When tasting it was very evident that it had indeed sweetened noticeably. There was a lot going on in the flavor and one note in particular I cannot put my finger on. I just cannot quite describe what it is I'm tasting.
Both of my children and my wife say they like it, but I do not sense a great deal of enthusiasm.
For me, the apple is good but the strange note that I cannot put my finger on is a bit off-putting to me. I'm not wild about the texture either. It's definitely not mushy or mealy, but it's not crisp and breaking either. It's more of a rubbery dense flesh that only sounds crisp when bitten into. The juice is there and it's very sticky (unusual for an apple) and has a very mild aroma.
The apples were stored 11 days at room temp and the remainder in the cool basement. Harvested Halloween day. Given all this, I cannot imagine it being the great storage apple it is hailed as. Honeycrisp stored in the same manner would be essentially the same in quality as when first picked in my experience.

This is a very often suggested/recommended apple here and is held in high regard virtually everywhere. I just thought I'd post my experience with it.

At this point, given it's CAR susceptibility, I would NOT recommend this apple. I am very disappointed because I really liked the way it grew and produced blemish-free apples. BTW, I should mention mild blemishes appeared in storage.
When taken as a whole, I think there are far better apples to choose. I hope this is just a fluke and while there are some variables that could have attributed to this, none were significant enough in my mind to make a difference. I really hope I'm wrong about that.
For now though this apple receives a thumbs down from me.

Don't give up,..sometimes it takes some years to find out ideal
storage practices.

Try next time to put into plastic bag,..same way rolled up on top, and perhaps not store 11 day's prior in room temp.
Fridge storage would be better.

Gave one to a client 3 days ago from the same bowl and she called it the best apple she's ever eaten. I've never shared one with anyone who hasn't raved about this variety but I'm certain there are people out there who won't like it. Still, this one has helped me sell scores of trees.

Maybe your soil or weather isn't right for this apple or maybe you and your family just have different tastes than folks I've shared it with. I don't think your problem could be how you are storing it. GR is not that fussy.

With stone fruit I need 2-3 yrs of good fruit for a couple weeks each yr to form a solid opinion. So I think you are being a bit hasty to turn thumbs down so quickly. I'd say apples vary more yr to yr than most fruit.

One other thing to watch out for is the counter ripening, it often leads to rubbery apples and sometimes the flavor is also not so great.

Lastly make sure to pick them as late as possible, I am in a warmer area and I picked most of mine two weeks after you did.

Scott

Not every apple is good in every spot or to every person but I'm surprised its not at least a decent apple for you. I just pulled one out while typing this and my son ate half the apple while I was eating it - he kept coming back for more. I would say the downsides are hard flesh and lots of sours, those can be turn-offs to some people.

Scott

I could say Honeycrisp is over-hyped because I don't love it and it's hard to grow here, but people as a whole actually do love that apple, however I may experience it. Same deal with Fuji for me, although I do like that one when I'm in the mood for a sugar apple.

I believe that for most people that have tried it, a well ripened Goldrush is a top 5 apple, but there is no apple that appeals to everyone or that performs well in all conditions and management. Some folks are turned off by acid in fruit and those probably won't enjoy GR until about February out of storage.

A way to test if your GR are up to snuff would be to check the brix, which is close to 20 in a well ripened Goldrush. If it is lower in your apples than you haven't tasted Goldrush as grown here.

I had another one last night and I must say my opinion of GR has even further declined. For me Goldrush needs to be peeled, I can't stand the texture and hardness of the skin...it doesn't taste bad or anything, it's just that awful texture.
There are other small apples on the market today so size isn't a total barrier to market entrance and GR isn't that small to begin with. The fact that you don't see Goldrush in the markets is very telling if you ask me. If GR were truly able to be folks "top five apple" why then do we not see them at Walmart's produce section or in the supermarkets? Growers would have no issues supplying them since it's a heavy reliable cropper, DR, supposedly stores well, etc
The answer is that it's not a very attractive apple, likely doesn't have wide appeal and growers and wholesale produce buyers do not believe it has serious market potential. I think they are right. While the flavor may appeal to a few here in the real world against the likes of Honeycrisp it simply has no chance.

