I live far away in a different zone...but my general recommendation is to study what does well in your area (very important). Also, some dwarfing rootstocks are VERY restrictive. Avoid those.

Chris. Mollie is an early apple with a sweet taste. Arkansas Black is a late season/disease resistant apple with a tart/sweet taste. I would also like to here more options from growers in zone 7b or similar locations. Good Luck, Bill

Your best bet is to contact David Vernon @ Century Farm Orchards in Reidsville, NC. He specializes in old southern apples. He sells apples specially designed to do well in our climate. He can advise you, as he did me, in selecting varieties that meet your criteria. BTW I have Grimes Golden and it has become one of my favorites.

Chris, I can't comment too much, as I'm quite a bit north of you.

I got my first few Crimson Crisp apples this year and they are pretty sharp/acidic. I picked the 2nd on September 1st and while it was 12.2-14.7 brix and the seeds were black, I don't think it was fully ripe. I was saving the last apple on the tree to ripen a bit more, but it disappeared a few days later. Maybe if they hang a long time, they will sweeten up, but at that point it won't be an early fall apple anymore.

I would suggest Sweet Sixteen as a good early fall apple, as it has great flavor and decent disease resistance. But I'm not sure how it would do that far South (it's from Minnesota). It also took the year off for me in 2014, so that is another strike against it.

Kidds Orange Red is definitely tasty and productive (it was the only tree this year which broke a branch due to fruit load). One caution is that it goes from perfect to mushy very quickly. I'm not sure how it would hold up in the South. Maybe it can be positioned in the row so that it gets shaded a bit during mid-day from one of the other trees?

For season extension, Williams Pride would give you an extra 2-3 weeks (early August here, maybe late July for you?). It isn't a sweet apple, but has a pretty good balanced flavor. According to Kuffel Creek in Southern CA, WP takes the heat very well.

Another they mention that you may want to consider is King David. I don't have it, but remember reading that it has resistance to all 4 major apple issues.

I picked exactly one Sansa this year. It is a 2nd leaf tree, which produced at least half a dozen apples. But, they proved popular with the animals, so I broke down and picked the last one on 8/10. It wasn't ripe (white seeds and 12.5 brix), but still had a nice sweet flavor.

Have you thought about any old Southern varieties like Aunt Rachel or Limbertwig? I don't have personal experience with them, but it seems like places like Century Farms would have some good knowledge. Now that I'm looking, I feel the need to place a small order...

Early season - look for MonArk (believe Vintage Virginia Apples has it); ripe mid-July here. Big firm crisp apple, good flavor, keeps well for 6-8 weeks in the fridge; good for fresh eating, cooking, drying. Does not go mealy like most early-ripening varieties.
Don't be so quick to eliminate 'smaller-size' apples; several of the edible crab/lunchbox apple varieties are great! If you like sweet... Centennial crab is a good bet.

Think Lawson's Nursery in Ball Ground has closed - Mr. Lawson was getting well up in years last time I heard from him; would be a really good reference for varieties that will do well in your area.
Have seen good reviews on Johnson Nursery in Ellijay - looking at their website, I see some stuff, like Cox Orange that probably won't work for you - but maybe if you actually call and talk to someone... they can give you the skinny.

I went crazy planting old and 'antique' varieties when I got started; they all sounded so good! A trusted friend who was in the fruit nursery business for decades opined that some of those antique/lost/extinct varieties fell out of favor for good reason... Word.

This post was edited by lucky_p on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 16:22

Here's an interesting old document (from Cornell in 1892). It lists White Winter Pearmain as one of the most scab susceptible apples.

We're practically neighbors. I'm West of Atlanta near the 7B/8A line.
I'm also growing some apples (Enterprise, Grimes Golden) both of which have been successful. The Enterprise isn't very productive but it also is in a terrible location, the apples are good without any spray at all. The Grimes Golden has good apples but I'm constantly fighting fungal diseases and fireblight.
There's a commercial grower near me that grows a long list of apples using an IPM approach. From him I've had Fuji, Gala, Pristine, Crimson Crisp, Ginger Gold, HoneyCrisp, Cripp's Pink, Goldrush, Suncrisp, and probably some others that he's grown. He seems to be able to grow all of those successfully. The Goldrush is by far my favorite tasting. It's good off the tree and great storage apple. I'm planning on growing it. The Ginger Gold looks great but is bland. All the others taste and look about how you'd expect high quality commercial apples to look.
Another take on which apples are good for zone 8 is below. Look in the heat tolerant section, those with the asterisks supposedly fruit well in zone 8. I've got no experience with any of those except locally grown Red June, which I've been unimpressed with.

Here is a link that might be useful: zone 8 apples?

Thanks for the replies, I have purchased from Century Farm before but trying to get everything from Cummins on Geneva G-11 of G-41 rootstock. Bob, I just purchased Sweet 16 for myself as a trial since there is little data on how it handles zone 7 or 8 heat but I did not add it to my order for my friend. For my novice friend I, was tying to go with tried and tested varieties but I concerned now with fireblight issues of Grimes Golden. Cummins has Pixie Crunch available, may go with that instead.

Anyone growing Pixie Crunch out there? I have read that it is small but sweet.

I grafted MonArk last spring, I am looking forward to trying that one as well.

How did the trees Century Farm sent you compare to Cummins?

I noticed that CF lists King David, so it must be pretty well adapted for your area. Cummins has it on G41, so it could work.

I was growing a potted Pixie Crunch on M27, but borers killed it this summer, before it could produce fruit. I didn't even realize they were attacking it until I passed it by and saw the trunk cut off about 1 foot in the air.

Grimes Golden has been FB resistant for me, even when I had FB in my orchard that was caused by Gala, which was a FB magnet for me. I finally had to remove gala, but GG has always been disease free and a prolific performer for me.