I found my Red Fuji is as good as advertised and the sweet taste remind me of Sweet Tango. So far no disease problem.

Tony

I wonder if you should wait a few more years to plant a new variety named Snapdragon. This new variety was developed by Cornell and currently are grown by NY apple farmers. It is supposed to have superior taste, flavor, and crunch.

GoldRush ripens late, and the other two ripen in September. Liberty would be another September ripening apple. If you want to extend the season, you may want to look at an early ripening apple like Williams Pride or Pristine. Both are disease resistant. Sansa is another early apple that may be interesting, and has some disease resistance. Pristine would probably be your best bet for "all purpose" apple.

Thanks all. Rob I like the idea of extending the season a little. Does anyone have any experience with wynoochee early?

I wonder if you should wait a few more years to plant a new variety named Snapdragon. This new variety was developed by Cornell and currently are grown by NY apple farmers. It is supposed to have superior taste, flavor, and crunch

Kousa...Snapdragon is a very new variety. It is going to be a lot more than a few years before you will be able to grow it in your yard...legally at least.
It is bred from Honeycrisp and what little I've been able to find about it online suggests it isn't as good as Honeycrisp. SweeTango is another such variety also bred from HC and also a new club apple. I have tried it and it is fantastic.
Us homegrowers won't be growing it anytime soon either.

My sister in law from New York said that Snapdragon tasted very good and replaced Gala as her favorite of many years. I do not think that she had tried Sweet Tango. Do you think it will take more than 3 years for these varieties to be commercially available?

Snapdragon is being released as a club variety, meaning it is not being sold to anyone not in the club of commercial growers who have signed contracts not to distribute wood and are part of an orchestrated marketing program of its fruit.

It can be released from this at any time the patent holder likes but I wouldn't hold my breath or hold off planting some other variety.

You are not starting with primarily DR varieties, only Goldrush, which resists scab but not cedar apple rust. Why are you leaning to another DR? Honeycrisp can be a very difficult apple to grow so it seems you plan to deal with some fungus adversity amongst other issues (like calcium deficiency). Not sure about Sweet 16, but it is not sold as a DR.

The idea of spreading your season is something I always like to run with. I recommend Zestar as an early variety, but if you like Macintosh type apples William's Pride is earlier and ripens over a very long period in mid to late summer. I'd say 3 to 4 weeks easy. Longest harvest period of any apple I manage. It is harder than Mac, and stays firmer in refrigeration but doesn't have that Mac crunch off the tree.

Not my favorite type of apple, but some people are crazy about it and it is one of the better early apples for sure.

I agree with HM- don't wait for Snapdragon or any of the other club varieties. It will be a while. I had some good Snapdragon in September and some iffy ones in October (from different sources). SweeTango is a very good apple- you'll want to plant it in a few decades(?) when it is released.

Sweet Sixteen is supposed to be somewhat resistant to scab. I took some notes this past September and the SS's leaves were a bit better than average, compared to the other varieties I'm growing. That's pretty good, given that I've already screened out anything which was reputed to have issues.

If you really want to spread out the season, I think you'd need some really early apples. The Zestar I've gotten from a farmers market were great, but their season is pretty close to HC and SS (maybe 2 weeks before). William's Pride or Pristine would give you almost a month and both are pretty disease resistant (including Scab). I've held off on getting Zestar, as it is supposed to be scab-susceptible, but finally decided to add it- better apples, but 2 weeks after WP and Pristine.

This post was edited by bob_z6 on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 0:28

Kousa...I have no doubt Snapdragon is a very good apple. It's Honeycrisp parentage probably assures this when bred to get HC's very favorable characteristics.

H'man, I very much doubt the patent holder (Cornell, in this case) can release the patent any time they like. I'm fairly certain some language of exclusivity was contractually assured those who joined the syndicate. I would further think that that term would be, at minimum, the longest expected life of a block of commercial trees.
I did however hear Susan Brown mention homegrowers in the context of Snapdragon, but said nothing detailed. I suspect this was nothing more than blather to quiet the rift created by the legal issues surrounding their cartel. There was at least one class-action suit brought forth over it. It settled out of court I believe.

Yeah, Appleseed, you are likely right, although farmers are not historically always the shrewdest at the legal manipulations required of civilized society.

I think the Zestar flowers earlier than Williams Pride. Does Zestar need a pollinator?

The lawsuit I mentioned was actually involving the SweeTango apple. I found an article that tells the story, but hails it as a win for the cooperative. It actually resulted (in my mind) a mutual win for all parties. I say this because it at least demonstrates that beyond being (again, in my mind) unethical practice, it is also pushing the boundries of legality. If not, there would have been nothing awarded or given to the plaintiffs. I actually read this story from another source, but cannot find it again.
Having said all that, SweeTango is a phenomenal apple. It's got the big Honeycrisp break and crunch, but a lot smaller, sweeter and overall, I think, more attractive. HC may have a bit more honey toned sweetness, but I haven't eaten enough SweeTango to be sure of that.
I know for sure if I was an aspiring apple breeder, I'd want to head to Minnesota. They seem to be batting 1000 these days, and I suspect this run will likely last for some time.

The article:
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2016256264_apussweetangoapplefight.html

The lawsuit doesn't seem to enforce your point as it is another issue entirely, isn't it? I thought you were suggesting that the patent holder wouldn't be able to cancel the patent freely because of contractual obligations to the club membership.

I don't think any forum member besides you and me could possibly care one way or another, of course. I can just see fruitnut rolling his eyes.

Yes, it won't kill any of us not to be able to plant a few new varieties, with all the choices out there. Of course, forbidden fruit is so appealing....just ask Eve! Northwoodswis

Thank you for letting me know that it will be awhile before these varieties of plants will be offered to the market. I did not know all those legalilties involved w/ these varieties and was hoping that I could grow them at home in a few years.

I am sorry, Brad as I did not mean to hijack your thread.

No worries. Go Pack!

I didn't mention it to enforce any point at all H'man.

You had it right...I was saying the patent holder couldn't cancel at any time because of contractual obligations. I don't think that point needs any reinforcing.

I posted this as a edit to my mention of a lawsuit in the original post and thought it might be interesting.

Sorry.

Why would fruitnut "roll his eyes"?

Fruitnut might roll his eyes because this has so little to do with growing high quality fruit, his obsession. Go to thread about watering after transplant, read his last comment and you will know what I mean.

Seems odd to me, people wanting to dictate what has to do with growing fruit and what doesn't in here. I've even read numerous arguments about it, especially in the climate change thread to which many of those same people contributed.

He wasn't dictating, only stating an opinion. Let's call it sharing.

No comparison to the climate thread. That one was filled with commentary not at all related to fruit growing in any way and had long since ceased even being a debate. More a platform for one side of a hot political issue that actually violated the rules of the forum enough that it was removed.

The first time that's happened here for a very long time.

I wasn't speaking of fruitnut.