Your best heirloom varieties & tall spindle

9 years ago

I am planning on planting about 25 trees next year, based on the space I have available. I want to know what your favorite heirloom varieties are and what you use them for. I want cooking, juicing, and eating apples.

I am going to plant them on the tall spindle system because I have limited space and want to pack as many of these trees in as possible. Any experience with how these varieties handle the tall spindle?

I am zone four and planting on M26 so any suggestions for my zone would be appreciated.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

johnthecook
9 years ago
I have recently planted some heirlooms so don't have experience with flavor and usage, but I can't really see the difference between new or heirloom when it comes to doing the Tall Spindle system as long as you use Dwarfing root stock. The Tall Spindle works great in my garden area, I also have a free standing small orchard area also. Heirlooms are great, but there are some great newer varieties out there also you could mix in there for use. I have a Gravenstein , but I also have recently planted Pristine and Williams pride for early apples as an example.
valgor
Original Author
9 years ago
No worries about newer varieties. I have...

State Fair, Honeycrisp, Wolf River, Honeygold, Macintosh, Frostbite, Northwest Greening, Cortland, RedCort Cortlands, Zestar!, Sweet Sixteen, Snowsweet, Liberty LuckyJon, GingerGold, Smoothee, and EarliChief.

About 125 trees in total, so if anything I need to add more heirlooms and I have a limited space, thus the tall spindle. I just discovered Maple Valley Orchards online, only 40 minutes from home, and they carry hundreds of varieties of heirlooms. I wish I had the room for some of each...

I don't see why heirlooms wouldn't be adaptable to the tall spindle, thanks for the input.
Related Professionals
Ashland Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Palm Springs Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Salisbury Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Clermont Landscape Contractors · Gainesville Landscape Contractors · Cockeysville Landscape Contractors · Coeur d'Alene Landscape Contractors · Darien Landscape Contractors · Midland Landscape Contractors · New Braunfels Landscape Contractors · North Lauderdale Landscape Contractors · South Lake Tahoe Landscape Contractors · Tehachapi Landscape Contractors · Hueytown Landscape Contractors · Gulf Gate Estates Tree Services
johnthecook
9 years ago
They seem to have a great selection, wish I could fit some more.
bob_z6
9 years ago
I'm not sure if it counts as an heirloom (1924), but Kidds Orange Red is very good.

Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet, and Ashmead's Kernel are 3 other good ones, though I'm not sure if you'll have issues ripening them due season length.

I had some excellent Orleans Reinette from a (pricey) grocery store last year. They were in the 18-19 brix range with very interesting flavor.

I've got a bunch of other heirlooms planted, but they are still too young. Maybe this year I can try another dozen- I went from harvesting 3 to 15 types from 2012->2013.