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| Are honeycrisps apple trees pretty hard to grow? I"m going to plant one this fall? |
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| They are slow to come into bearing and go biennial easily. So yes they are one of the harder apples to grow. Based on what I've read and the low vigor of my plant don't get one on too dwarfing of a rootstock. You won't have trouble keeping it small. |
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| Mine are biennial, but they fruited immediately. They have had low vigor and are in poor, extremely well drained soil. I bought bare root on M26 and M27. The M26 is about the size I was expecting from the M27 which is nice for the small suburban lot. The M27 is so small it is just a novelty. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6, SE NY (My Page) on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 5:23
| They are not slow to bear in my climate- just in the middle of the spectrum. They are relatively low vigor so you should match it up to a more vigorous root stock than you would with more vigorous varieties. Here the growers complain about it's tendency to get fruit rots, not so much biennial bearing when talking about the difficulty of Honeycrisp. I get pretty reliable cropping of it at the few sites I manage it and I don't use chemical thinners. I think the biennial problem might apply to very young trees. I wouldn't expect it to perform in Texas as it does here- I would think it would be pretty crappy there as when it ripens early here due to early spring the quality suffers a great deal. It drops off the tree prematurely when weather is too warm and it approaches ripeness. It would not be my first choice, unless maybe I was in Z 4 or possibly 5, but then, like many who obsess on apples, the amazing crunchiness of Honeycrisp only gets me so far. It's texture is very distinctive but its flavor, IMO, is not. Nice balance of acid and sugar but no bouquet. It also won't get you very far into winter from the fridge. |
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| I planted Honeycrisp against my better judgment. I figured if it tasted so good, it must be a disease magnet. As it turned out, it is quite disease free in my Pacific Northwest climate where there is heavy pressure from black spot. On M26 it is smallish, just right for my situation. The apples are large and very good quality. They produce every year as I do thin aggressively. |
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- Posted by fruitmaven.WIz5 5 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 21:59
| My Honeycrisp tree produced fairly quickly. I put a potted tree in the ground in August 2010, and it had one apple the next year, 4 the year after that, and 5 this year (because I've severely pruned it, so it's an espalier now). I agree it's fairly low vigor. We have clay loam soil. I have heard its flavor is poor in warm zones, but I know it's amazing when grown in MI, WI, and MN (where it was developed). I haven't had any serious disease problems. Sometimes the leaves get curled-looking (not black like fireblight, but perhaps wind damage?). But, it doesn't seem to bother the tree much. It hasn't needed any treatment. |
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| tcstoehr, what size is your Honeycrisp on M26 now (and is it pretty much full grown?) I'm in Portland and Honeycrisp is on my list to plant next year. I'm curious on which rootstock to get and your observations will help. Also, where around here did you buy the tree? |
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| OregonEd, I have one on M26 and it is maybe 7 or 8 feet tall and wide with 20 minutes of pruning every year or two. It was planted in the spring of 2005. |
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