is dormant. I recommend taking a pruning class from a local nursery or orchard. If you google pruning/grafting classes you should find some in your area. They are held from Jan-April usually. One interesting thing I learned about pruning -- prune some on the south side of the tree as that will get more sun to the inside of your tree.

I don't know much about Leaf Rust -- sorry! Maybe the Dormant Oil would help with that. Also, if your tree is really young, resist the temptation to let it bear apples the first two years or so as you want it to put all it's energy into growing strong roots and branches for heavier apple production in the years ahead. Oh, I just checked your tree, it is not self-fertile so it needs a pollination partner. Here is a good website for finding one:

https://www.orangepippintrees.com/pollinationchecker.aspx?v=1087

I wouldn't recommend Wolf River. I have two of those in my yard for the past three years and they have yet to ever flower or bear apples! I have an IdaRed (great apple too, BTW), mentioned at the very bottom, that has had apples the past two years. Very reliable. Crab trees are good too, but get a good tart/sweet one so you can enjoy those too. If you don't have room for more trees, you can always graft some pollination partners to your tree also. A friend of mine has two wonderful Crabapple Trees and I grafted some of her branches onto a few of my not really edible Crab Apple Trees.

I'm going to make another post in your thread about some other general and fun apple information.

Thank you for the info! I am impressed you looked it up for me. I receive this as a gift from a fellow Duer.

Thanks!


I look forward to watching the clip and reading the info.

Guess I'm just a bad apple.

You vote has been noted.

just bad seeds!

Now they're over 15' tall. No apples yet.

Hmmm.....warm cinnamon apples.

Both have produced apples for several years. This year the Honeycrisp has a lot of apples but unfortunately I didn't get around to bagging them (and I won't spray because I don't want to kill pollinators) so they've got bugs. The birds and squirrels can have them this year.

Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2018, 10:37 AM - Edit history (1)

is organic and shouldn't hurt birds or pollinators. Just don't spray when your trees are flowering. Apparently you need to spray every two weeks though in the summer.

I don't mind ugly apples, I just use them for apple sauce-- after removing any bugs, but even with the "organic" unsprayed apples, I've found very few bugs all the years I've been making apple sauce.

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/neemgen.html#wildlife

Just kidding!

Pink Lady, Honeycrisp or Fuji for me.

at the U of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum, where they do their apple testing and breeding. They were trying to decide which of the apples currently in development would be most popular. They had it down to two, so they had a bunch of us Master Gardeners cut up a whole bunch of apples and then work a table with samples of each of these apples, which still had only numbers. We asked visitors to the Arboretum (of which there are many in the fall) to taste the samples and fill out a short form indicating which one they liked the most and why. One of them was noticeably sweeter than the other, but the tarter one was juicier. Some of these samples were for sale, so I bought a bag of the juicy ones. At some point they'll decide which of these, if either of them, they'll continue to develop with an eye to selling tree stock to nurseries and eventually the public. It takes years to come up with a new apple variety. Their latest, First Kiss, which just out this year, took something like 20 years to develop (and it's AWESOME!).

It was a very interesting experience.

Who knew it was such a process? I guess people in the business of it or hobbyists.

I don't know why I'm so fascinated with apples and trying to grow them. They are not even my favorite fruit, but there is just something romantic about them. So much history I guess, from Adam and Eve to Johnny Appleseed, to the stories about individual apple trees themselves sometimes. I read some years ago that there used to be some 40,000 varieties (!!!) of apples in the US. Here is an interesting article about old apple varieties:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/04/heritage-apples-john-bunker-maine/

Here is another fellow like the one mentioned in the above article who also looks for lost or forgotten apple varieties to save them from oblivion (I bought two trees from him, a Vanilla Pippin and a Junaluska):

https://applesearch.org/help.html

One of the most amazing things I learned about apples: it takes 40-50 leaves to grow one apple!

Fun apple facts: https://extension.illinois.edu/apples/facts.cfm

To research numerous varieties of apples:

https://www.orangepippin.com/apples

To find pollination partners for various varieties:

https://www.orangepippintrees.com/pollinationchecker.aspx?a=0&v=1087



Lastly for the DU'ers here trying to grow apple trees, an interesting article re same by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her apple orchard: Enjoy!!!

https://www.groworganicapples.com/organic-orcharding-articles/apple-orchard.php

I know the vast majority of people love them but I'm not a fan.

I have discovered many new varieties there. The cool thing is that you grab a foodie (employee) and they will cut one up for you to taste. Or two if you are deciding. Then offers them to others standing by.

Actually they will do this for any tastable fruit or vegetable I Love Central Market (a division of HEB)

Jazz https://jazzapple.com/us/
originated in New Zealand but are grown here as well.

They are so good !!!!

I have an apple with lunch every week day.

followed by Honeycrisp.

I have not heard of Northern Spy.

i love arkansas blacks. if not to tart for eating or wait til you can bake w/ them.