Opal apples

[castanea]

I just ate one of these for the first time. What a nice, sweet, tangy, crisp apple! Far better than Honeycrisp which is sweet and crisp without much flavor.


www.fruitnet.com/content.aspx?cid=6137


As far as I can tell, it's not available to nurseries yet.

[canadamike]

Castanea, can i suspect here a non fan of ''DELICIOUS'' ?

Gosh man, relax, you got to learn that bland is the HIP thing ;D ;D ;D

I think we are on a quite similar page taste wise. However, I have had Honeycrisp at the store and it suits your description, and I had it fresh from the tree in an ''almost'' organic orchard, and frankly we are not talking about the same apple.

I am not the best judge of apples. Unless they are all sweet , which means bland to me, I kind of always find happiness and I am forgiving if there is some acidity. Anyway, it is not like potatoes where you ask for a second helping, you eat one at a time..then it will be later...

I do, however, in taste tests, appreciate more the best ones of the day, see a difference intaste, always on the tart side for me with lingering sweetness. But the best ones of today might be the duds of tomorrow, I am easy.

Apples fascinate me. I never eat a lot of them, but love them. And I am kind of a prostitute when it comes to apple ''fidelity''.

Please do not ask me for my favorite one, the names will always change according to either the mood or the memories that come up that day..although Golden Russet....or Sweet Bough...

[castanea]

For a modern apple, Opal is very good. I wouldn't rate it alongside the beter heirlooms. Opal is sweet AND tangy which is very nice. I've had lots of Honeycrisps from three of four different states, and haven't had one yet that was remarkable. It's not a bad apple but it's not memorable to me. It doesn't begin to compare to Arkansas Black either.

[mnjrutherford]

I've never had an Opal, but last year at our state fair I tried an Arkansas Black and I confess that I discovered it to be rather sour and unpleasant. We have 2 apple trees at the moment. One is Winesap and one is one of those 5 in 1 mail order apples. It was the last gift my husbands father ever gave him, he has since passed. Read this as, "I wound not have bought it but it's out there growing and will probably produce fruit this year."

Anyway, I'm intrigued by the name... I've never tried a Honeycrisp either. Are these trees you are growing?

[castanea]

Arkansas Black tends to be a little sour/tart when freshly picked and can be really sour/tart if picked too early, but even then it stores really well and mellows nicely. If someone likes tart apples they only need to eat it soon after picking. If someone else doesn't, just wait and it will mellow out. It is also a very dense, very hard apple although it does soften a bit in storage. I don't grow any apples right now but if I could grow only one, it would be Arkansas Black.

Honeycrisp grows well in the north and has been heavily promoted in recent years. It's a good apple but to me it's not the great apple that many people claim it to be. The hype surrounding it is remarkable and somewhat obnoxious. It is sweet and crisp and stores well but in my opinion needs a lot more flavor. I can eat 2 or 3 Arkansas Blacks in a row. I have a hard time finishing one Honeycrisp.

From wikipedia:
Honeycrisp (Malus domestica 'Honeycrisp') is an apple cultivar developed at the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station's Horticultural Research Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Designated in 1974 as the MN 1711, and released in 1991, the Honeycrisp, once slated to be discarded, has rapidly become a prized commercial commodity, as its sweetness, firmness, and tartness make it an ideal apple for eating raw. The Honeycrisp also retains its pigment well and boasts a relatively long shelf life when stored in cool, dry conditions.

I want to try the variety Coconut Crunch which is supposed to be as dense as Arkansas Black, but it's hard to find. Only a few nurseries even carry the scion wood. A cross between Arkansas Black and Coconut Crunch would be interesting.

[mnjrutherford]

Dense and hard, ridiculously hard, are certainly descriptors for the apple I tried! This was early October so I would imagine they were fresh picked. I had never heard of apples taking advantage of a curing season. That is certainly a new one on me. I might be willing to put AB back on my "want" list now that I know I could acquire something other than sour bricks in the long term! If I recall correctly, my teeth were sore after trying to eat it!

[castanea]

The fresh ones really can be that hard. I usually don't even think about eating them until November.

[canadamike]

MJ, many apples get much better in storage. All the storage cultivars

Some here can keep for 6 months or more. There is a french pear you could grow where you live ( I can't here) called PASSE CRASSANE, that starts to be good in March. To the french it is the caviar of pairs. It is the most prized and expensive one. »And lets face it, having fresh gourmet fruits in the dead of March is not a bad thing... and french are very serious about pears, it is ''their'' fruit.

[mnjrutherford]

Passe Crassane? Wonderful. So, it's harvested in the fall (September October right?) but you would not eat it until late winter or early spring? This would be wonderful! I adore pears, but we haven't really done much with them because Mike was more into the apples, and it just has not be on the priority list.

However, this was the first year to try pears. I requested and recieved red pear and sucre vert scion wood. I regret (SERIOUSLY regret) that I must report that all of my grafts failed. I won't go into details. However, I now have 10 lovely pear root stocks. I figure that by next year or possibly the year after the root stocks will be large enough that I can do a wedge graft. The type of graft where you cut straight across the "trunk" of the stock, then insert 2 wedge cut scions. I'll be practicing like crazy between now and then with all my forest trees.

I'll have to check GRIN to see if they have the Passe Crassane. If they don't have it, maybe BioRag will have it. There are few things to compare to a spring day and bitting into a pear so wet with juice that it floods your mouth and hand sending cascades of juice flowing brilliantly down ones arm and chin...

