It is getting late to be pruning but still is not too late. One year I pruned too late in the Spring and got no apples that season. Not good.
From the before and after photos you can see signs of pruning but you'll have to look for it. I am working on bringing the trees' height down and thinning branches to let the sun in all parts of the tree. My trees is certainly are not pruned back like some of my neighbor's trees which seem to be little more than a few main thick branches.
After I pruned my trees I went for a bicycle ride. During my ride I saw another neighbor a mile or so down the road out pruning their fruit trees.
The first tree produces yellow apples which are sweet and wonderful for eating. They are soft, bruise very easily and don't keep long. They do not make good pies. These apples ripen early in the season and they finish up by the time my other apple tree starts to ripen enough to be used in pies.I don't know the variety. I have never seen them anywhere outside of my tree. I was told they are called "translucent" but I could not find this variety anywhere on the internet.
The closest I could find is the "silken" variety. I notice the 'silken' variety originally came from British Columbia which makes sense for an apple that does well here. The problem is that apparently this variety was created in the 1990s, far too late as my trees have been around since at least the 1970s.
The second tree produces pie apples as the apples are tart. I found that after a long time they will eventually sweeten enough that they could be eaten. I don't know the name of this apple. Again I have not seen them outside of my tree.
4 comments:
Could the Translucent apples really be the Transparent apple? We have customers at our farm stand who talk about the apple (we don't grow any) but it sounds a lot like the one you are talking about.
You're right. I believe transparent is the word I should have used when I wrote my post instead of saying 'translucent'.
I read up on Yellow Transparent apples and some web site descriptions describe my apple and other site descriptions don't quite match up. I don't see how these apples could ever be used for pies as some sites claim. My apples go from green to yellow and once ripe are only good for eating or applesauce.
None of our customers have ever mentioned using Transparent for pies...they claim it makes one of the best applesauces. We don't have the trees so I have to take their word for it.
Yes, transparent apples are very good for applesauce or eating. I've done both with them. Once I tried to use them in a pie and that did not turn out well.
I've also found that yellowjackets and hornets love transparent apples. They eat so much they sometimes can't fly.
The disadvantages of transparent apples are that they bruise easily and have a short shelf life.
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