Apple trees in the Willamette Valley: laborious but doable with proper variety selection
Make sure you really want to fuss around with apples before planting them.
Important highlights:
-The topics covered here are: carefully considering whether apples are really right for your garden, along with variety considerations in the Willamette Valley/Western Oregon/SW Washington.
-I do not go into apple growing, pruning, thinning, etc. That information is covered adequately elsewhere.
-Depending on variety, Asian pears and European pears are the easier to grow “pome” fruits, and often just as (or more) delicious.
-Apples have multiple disease issues in our region - some of which you can avoid with proper variety selection.
-Whatever variety you choose, you will still have to contend with coddling moths and apple maggots. Unless you want to cut around all of the insect damage and have a lot of culls, you’ll need to spend a lot of time protecting each individual fruit, or figure out a hefty spray schedule.
-Rootstock selection and pruning will help you keep the apple tree from growing into an out-of-reach monster.
-Try to verify that you like the flavor of the apple prior to planting. Not all varieties are well-suited to fresh eating. And apples grown east of the cascades can taste wildly different than those grown in the west, even if they are the same variety.
-Whatever apple tree you choose need pollination tree(s). Bloom time varies and you’ll need to match the varieties. Raintree has most apple varieties in a handy chart. Note that some apples don’t pollinate other trees at all - and other trees require multiple pollinating trees!
When I first moved onto my property umpteen years ago, some of my first plantings were apple trees. I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, just ordered a few trees and plopped them into the ground. I don’t know what rootstock they were on. They grew into huge monsters that were difficult to pick. They were super buggy with apple maggots.
Most important of all: the flavor sucked. So, out they went.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’m actually super picky about apples. I like them crisp, juicy, and sweet with strong aroma. I mistakenly thought that whatever I grow at home is going to be better than what I buy at the grocery store like it is with home grown vegetables. Not so.
Many home-grown apples are better off made into sauce, butter, or baked into some sugary dessert. And while I do like to make a little sauce and butter each year as part of my shelf-stable food pantry stores, I much prefer to eat most of my fruit fresh, with the skin on.
Several years after that initial planting, I decided to try again by doing my homework and select several trees for flavor.
After those plantings, I realized that many of those selections were not disease resistant, so I’ve also planted again with a few trees selected specifically for that purpose.
In total, I’ve got 13 apple tree varieties at this time, and will update here when I get solid feel for how well they hold up. I am unlikely to keep them all given how much work protecting each fruit is.
Diseases common to apples in Willamette Valley differ from those experienced in the rest of the country.
If you browse catalogs, you will see a lot of notes about resistance to fireblight. I was surprised to learn that fireblight is not a top concern in this area. Nor is cedar apple rust, unless you’ve got incense cedars around, which are more common south of here.
The more common apple disease issues are:
Anthracnose are lesions that appear in trunks/branches that can spread to infect the whole tree. These need to be carefully pruned or cauterized out. There is rumor that some cultivars are more susceptible than others. I know of no publications offering advice in this regard - please let me know if you hear of one.
Bitterpit is a physiological disorder, possibly caused by a lack of calcium in the soil and other issues. Some cultivars are more susceptible than others.
Powdery Mildew is a disease some growers cite as an issue, which can stunt your tree and cause ripening problems. Some years are worse than others.
Scab: causes lesions on the fruits and leaves of the tree itself. If you are going to be peeling your apples, this is less of a concern. Although, a scab infection can have an overall negative impact on your trees.
Figuring out what trees are sensitive to what disease is a challenge. Cummins Nursery lists susceptibility for each of the cultivars they sell, which is a nice way to quickly check. However they do not list Anthracnose, which seems to be a major issue in this area.
Pests: are an even bigger issue here, because with very few exceptions, you cannot select trees with pest resistance.
Note: liberty is said to be somewhat pest resistant.
Apple Maggot: if you leave your trees unprotected, you are very likely to encounter this pest. You’ll need to provide a barrier - on each fruit - such as organza bags, little booties, or paper bags. That can be cumbersome with larger amounts of apples. Another option is spraying Surround, Kaolin Clay, which needs perfect timing - and you need three sprays out of a special sprayer. I don’t have experience with using it (yet). Commercial growers use all kinds of other sprays I am not familiar with. Another orchardist I know recommended a spray of spinosad - 5 times annually - for control of maggots. I hear that spinosad is toxic to bees and other insects which does not appeal to me. If apple maggots continue to be a problem, check out this video on further controls.
Coddling Moth: are larger insects, also ubiquitous in our area. My understanding is a high population of woodpeckers can help keep them in check. Control for coddling moth is again Kaolin, or barriers. Also thinning the apples so that the apples don’t touch will help keep the moths at bay.
Deer: really do like fruit trees. Lucky for me, the damage that they do seems to only be on the lowest branches, so they don’t ever cause death. The damage is the worst on the smallest trees - if I had it to do over again I wouldn’t have chosen super-dwarfs for this reason. I’m playing around with some ideas on how to protect trees while young, I’ll report back if they work. If your deer predation is high, you may have more severe issues than me and you may require fencing.