We here on the forum (myself included) tend to turn up our noses at apples that are successful in the markets thinking our taste is somehow more refined or whatever. The fact of the matter is that while people do indeed have different tastes the lion's share have very similar tastes and that is what the markets want and what the growers want to grow. Honeycrisp is a Goliath in this arena. It will not and could not EVER be challenged by something like Goldrush. It is more attractive with better flavor and texture and the crisp breaking flesh is rivaled by no other apple. It is unquestionably better in every single way. The fact that it is perhaps more difficult to grow and has still managed to acheive such level of market dominance is unarguable proof of that imo.

I wish I liked Goldrush, I really do. If I didn't want to like it I wouldn't have planted it. I found myself wanting to find qualities in it that didn't exist to make me feel better for making a poor choice.

We here often say that good backyard apples aren't the same as good market apples. This stems from the Red Delicious debacle and I don't believe holds true anymore.
I think the qualities that make good apples for market can be, and in most cases are the same qualities that should make them attractive choices for backyard trees.

H'man...I understand you were stating your opinion and it's a valuable opinion to me, but I disagree. I do not believe that most people would rate Goldrush a "top five" apple. In fact, I don't think it would be even remotely close to that. Honeycrisp would rate a "top five" ,and indeed it has. Markets have a way of sorting out the winners and losers.
Honeycrisp made it big time....Goldrush has managed little more than a tiny blip on the radar screen. There is a reason for that.

That said, the market is starting to catch on. In the 80's, RD made up ~75% of Washington state's production and has fallen to less than half that level. Apples with better flavor like Fuji, Pink Lady, Braeburn, and yes, Honeycrisp are now mainstream. Some really good apples like Lady Alice and SweeTango are starting to become popular.

But, the market will still always lag behind what I consider to be a good apple because it values appearance. I would be fine with a Knobby Russet (kind of like a lumpy potato) look, if it tastes the best. In fact, three of my favorite apples are russets, something rarely seen in the store (Golden Russet, Ashmead's Kernel, and Hudson's Golden Gem).

I lost most of my Goldrush to some animal. I went out to pick on 11/11 and while they had been there a few days before, they were all gone. But, I've found a farmer's market which has them and have been very good. I sample at least 40-50 types of apple each year and Goldrush is consistently in the top 5.

I think Goldrush's visual problem isn't that it gets bad sooty blotch, as fungicides take care of it. I just got some from the farmers market last week which are large and pristine. The bigger issue is that it looks too much like Golden Delicious and apple sellers want each apple to have a distinctive look.

I agree with Konrad on the storage. Every time I've stored apples in a paper bag, I get wrinkling/shriveling. This happens even to apples that would otherwise have kept for far longer.

On this forum, amongst folks who eat all kinds of apples, Honeycrisp is not really such a big hit, and I've never seen it place first on a preferred apple list of any obsessive apple grower/lovers who have been doing it long enough to have a jaded palate. I'm sure there are some out there, of course, who are moved by the big cell crunchiness of HC, but it really isn't a very interesting apple beyond its texture to many of us who sample a wide range of apples season after season.

I'm not a big fan of most pop music or Hollywood block buster movies either. You can assign motives but it might be just about taste.

Not everyone likes a high acid apple. A good Goldrush shouldn't have an off tasting skin so I don't know what that's about but what does it really matter anyway? Find the apples you love and grow them. I'm glad I don't love Honeycrisp because GR is a much easier apple to grow and store. More often than not, Honeycrisp doesn't reach real good quality in my climate and often drops off the tree prematurely.

I'm curious what is your favorite apple in January.

I really wish I loved Liberty. Keep the PC off that one and it just lives to fruit. Some folks do love it, and that's just fine with me.