[castanea]

GRIN has it: PI 131662

"Raised from mixed seed sown by M. Boisbunel, Rouen, France, 1845. First fruited in 1855. Fruit medium to large in size, globular or bergamot in form. Skin thick, very tough, pale green or creamy yellow at maturity, slight tendancy to russet but usually fairly clear. Flesh white, moderately fine, some grit at the center, buttery but not melting, fairly juicy. Sweet, rich, sprightly flavor, rates high in dessert quality when properly grown and handled. Late keeper, slow to ripen, unusually long shelf life. Said to be the most popular late pear in France at the present time. Skin probably too tough to satisfy American consumers. Tree vigorous and productive, with lusty, dark green foliage, desirable orchard form. Fairly susceptible to blight. -- H. Hartman, Oregon Agr. Experiment Station, 1957.

This is usually regarded by the French, for whom the pear is the queen of fruit, as the finest late winter dessert pear and commands the highest prices in the Paris market. Here it has been variable in quality depending on the season, but two out of four seasons has ripened to the superb flavor and perfection of specimens eaten in Paris restaurants. It must be grown in fertile, well watered soil, and picked as late as possible -- at the very end of the growing season. Ripening indoors with care it is probably at its best in March. Large or very large with a fat, roundish cylindrical shape tapering at the stem, rough greenish brown skin becoming yellowish brown when ripe, often covered with brilliant purple and red spots. Its flesh is white and juicy. Vandendael in the modern work 'Fruits' comments on its 'exquisite flavor with a slightly anise after taste.' -- Robert Nitschke, Southmeadow Fruit Gardens Catalog, 1976."

Southmeadow Fruit Gradens still has it listed:

www.southmeadowfruitgardens.com/FruitTreeCatalog.html

[mnjrutherford]

That does it! I MUST start writing down my WANT list along with sources! Thanks for taking the time to look that up for me! I really appreciate it. ;D

The description is fabulous. Oh, Michel? We SPANIARDS, are also rather fond of pears.

[wildseed57]

This spring I was given ten cuttings of mixed heritage apple varieties, I have never done any grafting, but wanted some better apples than just Gala and Golden Delicious which was the only two other than Red Delicious and Jonathan that they offered at the only near by tree nursery. Out of ten I three take out of five on the second tree and two on the first that I grafted. To give you a Idea as my taste in apples run, two that did make it were Calville Blanc D' Hiver and the other was Bell De Boskoop. the others I can't remember right off hand as these two were ones that I was really hoping I had grafted right. I like apples with attitude that says Hello with each bite.
Just like many produce some apples especially Red Delicious have been breed to ship well and look pretty and that is about all to them, Next year I plan to cut out the ones that I lost do to me not knowing how to graft them right in the first place. I will be ready with the right tools like a good knife that will make good clean cuts. Having a yard that is mainly devoted to a garden limits the amount of dwarf and simidwarf trees that I can have with out giving up my garden. I have two peach trees and one plum which I regrete buying, although I happen to like plums. As the apple trees are not resistant to Cedar rust and Fire blight I have to keep them sprayed and hope for the best. This year too I had to move the plum tree and the gala apple as we inlarged the Garden and the two trees along with a very large Elderberry bush was now in the way, despite the move both trees did bare fruit, and the gala is doing very well and the cuttings I grafted to it are looking good.
I have tried the Arkansas black and because it has a long keeping time it was pretty hard,I think it would make a better apple for making hard cider or blended to make a schnapps from.
George W. Z5-6 Mo.

[mnjrutherford]

I have finally gotten back to checking GRIN on the Passe Crassane:

# Passe Crassane = PI 131662 (441.001) - Pyrus communis L.
- Virus Lab Assays - Negative: TOMRSV-1986
- Virus Biological Assays - Negative: NP-1985 PV-1984 VC-1989, Uncertain: MM-2001
- Traits: DIPLOID (flow cytometry), HEIRLOOM

# Passe Crassane = PI 131662 (441.002) - Pyrus communis L.
- Virus Lab Assays - Negative: PBCVd-2000
- Virus Biological Assays - Negative: MM-2002 NP-1992 PV-1992
- Traits: VERY LATE RIPE, FIRE BLIGHT SUSCEPTIBLE, VIRUS INDICATOR, COMPACT, FROST RESISTANT, QUINCE COMPATIBLE, MONOLINIA RESISTANT, HEIRLOOM

# Passe Crassane Rouge = PI 131663 (445.001) - Pyrus communis L. - VIRUS INFECTED
- Virus Lab Assays - Positive: PBCVd-1995 Viroid-2009
- Virus Biological Assays - Negative: MM-1997 NP-1988 PC-1984 PV-1985 VC-1992
- Traits: VERY LATE RIPE, FIRE BLIGHT SUSCEPTIBLE, QUINCE COMPATIBLE, COMPACT

hmmm... apple schnapps? Now that sounds interesting! Since we have only one apple left... and it's claim to life is tenuous at best, I doubt we will get around to schnapps. Maybe a few years from now though.
Because we know we have fire blight, I think that only the first accession, PI 131662, MIGHT be possible for us here.
I am also looking at the root stock. There are quite a few that are FB resistant. IF I used a resistant root stock, how would that affect the graft's resistance?

[wildseed57]

I'm not a expert, and there are some that must be. i think the cuttings that you want to graft would have to be as resistant as the root stock maybe more if you didn't want to spray. some of the really good heritage varieties are not resistant at all, so you would end up having to spray. I would love to get some rootstock and cuttings to do some more grafting with I know that the USDA Grin has quite a few really good apple varieties.
George W.