Mutsu is plagued by Pseudomonas spotting, and we 

 found none on Shizuka. Although vigorous, this will 

 be a grower-firiendly tree. Shizuka was a very nice 

 apple that should be evaluated further. 



Splendour (.**) is one of the most attractive apples 

 evaluated. The fruit is round to conic, a good cherry 

 red, with prominent tan lenticels. We evaluated this 

 starting on October 5. It improved in flavor with 

 subsequent harvests, but it never reached the top of 

 the list in flavor. The flesh is yellow white and the 

 flavor is mild and subacid. The skin is tender, thus 

 it may not be able to stand up in commercial market- 

 ing channels. It is a very grower-friendly tree. 



Spigold (***). We did not evaluate Spigold for- 

 mally because we have already decided that this is 

 one of the best apples available. It is large, some- 

 what unattractive, and tends to bitter pit. We 

 believe that it is destined only for a niche market, but 

 what a wonderful tasting apple! It can be very 

 biennial. 



Sumac (**) was one of the first apples to be evalu- 

 ated in the season. It is small and quite unattractive. 

 We rated flavor quite high, but considering every- 

 thing, we would prefer AA 63 to Sumac for an apple 

 this early in the season. 



SuncrUp™ (New Jersey 55) (**t). We made 

 our lastharvestof mostapples on October 19. At that 

 time NJ 55 had fair appearance, a pink red cheek, 

 and a ground color that was still green. It was quite 

 acid and had no better than average taste. The 

 remaining NJ 55 were harvested on November 4. 

 The ground color had changed and it appeared ready 

 to harvest. Although it still tasted a little tart, we 

 rated flavor very high. At that time it was a wonder- 

 ful tasting apple that appeared to have the potential 

 for quite long storage. Our major reservation about 

 this apple is that we may not have a sufficiently long 

 growing season to mature it properly. I would say 

 that it matures up to a week after Fuji. 



Tsugaru Homei (**i). On September 14 this apple 

 was not highly colored, but it had a red mottling over 

 a pinkish red. Ithas a shape similar to Spencer. The 

 apple has a good sweet, crisp, juicy, and somewhat 

 spicy taste. When evaluated two weeks later it was 

 cherry red and had developed an extremely sweet 

 spicy flavor. We believe that September 20 may have 

 been an appropriate harvest date. We do not know 

 if it has enough going for it to make it. 



Williams Pride (**t) was one of the best disease- 

 resistant apples evaluated. Fruit is large, red, and 

 irregular in shape, and the skin not smooth. It is 

 only moderately attractive but the taste is mild, 

 subdued, and slightly spicy and good. When ripe the 

 firuit is quite aromatic. Fruit show some bitterpit. 

 People who tasted Williams Pride thought that it 

 was a very good apple. This selection requires 

 further evaluation, primarily to confirm the charac- 

 terization of its flavor as good. 



Yataka (**t) was an excellent apple again this year. 

 It is truly an early maturing strain of Fuji. It ripens 

 fully two weeks ahead of other Fuji strains and it is 

 ready to eat immediately. It is not an attractive 

 apple, and it is definitely less attractive than strains 

 ofRedFuji. Flavor was rated very high. OflFthetree, 

 the taste of Yataka is better than any of the other 

 strains of Fuji. We are uncertain about its storage 

 potential. We rate Yataka quite high. 



Yoko (**). This medium-sized red apple has fair to 

 good color and attractiveness. It taste is very sweet 

 and spicy. There is russet in the calyx, similar to 

 Arlet. We do not think that it is outstanding enough 

 to compete with other apples. 



Summary 



1. Several apples were recognized from the evalu- 

 ation in 1992 as being clearly superior. These 

 include Arlet, Gingergold, Honeycrisp, Reinette 

 Simirenko, Sansa, and Suncrisp"™ (NJ 55). 

 Other apples that fall into this category but they 

 are unavailable to the general pubic for testing 

 at this time. Included in this group are the 

 British Columbia selections BC 9P-14-32, BC 

 8M-15-10, BC 17-30, and Fantazja. 



2. A second group of apples were recognized as not 

 being quite so outstanding, but they were suffi- 

 ciently good to be given a designation of Honor- 

 able Mention. These cultivars include: Akane, 

 Kinsei, Orin, Shamrock, Shizuka, and Yataka. 



3. Several disease-resistant cultivars were recog- 

 nized for their superior quality. This group 

 includes: Alkemene, Fiorina, NY 75414-1, and 

 Williams Pride. Liberty and Redfree are not 

 included on this list because they already have 

 been recognized as being good and accepted 

 disease-resistant cultivars suitable for commer- 

 cial planting. 



14 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1993 



