Wow...so that's what Goldrush looks like without any fungicide? Not pretty. I sprayed a good bit and mine would rank in your system at somewhere between good and very good...again...a lot of fungicide.
Wow...William's Pride evidently really lives up to it's billing! I could take foliage photos as pretty as that, but I'd have to "select" them...as none of my apples except for a grafted seedling look that good overall this late in the year...I don't think they looked that good on 9/21 either. Is that photo pretty representative of the tree's foliage as a whole?

I'll be loving WP if it does that well for me here...I'm thinking it will based on reviews.
I will say however that although Goldrush is a pain for CAR, my apples are so totally perfect that I can overlook it. Bugs don't seem to like them.

Here is the complete pic from the William's Pride. There are some leaves with tiny light-colored spots. I think some may be yellow and a few may be left-over surround. I took the best lighted leaves in the collage, but there could be some correlation between how much light they get and how healthy they are (dry quickest). I took a look at the tree today and it is definitely in worse shape now. Somewhere between good and very good.

My Goldrush apples are definitely not pretty. I'm sure a fungicide would make a big difference on that front, but I'm not too concerned with it. I am more concerned with the bugs- even if GR is harder than most apples, it still gets its share of bug damage for me.

That really is just incredible Bob. I'm pretty excited about getting this tree for next year. I wouldn't have expected one could grow such a nice looking tree without fungicide. Are you getting any apples and if so...how would you describe the flavor/texture etc?
BTW...what rootstock is your WP on?

I planted it in 2011 on G11 rootstock. I've gotten fruit the last 2 years (maybe 40 last year and 10-15 this year). It didn't set well at all this year and I'm not sure if it was poor weather during pollination or complications from the borer damage in the trunk (pretty big hole- I pushed a screw driver about 5" up the trunk trying to kill the borer). I also lost a lot to yellow jackets and rots. I think I did better bagging them, than with Surround.

I like the apples, but they are far from my favorites. They are mostly nice due to how early they are. In fact, in absolute terms (disregarding season), they are probably my least favorite, other than Ecos Red (which I've grafted over). But, season does count, so they are worth growing. They are quite pretty, with dark red color accented by a nice bloom.

Yeah...I hear you. It was the awesome DR (CAR) + early season apple + attractiveness + versatility that sold me on it and I did a lot of thinking about it and considered a lot of different varieties. I read a great number of reviews that claimed it's flavor and texture were as good as any other given the same harvest time, which agreeably narrows down the possibilities considerably.

Thanks for posting the info Bob even though I have no plans to stop spraying commercial fungicides on my apples I wish I could and less fungicide is always better. Gives me a lot to think about. When I grow seedling apples I mark the best flavored ones years before they produce because the bugs in Kansas target the best flavored apple trees. By this time of the year I'm ashamed to say in some spots grasshoppers are so bad they have defoliated apple trees and began chewing bark. You can spray every day but they will move in from surrounding properties and keep coming. The birds feast on them and make no dent in the population. To my point I can't post any foliage pictures this time of year at least not this year.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Mon, Oct 13, 14 at 8:14

After I left the comments last night, I started thinking about other summer apples that I have planted. The two others which should be ready around the same time as WP (per reading- they haven't fruited yet) are Sweet Bough and Wynoche Early, both at the bottom of the list. I wonder if this isn't a coincidence. Maybe something about those apples runs at a faster pace and Sept 21 is effectively Oct 21st for them? I'll need to pay better attention during the summer. I do remember that WE was hit very badly with CAR, which is probably part of the issue. The pic seems a bit off for that, so I'll need to check to make sure it isn't really Sandow.

There are some fine late summer apples, but that is about 2 weeks later (Priscilla, Akane, and Sansa).

Super helpful. Thanks for sharing this!

Interesting thought Bob. I've noticed that in light set years or perhaps a year of no bearing (biennial year) that the foliage seems to be much nicer. I have had so few trees at different places over the years that certainly other variables could have been responsible though. When I say "much nicer" what I really mean is foliage with less fungal issues etc.
I've always attributed this to the tree simply having more energy to devote to defense mechanisms and regeneration.
I know this is different than what you are saying, but your thought made me think of it.

That makes sense, especially the regeneration part. Any new leaves which grow later in the season won't be subject to the same spring infection pressures. That's why I didn't record data for my new grafts. Speaking of which, I am trying a few Kazakhstan apples which are supposed to be very early summer apples. In fact, I got one apple off a graft this year, but I picked it too early and it wasn't at all tasty. Maybe I'll get more to sample next year.