Steady Progress Being Made by Way of New Apple Varieties
December 12, 2022 
‘SnapDragon’ exemplifies a newer apple variety that fills in a hole during the harvest season. Photo courtesy of Crunch Time Apple Growers
Bill Pitts lives to give advice on apple varieties. After spending 42 years with Wafler Nursery in New York state, the newly retired nurseryman this spring opened his own business, Bill Pitts Consulting and Tree Sales.
“I started it just out of a need to stay kind of busy after working pretty steady for my whole life,” Pitts says. “And it’s turned out pretty good.”
Pitts also works as the Horticultural Consultant with the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA), which produces apple varieties for U.S. and Canadian growers. Here he speaks to the positives and negatives of several newer varieties available through MAIA, Crunch Time Apple Growers, and Cornell University:
‘Evercrisp’: “It has been planted in our area quite a bit and is becoming a commercial variety. It had a tough time taking off a little bit, but I like it because it’s sweet and it’s crispy. The good part about it is that it’s late and out of the season, but the bad part about it is that it’s late and out of season. For U-pick, it’s extremely late, but some of the U-pick guys have actually got some people coming back in that are interested in it.”
‘Rosalee’: “I like this variety. I think it’s going to be a good U-pick apple. Commercially, I think it’s got too thin a
skin, because when you run it over a packing line, it doesn’t do very well. It bruises quite easily. It is a good keeper. I do like the flavor of it. It gets this floral flavor to it. It’s very easy to eat; light and airy like ‘Honeycrisp’. It comes out about two weeks after ‘Golden Delicious’.”
‘Sweet Zinger’: “This is also a couple weeks after ‘Golden Delicious’. It is a ‘Goldrush’ cross, so it has that ‘Goldrush’ flavor. It does have a little bit better texture than ‘Goldrush’, but it’s hard and sweet. It’s a yellow apple. Yellow stays yellow down south sometimes, but it does get a blush up here in the north, and sometimes we can get 50% color.”
‘Ludacrisp’: “This is one of the newer ones. Quite a few people have planted some trees; only two or three have planted quite a few trees for commercial. It has a unique flavor; probably the most flavorful apple I know of. It’s got three flavor esters in it, so different people try this apple, and they get all different flavors from them. I personally am not really fond of it off the tree because it is kind of tart, but then after a couple weeks it melts out and gets these unique flavors to it.”
There’s something to it with sweet cider, too. We’ve also made some hard cider out of it, and that’s been very impressive. Some of the flavor esters have come through in the hard cider. Not that you want to plant varieties for hard cider, but I think this is a pretty good one for that.”
‘Sweet MAIA’: “This is the newest one. It’s a ’Winecrisp’ cross and comes extremely early at ‘Zestar!’ time. The good part about that is that’s before everything else, but some people are also spraying some ReTain (Valent BioSciences) on it to drag it out. You can drag this thing out even into the ‘Honeycrisp’ time. It will hang on the tree; it doesn’t fall. It’s not an apple you want to store for a long time. I think it loses flavor around Christmastime, but don’t forget it’s also picked in August. It does grow a tall, nice tree. I think it’s going to take off and be pretty good, but it’s got a way to go. But with pick-your-own farm markets, I think it’s right up their alley.”
‘Summerset’: “This comes at ‘Honeycrisp’ time. On the nursery end of things, I said, ‘Nah, this isn’t going to fly.’ The tree wants to grow. It’s very strong growing in the nursery, so you need to put it on weaker rootstocks. But I like it. I like the flavor better than ‘Honeycrisp.’ I’m not a big ‘Honeycrisp’ fan — I like the texture and stuff — but the flavor in this apple is like ‘Honeycrisp’. It’s a little bigger. It gets pretty good color, and it doesn’t seem to get the bitter pit as much; nothing like ‘Honeycrisp’.”
‘Crunch-A-Bunch’ and ‘Baker’s Delight’: ‘Crunch-A-Bunch’ is a yellow apple that comes just after ‘Golden Delicious’. ‘Baker’s Delight’ is a ‘Sweet 16’ and ‘Goldrush’ cross that ripens just after ‘Honeycrisp’.
‘SnapDragon’ and ‘RubyFrost’: “These New York varieties were clubbed by Crunch Time Apple Growers. They have opened them up to people to buy into it. It’s quite a chunk of money, so if you’re looking for 50 trees or 100 trees, it’s not worth it. ‘SnapDragon’ does bloom middle season, but it comes about a week before Golds. I think this is a great variety because it’s a good fit. With all these new varieties, this kind of fits right in the harvest window, where MAIA doesn’t have varieties yet that are coming out in that time. I like ‘RubyFrost’. I don’t like the apple off the tree — it’s a little too tart for me again — but it does mellow out. It’s one of my favorite apples in March and April. It’s one of the most sensitive fire blight varieties that I know of, so be very careful. After the tree gets to be three or four years old, it seems to calm down.”
‘Pink Luster’, ‘Firecracker’, ‘Cordera’ (Cornell University): “They’re open to everybody. I do like ‘Pink Luster’. It’s attractive. It’s probably the best one out of this bunch. I like the way it is crispy and crunchy off the tree. It’s medium-sized, and it does harvest around ‘Gala’ time. The ‘Firecracker’ is a little later, just before Golden. I think it’s just a hard cider variety. It has a lot of flavor, but it russets up pretty good. ‘Cordera’ is the disease-resistant one that comes just after ‘Honeycrisp’. It is low vigor. You need to step it up with the rootstock on that one. It gets a little bitter pit. It blooms late, but it hangs on the tree. I think there’s a possibility in organic situations where that would be good.”
“Big Three” commercial options: “The ‘Gala BL-14’ is a regular-season ‘Gala’, and then there’s ‘Wildfire Gala’, which is a very early ‘Gala’ that’s earlier even than ‘Zestar’. With ‘Honeycrisp’, most everybody’s planting ‘Royal Red’, ‘Roseland Red’, and ‘Firestorm’, three of the redder strings. In ‘Fuji’, ‘Fuji Supreme’ and ‘Aztec’ are the ones people are planting.” Other possibilities, according to Pitts, are ‘Pink Lady Barnsby’ and ‘Rising Sun Fuji’.
Other pick-your-own options: “‘Pixie Crunch’ is just after ‘Honeycrisp’. Quite a few Midwest pick-your-owns have got this variety in, and they do fairly well. This is a smaller apple. It’s not a big one, but it’s been good for kids’ lunch boxes. It’s a real sweet apple and crisp. There’s not too many ‘Kindercrisp’ out there, but I have hosted quite a few questions. ‘Crimson Crisp’, I’m not going to spend a lot of time with that because most people know what ‘Crimson Crisp’ is now. The new one out of Adams County Nursery is ‘Ruby Rush’. I don’t know anything about this apple. I put it there because there has been some questions about it, and I think it fits maybe in there in the picking range. ‘Barnsby Pink Lady’ is an earlier ‘Pink Lady’ that comes in maybe two or three weeks after ‘Goldens’. It brings the people in the north here, they can pick pink ladies now.”
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