The gold rush should be able to survive zone 4b, but you may only get ripe apples some years....it is a very late ripening apple....but global warming is in your favor...maybe.

I am not familiar with luckyjon

At least Jonathon will ripen there. Lucky John is just an extra red sport of that apple, with mostly the same eating traits. Best early American tart in my estimation.

I would be more inclined to plant apple varieties known to survive there and then graft on my experiments. Better to lose a branch than an entire tree.

I'm in the same boat as you. I lost a fair number of apple blossoms and fruit this spring to the frost, but Goldrush was one of my champs and several trees came through with flying colors. I had my first fruit on Goldrush last year and presume that I probably picked it early. I don't know what the likelihood of getting decent apples is because of the growing season requirements but I'd sure like to get some nice ones this year.

windfall....global warming? We only expect one or two days in the 80's for the whole month of june. This is the latest spring in my memory. I had three frost adviseries this past week! If we had a warm spring like last year....

harvestman....I planted 5 of each, on Bud 118 rootstock, so i guess i did take a bit of a risk. Thats what I get for not doing my homework. They should only sell trees that grow in that zone! argh.

ganggreen....glad to hear there is some hope. Those ten trees are a small part of my planting, so it was worth the risk if I even get something every few years.

Thanks all for your input!

Cornell is now advising growers in NY to consider possible affects of global warming in how they manage fruit trees. What is concerning is more radical swings in local weather which is a long predicted aspect of global warming.

The Hudson Valley has historically been one of the most reliable fruit growing regions in the world but now Cornell suggests the investment in frost protection may be worthwhile because of the high possibility that freakish weather is becoming more and more the norm.

These ideas are based on theory and prediction and no one knows with certainty what is happening and what will happen or why it is happening. You just run with the most plausible theory- the one the data seems most to support.

I hear ya. Everybody's got an opinion on this highly debatable topic, and everybody's entitled to it. I'm not gonna get involved in it here. Seems funny they talked about global cooling in the 70's, wonder where we will be 40 years from now. One things for sure, if we did know the answer, we'd be a lot richer ?:)