Most Reliable / Consistent Bittersharp?

[richard....@idyll-acres.com]

Looking to hear what people think about bittersharps in the orchard. Those of you with lots of growing experience, what has been the most consistent bittersharp variety, producing regular annual crops with reasonable yields? Anything?

Thanks,

Richard

[ka...@kabri.net]

Here on the Olympic Peninsula of WA the variety that do outstanding for us are Porter’s Perfection and Kingston. Porters is strictly biennial so far but Kingston does have a small crop in off years. Collaos also grows and produces  well but not very tannic (Spanish cider apple) 

On Oct 12, 2021, at 11:02 AM, richard....@idyll-acres.com <richard....@idyll-acres.com> wrote:

Looking to hear what people think about bittersharps in the orchard. Those of you with lots of growing experience, what has been the most consistent bittersharp variety, producing regular annual crops with reasonable yields? Anything?

Thanks,

Richard

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[Nick MacLean]

I'm in a rain shadow on the columbia river in Oregon. Of the bittersharp apples I grow, Puget Spice is extremely productive and consistent. However, with the small amount of water I give my trees the apples are very small and annoying to pick. Domaines has been a productive apple that is bittersharp some years and bittersweet in others. Collaos has been very good, but it ripens quite late for me. Interestingly, Roxbury Russet came in as bittersharp last year, but it's definitely borderline. I'm really liking Domaines more and more each year, very low fuss and consistent on mm111.

Nick

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

Le mardi 12 octobre 2021 à 14:02:01 UTC-4, richard....@idyll-acres.com a écrit :

Looking to hear what people think about bittersharps in the orchard. Those of you with lots of growing experience, what has been the most consistent bittersharp variety, producing regular annual crops with reasonable yields? Anything?

I think you ought to say where you intend to grow these apples... A successful variety in one location may be a complete failure in another location...

[rhand...@rockisland.com]

Several varieties come to mind and I have grown all of them for 20+ years. Foxwhelp, they ripen early but you are going find a truer to type than the Fauxwhelp some of us have planted. Browns Apple, biennial from the start, but they are heavy producers when they do. Other than be sharp I do not find them particularly interesting. Porters Perfection harvest late and contrary to Karen’s post mine are annual and consistent  producers. San Juan Island, WA.

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[Dick Dunn]

Following on to Rich's note, just a couple comments:
I find Brown's to be a kinda-boring sharp, OK if you need the acid (which I
don't particularly). Also, I don't get any real bitter in my Brown's. But
overall, agree with Rich there.

Porter's Perfection for me are serious bittersharps, plus good character.
I use them with caution because they can overwhelm with tannin, at least as
they grow here (about a thousand miles SE and five thousand feet up from
Rich:-). I don't know about the tannin levels at lower elevations, but it
seems that Colorado Cider has found similar strong tannins in Colorado;
they have one blend which is notable for the effect of the Porter's.

Also, if you're showing samples at a fest, and tweaking people's curiosity,
it's great to have a few Porter's with fused fruits on show.

But, with the caution about not going overboard, I'd recommend a few
Porter's.

On Tue, Oct 12, 2021 at 07:35:30PM -0700, rhand...@rockisland.com wrote:
> Several varieties come to mind and I have grown all of them for 20+ years. Foxwhelp, they ripen early but you are going find a truer to type than the Fauxwhelp some of us have planted. Browns Apple, biennial from the start, but they are heavy producers when they do. Other than be sharp I do not find them particularly interesting. Porters Perfection harvest late and contrary to Karen???s post mine are annual and consistent producers. San Juan Island, WA.
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Dick Dunn rc...@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA

[Les Price]

To keep to the point of production, my experience here in western Washington has been that Kermerien and Frequin Rouge have produced regular heavy crops every year. Kingston Black requires work to maintain annual cropping. Most  the other varieties I grow are bittersweets or just sharps but several do suffer from biennial bearing. 

None of the Crab varieties I grow are subject to biennial bearing. The now named Puget Spice Crab is an excellent cider crab and produces prolifically every year.

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