Harvestman,,,I didn't realize I was being "dramatic". but I digress...you were talking "top five" and everything...so...uhmmm yeah.

I also understand that I'm not with the "those of us" who "eat all kinds of apples". So I get it...I just don't know any better. If the growers are having a tough time selling it to the public is it possible that it's because it just isn't good enough? Possible? Markets have to rely on sales to more than those of us on this forum.
If you haven't seen HC highly rated in taste tests I don't know where you are reading at, because I certainly have and yes...by obsessive apple people who often lean to the antique and odd varieties. No doubt too some will put GR up there near the top too. Maybe because they love it or maybe because they want to distinguish themselves as real apple aficionados who have jaded taste buds.

My favorite apple in January? Well...I dunno but I know it will not be GR since it's declining rapidly from an already unimpressive beginning. I guess it might be Honeycrisp.

I also suggested that you, Appleseed, can supply your own idea of what are the motives of the many apple "gurus" who aren't so impressed with Honeycrisp. Of course, then other people can tell you what your motives are for trying to pigeon hole these gurus for not loving the apple you love and we can stupidly go round and round.

You don't even know if the apples you are eating taste like the Goldrush that I'm eating. Have you purchased any grown in other orchards and climates? Why is it so important for you to assign your own experience as definitive?

Honeycrisp is replacing Red Delicious as the most widely grown apple in the world, so it isn't necessarily all about being the most delicious apple. Actually I predict this forecast is wrong- there are too many club varieties being bred to mimic the big cell crunch of Honeycrisp, which is actually a tribute to Honeycrisp.

Can you understand what I'm saying when I call Honeycrisp all about texture? It doesn't possess any real character of flavor because it lacks aromatics. This may increase its appeal the way a catchy pop tune does by not being too complicated. Strong personalties don't usually become class president.

Ok...I thought it was you who in fact "pigeon holed" those who liked it into the group without experience in apple eating (??).

Why is it so important for you to assign your own experience as definitive?
Yes...that is my question to you. Particularly when that position would find you in a very miniscule minority all things being equal. I also don't know who these MANY apple gurus are who aren't impressed with HC. That's not what I've read...nearly all are very much impressed with it. Even the British, and apples are their "thing".

Honeycrisp is replacing Red Delicious as the most widely grown apple in the world, so it isn't necessarily all about being the most delicious apple

OK good point. So if it isn't about the best taste as indicated by market demand...then WHAT is it? By your own experience and that of your contacts it is as you said "twice as hard to grow as any other apple they grow". There was no advertising campaign of significance...so what then is the reason? Uneducated sheeple following the consumer in front of them at the check out line? Willing to pay more too.
I also agree with you on the prediction because as you say too much breeding from the HC line is being done. I actually think HC will supplant RD and GD as the ancestral parentage of most future apples and probably for a long time. At least until something better comes along. Maybe they can breed one that tastes like pizza so you can find it "interesting" (just joking ...lol).

Can you understand what I'm saying when I call Honeycrisp all about texture? It doesn't possess any real character of flavor because it lacks aromatics

No, I'm sorry Harvestman...I do not know what you are saying and I disagree about the flavor. Agree about the aromatics but GR isn't going to win any awards in that area either...both by my experience and that of printed literature. Mildy aromatic...both of them.

Strong personalties don't usually become class president.
Agree. Like the apple you and Scott were discussing that he liked and you didn't because of the licorice flavor. Therein lies just one issue I agree with you on. You are either going to love it or hate it and that may be based on your affinity for licorice. I love black licorice so I should look into that apple.
So while I get your point here I still fail to see how that's a negative for HC. That simply means it has more widespread and broad appeal which is just one of the reasons it is so successful. It's really all about the whole package though and yes...the big break juciness that is unrivaled.

There is no parallel to Red Delicious and Honeycrisp. Honeycrisp is not popular for ANY of the same reasons that led to RD's proliferation so comparisons between the two are baseless. In fact, HC is the anti-RD.

