I have a good crop of apples this year, with four of my trees putting their heart and soul into growing apples. Most apple trees bear heavily on alternate years. Their "off" year, they may not produce any apples or just a few. Their "on" year, they are sometimes so heavily fruited that the branches seem in danger of breaking.
The Whitney crabapple tree seems to be an exception to the alternate year rule. It produces heavily just about every year. The apples from this tree were picked in late August and made into applesauce, juice, and apple butter. Even though it is a crabapple tree, the apples are large - about the size of a tennis ball - and sweet. They don't keep well, so they need to be preserved almost immediately after picking. They are good for pies, especially if used before they are fully ripe. Mom had a beautiful Whitney crab tree right at the entrance to her vegetable garden. Each summer, when the apples were fully formed but still green, we were treated to fresh baked green apple pie. Mm mm good! Whitneys are a soft apple, so have a mushy texture when ripe, which makes them perfect for applesauce.
Most other varieties of apples don't obtain their sweetness until they are chilled by the cool days and nights of fall, and can even bear a fairly hard frost without damage. Temperatures as low as 29 degrees, as long as the cold doesn't last over a period of hours, will not damage most fall ripening apples.
My Honeycrisp tree outdid itself this year. It is a young tree - only four years old- but is in its second year of production. Last year, it produced six nice, large apples. Not bad for a tree that was only five feet tall and has a trunk that's less than two inches around. This year, it was so loaded with nearly softball sized apples that we had to tie the trunk to a steel stake to hold the top branches off the ground. Honeycrisp is a relatively new variety of apple, developed by the University of Minnesota in the 1960's and available for planting in home orchards for only the last few years. Officially, Honeycrisp trees are still listed as "in trial" for North Dakota, but so far mine seems to be very hardy, disease resistant, and a good producer. Honeycrisp apples are crisp, sweet and juicy and can be stored for six to seven months in a cool place. My baby tree produced two five gallon buckets full of nice, large apples and I am going to enjoy every one of them!
Next came the Haralred tree. Haralson and Haralred are essentially the same type of apple tree. Haralson apples were developed by the University of Minnesota in the early 1900's, specifically to be hardy enough to withstand the harsh winter climate of Minnesota and North Dakota. The Haralred is what's called a "sport" of the Haralson. A sport is a plant mutation that suddenly produces a new plant that is similar but different from the parent plant. If the sport produces a desirable plant, it can be propagated vegetatively to produce a new variety. The Haralred produces apples that are a deeper, more uniform red than the Haralson and also tends to ripen a little earlier than the parent plant. Both the Haralson and the Haralred produce a medium sized apple that has a nice firm texture, is moderately sweet, and keeps for four to six months. Both are proven hardy varieties for North Dakota winters. My Haralred yielded a full bushel of apples. The Haralson did not produce any apples this year. I think it is quite considerate of them to work out this nice schedule...they make the best pies, but even I don't need two trees full of apples for pies.
The final picking was what I call my "bird poo" apple tree. It's a tree that started in the very corner of one of my flower gardens about 5 years ago. A bird conveniently dropped the seed in a location where I wanted a tree anyway, so I just let it grow. Last year, it produced a few apples that were on the small side, so I still wasn't able to tell what kind of tree it might be. This year, we picked and picked and picked from that tree, until we'd filled three bushel baskets with apples. They are a nice, , medium sized apple, red with slight striping. The apples are sweet and have just a touch of a vanilla-like flavor, so I suspect it's a Sweet Sixteen.
I also have an older Sweet Sixteen apple that produced a couple apples this year. Sweet Sixteen is another very hardy apple tree developed by the University of Minnesota in the early 1970's. Sweet Sixteen is marketed to be hardy to 50 degrees below zero. The taste of the Sweet Sixteen apples is unique and very flavorful. That hint of vanilla and maybe even a slightly nutty taste make it a great apple for eating fresh, pies, applesauce - pretty much anything you want to do with an apple. The downside is that it just isn't a good keeper. You can store the Sweet Sixteens for up to two to three months, but quality declines rapidly after the first six to eight weeks.
Dakota Gold was developed by North Dakota State University in the 1960's. It's hardiness here is well proven. Dakota Gold produces large yellow fruit that is good for eating and cooking, but it stores even less well than Sweet Sixteen. My Dakota Gold tree is only in its second growth year, so no apples yet, but I'm looking forward to them in a few more years.
Hazen and State Fair are two additional varieties that are hardy in northern climates, producing nice sweet apples, however, both are poor keepers. Wodarz is a very sweet apple that does well in harsher climates and also stores well for four to six months.
Zestar is a fairly new release of the University of Minnesota that is heralded as being a "new taste" in apples, with its brown sugar overtones. While Zestar is rated as hardy to zone 3b, it's durability for climates like North Dakota hasn't been fully proven yet.
The state universities are always working on new varieties that combine the best features that people want in their home apple orchards. I'm not sure if we'll ever see commercial apple orchards in North Dakota, but we can sure grow a lot of yummy treats in our home orchards.
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