Belle of Georgia

The photo displayed above is a portion of a harvest of Belle of Georgia peaches.  It was my first year having any harvest to speak of after quite a few years of growing an orchard. I canned peaches, froze peaches, cooked peaches, took some to work, and still had extras.  Needless to say, it was an exciting time for me!  The following years were filled with late frosts and very few peaches, teaching me that

in the low lying microclimate of my home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia zone 6b, heavy peach harvests were the exception, not the rule.

Arkansas Black

My next good harvest was an early November picking of Arkansas Black.  The apples were really dark red, almost black, as the name implies.  The photo to the left shows a portion of the harvest.  Surprisingly the tree was a relatively small one with skinny “Limbertwig” like branches. By the time the harvest was ready, the tree was tied up like a marionette to keep branches from breaking.

I had pruned the tree to stiffen branches and I did thin, but the apples were just too heavy for the size of the tree.  True to form, the apples were hard as a rock when I sampled one, so they went into the frig for several months.  After that time, they took on a mellow, softer taste and were quite good.  They lasted almost until spring.

Old Fashioned Limbertwig

Old Fashioned Limbertwig has at least 30 nice apples this year, currently green at this writing, and amazingly free from scab, cedar apple rust, plum curculio, russet, or any other issues.  The previous year, I think I only had two apples on that tree, but the taste was really good.  Often referred to as the classic “limbertwig taste”, they were tasty and complex, with both sweet and tart overtones.

Golden Delicious

My Golden Delicious tree almost met a disastrous fate when I decided I was tired of eating those small, non-descript apples.  I had determined that I was going to remove it and replace it with another tree.  I decided to wait, and low and behold, the next year the apples were significantly larger and had a wonderful taste.  I was SO glad that I had given the tree one more year.  The apples were so good that I proclaimed the Golden Delicious apple to be my favorite apple so far.  As I mentioned in a video, if you think Golden Delicious is a bad apple, you’ve been hanging out in all the wrong places.  A ripe Golden Delicious is a wonderful thing!

This particular tree has an open airy form, with the full recommended space between scaffolds.  I think it is a beautiful tree and I would like to use that form on more trees.  It does lean a bit, secondary to an accident I had with our zero turn lawnmower.  Bless its heart, after all that, it continues to put out amazing apples.

Red Delicious

This year my Red Delicious tree continues to put out large beautiful apples.  They are starting to get their red color now in early August, and have already reached a generous size.  I love the distinct five lobes that the apple sits upon. This photo of the unripe apple sporting this form is one of my favorites.  A beautiful apple to be sure, but I have found the taste to be unpredictable. Once you get through the thick skin, the apple can be complex and tasty, or unexpectantly bland. 

I remember one year there were only three large Red Delicious apples.  I looked at them longingly over several months.  When my oldest son Thomas was helping me at my house, I broke down and shared an apple with him.  It was pretty bad!  How disappointing!  Since then it has been quite tasty.  Last year, the tree suffered from signifcant blossom blight, and many of the blooms turned black.  This past year, I did use streptomycin during the blooming period.  I dont remember seeing a single black bloom and there are a lot more apples as a result.

This last photo is of Goldrush grafted to my Red Delicious tree.  What a beautiful example of a graft showing two distinct varieties!  I have my friend Karen to thank for the Goldrush scion.  As you can see, the Goldrush apples are as clear and beautiful as the Limbertwig apples.  I can’t wait to try one!

Who knows what the future lies in store in terms of harvest?  I have two really big trees that have never borne a single apple–McIntosh and Jonathan.  They are really big trees on MM111 rootstock, at least 15 feet after pruning.  When those trees start having apples,

 

Im hoping that’s when the real harvest begins!