HC is a pain to grow. I have 3 apple trees and at 6yo the HC has yet to put off a single bloom or apple. although it appears it will next year. I strongly recommend finding a variety that does well all the way around so you can be happy with your tree. If you get a variety that the organic growers like you will be ahead of the game even if you don't care about organic. Liberty, Red Free and Enterprice are a few that come to mind. I grafted Enterprise onto my HC tree so it would have some good healthy leaves on the tree to better support the thing when every fungas and bug is attacking the HC leaves..

Have it here in southern KY. Fruits are small, compared to what you're accustomed to seeing in the grocery - but I'm pretty much hands-off; no fertilizer, no spray. Bugs love it, deer love it - and they even seem to prefer the leaves on Honeycrisp over those of other apples in the orchard.
Fruits still have that crisp 'snap', when you bite into 'em - but, beyond that, it's not really that great an apple; there are plenty of others that far surpass it with regard to taste.
It's probably better in a more northerly setting, but you're even farther north than I am, so...if you want to try it, go for it.

Honey crisp is by far my favorite apple, they remind me of a sort of carmel apple taste.

I had a honeycrisp in my yard. It died. There is a sprout coming out of the stump, so it may still have a future. Ted

Honeycrisp to me tastes like those green apple Jolly Rancher candies...

If you get a GOOD Honeycrisp...they are awesome. I've had some store bought that came out of NY state that were incredible.

If I had it to do over again I would not plant one here on my ground. But love the flavor when I bought them from the local orchard.

And I know others have had success, but I have one that's been in the ground since '08 and it has not sized up nor had a flower yet. It now has the dreaded "yellow's" where half of a leaf is real light green and the other half dark. Something to do with calcium up-take I think.

But the tree looks about like a 3 year old tree and it's been in the ground for 6 years. I imagine it's an 8 y/o tree assuming it was a 2 y/o when I planted it from a pot.

It's not like apples won't grow here, I just harvested my Earliblaze and State Fair. I have a Red Del that's loaded, a McIntosh that's loaded, and a Haralson that is loaded.

The Empire I planted at the same time as the Honeycrisp is a noticeably bigger tree, though it too has not had a flower.

But I'm not ready to give up on the Honeycrisp just yet, some of my other trees took 8 years before they made an apple.

I do think it may be a bit more temperamental than my other varieties though.

In my experience, Honeycrisp is not exceptionally easy or difficult to grow, just an average apple as far as getting it established. The apples themselves are fussy, though. Apples on young trees can get rot where apples rot and fall off trees before they get ripe. Commercial growers will put down lots of calcium sprays to prevent this. Once trees mature this is less of a problem. When I graft it on mature trees it also is not a problem.

If weather is too warm here in southern NY at time the apples ripen they tend to fall off the tree early and don't develop a rich flavor- just bland things with some nice texture.

The tree is moderately vigorous and fruits pretty early.

These folks with bad experiences with it probably are not suffering from the variety as much as the spot, IMO, but I can only guess and go by how it performs here. I've planted it at many sites in a variety of soils. It gets much less rot, I think, in lighter, well drained soils.

it would not be my pick as a first apple, but then, I don't find it to be all that, as many people do. Great texture, juiciness, and a nice sugar, acid balance only gets an apple so far with most folks who make a religion of their fruit. Where is the distinctive flavor in this apple?

............." Posted by tedgrowsit 6b PA (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 12:15

I had a honeycrisp in my yard. It died. There is a sprout coming out of the stump, so it may still have a future. Ted........."

Ted, that is probably a rootstock only shoot. be prepared to graft something onto it like Liberty, Red Free, Enterprise etc. those are more forgiving to a casual grower. And you do have more then one apple tree right?

Second year in the ground, healthy with two apples on it already. .

Like Iowajer, mine has been in the ground since 08 + at least 2 yrs in the nursery.

It's just fruited this year. After fending off bugs, I have 5 left on the tree. So far, they are still very green and quite large. I know real Honey Crisp has some red when ripe. I hope mine is the real one.

Well, it has "yellowing" trademark!!! Most leaves are dull and yellow!. Some university articles say, yellowing usually happens to less productive HC. They get that one right.