Thanks @Pacnorwest for the interesting article. I used to be a member of Oregon's "Home Orchard Society". Each year, they had a scion exchange, hundreds of old varieties. It's the only way I had to taste those historic apples - to take scion home, graft them, and grow and eat my own fruit. Another source is Fedco in Maine. Several of mine were varieties, bought as scion, from there. To be honest, some are delicious and some are mealy and bland, or hard and astringent, or very disease-prone. In the US, apples were originally grown more to make hard cider, than for fresh eating. I can see why a homeowner would stick to modern ones. Still, I enjoy very much my Jonathan, Jonagold, Liberty, Gravenstein, Jonathan, and Airlie's Red Flesh (an Oregon variety) as well as some others. The article discusses the old English variety, Cox's Orange Pippin. I have a sport of that, called "Queen Cox". It's very good. It also mentions triploid apples, which have three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two. For some reason, triploids seem to be bigger, tastier, sweeter, more vigorous, and more disease resistant. Jonagold, Liberty, and Gravenstein are all triploid. Apples are a fascinating topic. I've read numerous books about historic apple varieties.
Daniel You’re very welcome . Apples have a huge history of crosses and types and a lot of literature about so many varieties. Reading about apples is a very interesting read . You have a nice apple orchard and they are very well manicured for good production . The Oregon orchard society is a great way to find popular varieties of apples grown in the PNW. You have a nice set up for apples and easy to pic and grafted on good stock. After a visit to The Portland World Forestry Center I was hooked on trees. Instantly inspired to collect all types of trees which included one apple , cherry and plum.
