In further defense of Liberty, it is a cool-climate apple like
McIntosh, hence does best where McIntosh grows and colors best.
(Although I have seen some very nice Liberty from northern NJ.) Yes,
it will be small unless thinned adequately but responds to BA
applications during the thinning window. Very consistent cropper from
year to year. Short harvest window (less than one week), but when it
is right, it does have a very good tart-sweet flavor and good
texture. ReTain will improve the harvest window length and quality in
storage. Makes very good fresh cider by itself or as an ingredient.
(Depending on your taste for certain kinds of cider.) Makes a very
good pie. And yes, a curculio magnet -- which may make it very useful
as a 'trap tree' for monitoring.
:-)
Jon
Jon Clements
Extension Tree Fruit Specialist
UMass Cold Spring Orchard
393 Sabin Street
Belchertown, MA 01007
VOICE 413.478.7219
FAX 413.323.0382
IM mrhoneycrisp
Skype Name mrhoneycrisp
On Mar 28, 2007, at 3:57 PM, Steve Demuth wrote:
Bill,
First a caveat: I am not a professional grower, so my standards
probably differ from those who have to sell apples for a living.
I have Liberty on Bud9, and MM111/M9 interstems. I use most of my
crop for drying - Liberty's texture in the ten days or so before it
is truly ripe is firm enough, but not too firm, and the flavor when
dried is quite nice. I also make quite a bit of unfermented juice
from the smaller end of the crop.
As for eating and storing: they are firm and tart enough that I
like them, but they certainly are not spectacular.
On the technical plus side, they have been reliable annual bearers
for me, and the scab resistance is very beneficial for me. On the
technical minus side, Liberty is hard for me to get to size well,
and they seem to be an absolute magnet for plum curculio (anyone
else seen this, or is it just my imagination?).
Pristine is simply as good an early August apple as I've ever been
able to grow. Technically, its one drawback is that it doesn't
hang particularly well. I have them on Bud9, and no irrigation (in
NE Iowa), and I think that water and heat stress in late July
really hits this combination rather hard, causing me to lose a lot
of fruit in the 2 weeks or so before they are ripe.
At 06:05 AM 3/28/2007, you wrote:
Steve
I've been growing Liberty and Pristine for about 10 years on B9
for evaluation in northern Illinois. It's taken awhile to
appreciate them. But last year we had a very nice crop of
Pristine. For the first time, I really enjoyed them. Flavor was
great, flesh color and texture were very good for such an early
apple (second week of August). I gave quite a few away and people
were very fond of them. But Liberty has not developed the culinary
quality I would want in a fresh apple. What are the
characteristics of Liberty that you find compelling?
Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center
www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html
The apples I rely most on are all products of breeding
programs, and the two I would most loath giving up are PRI
varieties: Liberty and Pristine.
Steve Demuth
Decorah, Iowa
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Steve Demuth
Decorah, Iowa
"Various forms of religious madness are quite common in the United
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