This is badly needed! Gravensteins are some of the tastiest Summer apples around. We just finished pressing 10 bushels of gravs, the juice is out of this world.
The chill comment is interesting, but it seems most apples aren't as chill sensitive as people think they are. Gravensteins are not an apple you want to grow in a hot Summer climate like the Central Valley anyway unless you enjoy mealy apples. Lack of chill is already a problem in the Central valley. On apples, the symptoms are fruit that won't size up and lack of vigor. Here in the Santa Cruz mountains we have years where chill hour accumulation is inadequate, and it usually shows as lack of size and an extended harvest season. That's not a problem for a backyard gardener, but it's a killer for a commercial grower. This last Winter was a perfect example, but I am surprised as to how many apple varieties thrive even in the low chill conditions we had last Winter. The # of varieties exhibiting lack of chill symptoms is rather small, and we also had a bumper cherry crop, everything from bing to rainer and tartarians were loaded. But the problem is easy to solve anyway. Breed for low chill, end of story. ________________________________ From: Daniel Cooley <dcoo...@microbio.umass.edu> To: Apple-Crop <apple-crop@virtualorchard.net> Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:46:59 AM Subject: Apple-Crop: A different kind of West Coast apple Thought you all might be interested in this story. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-apple20-2009aug20,0,1483053.story ________________________________________________________ Daniel R. Cooley Dept. of Plant, Soil & Insect Sci. Fernald Hall 103 University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 Office: 413-577-3803 dcoo...@microbio.umass.edu FAX 413-545-2115 http://people.umass.edu/dcooley/ Office location: 103 Clark Hall