HC didn't work out for me after a 12 year relationship, as the apples don't actually grow well in my own orchard or in others I manage, but Goldrush regularly provides me and others with fantastic apples that I have widely distributed to rave reviews and many tree sales. The apple also holds up through winter, which I think you may not find happens with your beloved HC in your own storage.

The folks I've grown GR for that aren't in love with it don't actually much like any but sweet apples. Please let me know what tarts you adore- how bout Cox Orange Pippin?

I usually get a few perfect Honeycrisp after others have dropped or rotted and they are a nice enough apple with an absolutely amazing kind of crunch- they just don't have enough zing for my palate. I happen to like more acid and a harder apple that will carry me through winter.

The reason I love Goldrush isn't just because of its taste off the tree- there are a hundred other apples I can enjoy eating that way- so many different flavors and textures, I can't actually choose a favorite there. Macoun, a perfect Baldwin, Suncrisp, Fortune, Pink Lady, Newtown, Erwin Bauer, Zestar, the list goes on and on.

It is the months that follow and the year after year dependability that has made Goldrush my champion.

I notice you haven't commented on others who have posted their direct comparisons of GR and HC and actually prefer GR. I also notice that you haven't commented on the idea that maybe yours are not the same as mine. That's strange to me.

How many harvests of GR and HC do you have under your belt to inspire such loyalty towards the latter?

"Merwin is enthusiastic about ­Gold­Rush. Between his home plantings and a research block he planted at Cornell in 1994, Merwin has about 1,200 trees of that variety growing on M.7 rootstock, and it is one of their most popular varieties. It matures late�"but not too late for upstate New York�"and is disease-resistant. “After a few months in regular storage, Gold­Rush after-ripens to a golden perfection, with rich aromas and an intense blend of sweetness, crunchiness, and crisp acidity,” Merwin said. “It is a very productive and precocious low-vigor variety that needs a strong rootstock,” he said. “It’s a really unique apple. People start asking for them a month or more before we pick them. I think it grows better in northern regions than in hotter areas because it needs a few October frosts to ripen properly. It’s usually the last one we pick, about November 1.”

Ok...so you found people "enthusiastic" about Goldrush. Awesome. Allow me to insert MY words in my original post.

This is a very often suggested/recommended apple here and is held in high regard virtually everywhere. I just thought I'd post my experience with it.

Ok...so you have proven to me what I already stated I was well aware of. Good work.
Do you think I could not do the same with HC? Of course you don't think that....easy peezy...right?

I don't doubt GR can be good and I hope it will be for me. I DO think as Rayrose said it is over-hyped. Also I think it will not be that rare that the season is not long enough to properly ripen GR in upstate NY, despite what Merten's scribe says, ACN does NOT recommend it for northern growing districts. It DID NOT fully tree ripen here and that may be one of my issues.

As for addressing others comparisons I have addressed Bob. H'man why does it have to be a "direct" comparison H'man? Is it because that renders rayroses non-"enthusiastic" and supportive review out of the mix of 4?
What I find strange (actually I don't because I familiar with this tactic) is that you have failed to address my simple plainly worded question about WHY ( what you are so certain of is true) has Honeycrisp been a smashing hit while Goldrush is virtually unknown. WHY? There may be a reason I haven't contemplated and I'm interested in learning, but so far all I hear is that #1) I harvestman have more experience 2) jaded taste buds 3) Apple gurus dislike it 4) Appleseed and millions of consumers don't know any better 5) My client's love GR 6)GR sells scores of trees for me 6) something about pop music 7) class presidents
8) Hollywood blockbuster movies 9) I have a lot of experience

Ok...surely with all these strongly held notions and vast experience you must certainly be able to answer that one very, very simple question.
Why has Honeycrisp succeeded famously while Goldrush has not? This is all happening right in your own backyard.

NY orchards have no trouble delivering metric ton after metric ton of fresh HC ready for market, yet you an experienced professional cannot grow but a few (your words) late apples? I find that strange given your experience.