Apples grown east of the cascades taste different than apples grown on the west side. Fujis, for example, taste ok here while they taste excellent grown in the Columbia Gorge. They get both more cold and more heat, and there is likely a difference in soil terroir. So, think twice before selecting an apple solely on flavor of the apples grown outside the valley.
Ripening times: many disease-resistant apples ripen early and last only a few weeks (or days in some cases). To my palate, they don’t taste super good fresh, and are probably best cooked into something. The trouble is, August is not the time I want to be heating my home with all that cooking.
One burning question I have is: can I simply freeze the apples for making into sauce at a later time? Will report back when I know.
Variety recommendations:
I scouted for easier-to-grow, disease-resistant tree recommendations. Even with that criteria, recommendations are highly subjective. What one expert recommends may not be what another expert recommends. And there are gardeners in our area that say that Honeycrisp, Gala, Gravenstein and Fuji - all very popular apples - do wonderfully for them, but those have not made any list of recommended disease-resistant varieties by the experts.
The Home Orchard Education Center offers a wonderful class on pest and disease identification. During the class I asked the director what her experience is, and she offered the following off the top of her head as her favorites for pest and disease resistant varieties: Liberty, Macoun, McShay, Jupiter, Rauls Janette, Jona mac, Williams pride, Wynoochie. Akane is supposed to be disease resistant, but it is not so in their orchard.
OSU Master Gardeners has a recorded class on the topic of growing fruit trees. They offer a list of the easier to grow cultivars: Akane, Chehalis, Dayton, Freedom, Enterprise, Goldrush, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Nova Easy Grow, Prima, Priscilla, Pristine, Redfree, Sansa, Tydeman Red, Williams’s Pride, Wynoochie.
Avoid mildew prone Gravenstein, Braeburn, Johnathan, Rome, Newton, Granny Smith.
Queener Farm is a major provider of scions and grower of apples in the Willamette Valley. They are located about an hour south of me so haven’t had the pleasure of visiting them yet. But they have a handy-dandy site that lists “extra resilient” apples. Alkamene, Belle de Boskoop, Blairmont, Blenheim Orange, Bramley’s Seedling, Devonshire Crimson Queen, Egremont Russet, Enterprise, Erwin Bauer, Gold Rush, Hauer Pippin, Holstein, Karmin de Sonneville, Liberty, Lubsk Queen, Redfree, Ribston Pippin, Senshu, William’s Pride, Zabergau Reinette.
Washington State University has a handbook for fruit tree variety selection in our area. Disease resistant variety recommendations include: Belmac, Chehalis, Dayton, Enterprise, Liberty, Prima, Pristine, William’s Pride.
Please let me know if you come across further publications for disease resistant apples in our region.
Rootstocks:
All apple vareities are grafted onto a rootstock. Often you are stuck with whatever the nursery has chosen. There are some nurseries that give you a choice. Look for a rootstock that is disease resistant, tolerant of your soil and watering situation.
If you are considering a super dwarfing rootstock to keep the tree within bounds, remember that deer love small fruit trees the best.
What have other gardeners in the area had to say on the topic? I asked around various local facebook gardening groups, just as I had with several other fruiting plants.
Curiously, there’s a whole lot less people chiming in to what works or doesn’t work for them. With pawpaws, I got 40ish people to respond letting me know what has or hasn’t worked for them. About 20 gardeners chimed in on their experiences with mulberries.
With apples, I only got about half a dozen, which is way too small a sample to get any kind of consensus from.
The experience coming out of my personal garden is limited - and I did not write notes on the cultivars I planted and then removed. However I do recall the flavor on the columnar apple trees I grew was pretty boring. I will update feedback as my apple trees mature.
Ashmead’s Kernal: boring flavor. My tree is likely too young to evaluate appropriately.
The tastiest apple to come out of my garden so far is Hudson’s Golden Gem. I have had no disease issues so far. According to Cummins it appears disease resistant, but curiously it did not make any of the expert recommendations for disease-resistant apples. Ripens October in my garden.
I like Hatsuaki which I picked up from the Home Orchard Education Center. Any literature on this variety seems to have disappeared and I can’t remember why I chose it. Flavor/texture similar to Mutsu or Grimes Golden. Ripens September/October in my garden.
Queen Cox is good, but requires a lot of thinning to get big tasty fruit, prone to cracking, and reported to be disease problematic. Ripens in my garden September/October.
Tastings of my Centennial crabapple were bitter, but the tree is very young so too soon to evaluate. Ripens July.
My tastings from growers in the Willamette Valley are totally subjective to my palate.
Those marked with an asterisk are supposedly easier to grow according to one of the above experts. Many of these I have only tasted once, meaning that my first impression may change.
I will update as I taste more through the seasons.
