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 States ..." -- Alexis de Tocqueville





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