I have to admit, I haven't tried real hard to make Honeycrisp work beyond experimenting with different fungicides. I suspect that if I double my spray output and bring it to near commercial level by adding several calcium sprays I will be able to get these trees into reasonable productivity, but the trees can't seem to draw what they need from the soil.

I have a customer who I believe will be willing to go the extra mile to make his two Honeycrisps productive, so I will see if the need for supplementary foliar calcium is the root of my problem. If I personally liked the apple more I would have tried this years ago, although for the first couple of seasons I had no rot problems with Honeycrisp. It is possible that I'm doing something else wrong, but this is one of the few apples that I have such difficulty with.

What I'm trying to do here, believe it or not, is steer people to varieties of apples that will bring them joy to grow. I don't think it is useful when novices exaggerate the importance of limited experience without at least looking at the info out there.

You may have noticed that many only value Goldrush out of storage- obviously most Americans aren't used to high acid apples (which I love, especially when they are also high sugar). How can you call an apple over hyped when you've never even eaten one that has been "properly" matured from 2 or 3 months or more in storage- the guideline of the actual breeders of the apple?

I believe Honeycrisp can be excellent in different regions, in Z4 it is a "Godsend". Imagine how New Hampshire growers must have felt when they found they could grow apples "better" (more popular) than anything coming out of Washington state after centuries where northern growers had to settle for lesser varieties.

There may well be places where Honeycrisp is as excellent an apple in the home orchard as it is for high input commercial production, but it is almost as difficult to store as it is to grow- HERE in NY. It's virtues are lost in the oven so how many are you going to eat in a month or so?

What I am saying about experience in eating many varieties of apples over many years is that when I started growing apples my favorite 2 varieties were Fuji (the Honeycrisp of the late 20th century) and Mutsu and my favorite pear was Korean Giant. Exposure to many, many different types has completely changed my preferences, not just about specific varieties but even general qualities. It also renders me immune to going ga-ga about any particular variety for taste alone. The tree needs to be reasonably easy to grow.

You are very quick to dismiss the experience of growers with thousands of times your experience and a lot more on the line. Merwin has enough seasons under his belt to know the range of Goldrush- if they weren't good he couldn't sell them. He's talking about commercial production and most northern growers in NY state are growing near lake areas where the growing season is somewhat extended. This is likely all all Goldrush needs.

I was surprised out how well my Goldrush ripened its fruit after a very late spring- it was the shortest growing season we've had in years- but I did wait until mid-Nov to pick it. We'd already had 2 hard frosts.

I know you like to produce high quality fruit, so it wouldn't surprise me if you do plenty of thinning. This article describes how to avoid bitter pit on Honeycrisp and one of the charts is pretty interesting. On page 16, there is a graph showing the impact of fruit size on bitter pit. At low to mid size BP incidence stays low, then increase dramatically at larger fruit sizes.

I'm not saying that the above would make it easy to grow- that obviously isn't the case. But it may help in situations where the client really wants Honeycrisp. Apologies if you've already seen and considered all of this (a distinct possibility).

AS, it is funny how you overlook certain words to make you feel in the right and creating conflict that isn't really there. I did say that I'm sure some long time apple grower-variety fanatics would put HC on top of their list- I just don't happen to know of any but I clearly qualified that.

It could be because it is such an obvious choice or it could be for the reasons I suggest or it could be because of the limitations of my own general and anecdotal survey. I certainly tried to convey the message that one likes what they like and should embrace the path on which their personal palate leads.

As far as your question and assertion about my not responding to your question of why Goldrush hasn't been a smashing success, it was actually in my text when I mentioned that I believed and have read that it is a size issue. Americans, in all their gastronomic wisdom, like super-sized everything, including apples. An article in Goodfruit Magazine told of a grower who claimed distributors wouldn't take Goldrush because they aren't big enough to sell, but after sampling them wanted to buy them for their own use. Do you remember my writing something about that? Go back and review.