*Akane: good, crisp, juicy. Available August. Some sources say disease-resistant, others say it is particularly susceptible to Anthracnose.
Alexander: meh. Had watercore. Ripens mid-season.
Braeburn: good, crisp, a little lemony. Ripens quite late.
Duchesss of Oldenberg: sour. Known as a good culinary apple, not my thing.
Fiesta: good, but a little on the tart side. Ripens mid-season.
Fortune: good flavor, skin a little thick for my liking.
Fuji: the fujis I’ve had from the valley don’t compete with those available from east of the cascades. Disease prone in our area. September/October.
Gala: September/October. The galas I’ve had on the west side of the cascades don’t compete with those grown on the east side. They are still excellent for apple butter & dried were good. Disease-prone in our area.
Golden Russet needs time to cure in the refrigerator. My notes say: I could see eating a bushel of these, very good. I do have one of these trees, but it is not a strong grower, it has yet to flower for me.
Grannysmith: did not like at all.
Gravensteins I have had from 3 growers here in the valley. This apple is hands-down my favorite for applesauce, but it is one of the first to ripen in August, a time which I really don’t want to be heating up my kitchen. Word is that this variety has weird pollination requirements and is disease-prone here.
Grimes Golden: excellent flavor and texture. Available October. Has biennial bearing tendencies. I have a baby tree and will keep you posted.
Honeycrisp: My CSA from HOEC had some super delicious honeycrisps. I was informed when I inquired about how this one performed in the orchard that this is a very difficult tree to work with and very inconsistent in setting fruit. Literature marks this as disease prone in our area.
Hudson’s Golden Gem: outstanding. Available October.
Idared: ripens mid-season. Not impressed.
Irish peach: sweet-tart, mushy. Very early.
*Jupiter I really, really liked, which is only available from The Home Orchard Education Center. According to them, this apple is very disease resistant. I can’t wait to see how this one goes for me in my garden. Available October.
*Karmin de Sonneville: buggy and soft. Did not like at all. Ripens late.
*Liberty tastings were pretty good - it is supposed to be the most bug resistant and disease resistant out there, so I’m definitely giving it a go in my garden. Available October. I have read on some sites that this tree must be mature for best flavor.
McIntosh: good, generic apple flavor. A little soft. Ripens mid-late.
*McShay: good, sweet, a little tart. Almost a creamy flavor. Ripens mid-late season.
Melrose: good, crisp. Ripens November. I did not inquire as to how this performs in the garden as I think it is too late for my shady garden anyway.
Mutsu: delicious. Ripens late.
Smoothie: tastes good, I don’t know cultivation info. I liked the flavor of the dehydrated apples. Mid-season.
Spitzenberg: flavor said to improve in storage. By December, several were quite good, others were too soft.
Stearns: good, crisp, juicy, sweet, a little tart. Available mid-season.
Stayman Winesap: delicious! Available November. I did not inquire how this one performs as I think I have too much shade to ripen this one anyway since it ripens so late.
Suntan: I liked the flavor on this one, but cultivation info is limited. Sounds like it is harder to grow. Ripens mid-late.
Whitney crabapple: I really liked the flavor of this little apple. Available August. I don’t know info on cultivation. I liked it well enough that I bought a baby tree, but, the graft did not take. I doubt I will try again as I have plenty of other fruits available in august that I like even better than this fruit. But if I were just starting out, this is one I’d consider.
*Williams Pride: definitely good flavor, but going soft very quickly, which is undesirable to me. This could have been a poor storage issue. Available August. Very disease resistant.
*Wynoochie apple: crisp, juicy, tart-sweet. Small. Good but not inspired to eat a whole bunch. Makes a decent sauce, but a little funny aftertaste. Available August. Quite diseae-resistant.
Yellow Bellflower: big, tasty, juicy, very pretty apples. I planted this one at home, it is not a strong grower and has yet to fruit. Will keep you posted.
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What’s your experience been like? Drop me a comment below.
I have four mature (over 10 years old) apple trees - Liberty, Spitzenberg, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious. I also have two crabapples - Transcendent and Whitney. Liberty and Golden Delicious are excellent for fresh eating, and yes, Liberty seems to have fewer "worms" (not sure if they're apple maggot or codling moth - I've never looked that closely) than the other apples. The Granny Smith also has fewer worms, but there are tastier cooking apples. If I'd known better 10 years ago, I wouldn't have planted it... but it's so stinkin' healthy that I'm going to use it as a base to graft other varieties rather than remove it entirely.
I had a bumper crop last year with far less worm damage than past years. I don't know if it was switching to a holistic spray regimen or getting aggressive about fruit thinning (last year I thinned out about 70% of the fruit set). I'm willing to accept some level of worm damage; I make cider, so wormy apples just go in the press. Repeating the process this year, since one data point doesn't tell me anything.
I have more trees that should bear first crops this year: Ashmead's Kernel, White Winter Pearmain, and Redstreak. Plus two baby trees just starting their third year- Pink Pearl and Golden Russet.