Their is also luck and having the right name that goes into the success of rock stars and rock star apples. I think I also mentioned that Goldrush is highly acidic and Americans, unlike the British, go for low acid, cornsyrupy like sweetness (OK, don't get excited, I admit Honeycrisp isn't actually in that category). The niche market for tarts is already taken by Granny Smith, another quite grower friendly apple.

Now if growers would sit on it and try to market it only after it had been in storage for a couple of months, maybe it would be a winner as it is a very popular apple where it is available at farm markets.

That's the completely mistaken statement that got my gander up (I have edited out a much more sarcastic way of saying this). Instead of getting all worked up defending my champion, I should simply have stated the areas where Goldrush is superior, which I did, but in a state of excessive excitement.

I don't believe there is any apple variety superior to other top rate apple varieties "in every regard". Plus, meaningful comparisons are years in the making. Some experienced growers say it takes 10 years of growing them to accurately evaluate a variety- but this forum would be dull if we waited that long.

At least we are all passionate about our fruit here.

I don't grow them and I don't have enough to worry about long term storage, but I'll seek them out whenever I can.

That is one beautiful pie! It would probably be palatable even if you used Red Delicious.

I believe many people, as they age, tend to be attracted to more acid fruit- that is before they get past their 8th decade or so. Someone wrote about this idea in Pomona (the old NAFEX publication) many years ago. I think my appreciation for tartness increased as I got past my 4th decade.

It is interesting how the attraction to tartness also tends to be somewhat regional, with folks in warmer areas generally liking fruit and desserts (and their iced tea and mint juleps) with more sugar. I've no idea if climate actually has anything to do with this, with warmer weather increasing the craving for sugar, but it seems to me to be a world-wide phenomena.

Of course, the stronger the sun, the more sugar in the fruit, as a general rule. People do tend to like what they are used to and what they learned to like as children.

That being said, I actually love a perfect mango more than a perfect Goldrush, so I can "swing" both ways.

anybody, where can I get some of these sugary Honeycrisp you are talking about in the Portland area? I loved them the first couple of years I'd tried them and now for years all of the local ones I can find aren't worth eating. I don't think it is just a change in my palate. I recently started using my refractometer and discovered that our typical honeycrisp is 11 or 12 brix!

An enjoyable Opal measured 16 or 17. As did Envy which was pretty good but perhaps a bit insipid.

Fuji seems to have gone the same way as Honeycrisp. They are watery and bland, sometimes starchy green tasting.

Tony

Maybe Honeycrisp is overhyped and over planted. Here, very warm weather just before it ripens seems to turn it into an average apple with amazing crunch, but inadequate brix. Washington ruined Red Delicious so maybe they are in the process of ruining Honeycrisp. It was bred in Minnesota after all.

Most people prefer bland sweet flavors like Honeycrisp. Most of them don't grow apples and haven't tried many apples. I didn't particularly like apples until I started trying different kinds of apples at tastings and found some, like Karmijn da Sonnaville and GOldrush, that have lots of flavor. Honeycrisp is also a much bigger apple = more profit and more advertising/publicity. Part of the point of this site is for growers to share ideas. It's ok if one like Goldrush better and one likes Honeycrisp better, but there is no obvious superior, etc. apple. It's just a preference.
John S
PDX OR

Scott

It is a good feeling to grow the best fruit you've ever tasted.

I confess I'm not looking forward to the future of all the controlled varieties, some of them might even be amazing. Hopefully more "open" breeding efforts will eventually get going to fight the trend.

Scott

At any rate, my Goldrush nearby has never suffered this kind of injury (or calcium deficiency) and the vast majority of the crop is sound enough for long term storage season after season, knock on wood.

Neither was nearly as good as my Ginger Gold at 16.4 brix and sweet/tart this yr. I'm not saying GG is that great most yrs just that I haven't found the others to be very good at all from the store. Most HC from store have been 10 brix crud.