Maybe someone has in idea about these apples. I saw the tree while walking the dogs in my neighborhood. It's a big neglected tree with lots of apples on the ground in the road. I picked one up from the curb - not in the owners yard - took it home, washed it and sliced it. It's a nice sweet/tart flavor with floral flavors. Probably some standard apple, I would guess, and not a new variety based on the large tree size. The apples are small but I guess most likely due to overbearing.
The flesh turns brown rather quickly but I ate it quickly too.
Just curious about potential variety. Nice to have ripe apples in mid July. I googled on striped apples but most of the images did not state variety. I saw Gala has stripes but is it ripe this early?
I’d say Jafar got it. I had a ninety year old Gravenstein, and a couple more on my former place. During an HOS tour, some of our senior members were excited about my ‘strain’ of Gravenstein apples, “This is an old tree, you don’t see this kind of striping on the newer forms of Gravenstein,” said one member. "I've always thought their flavor's better than the newer ones," said another.
In an effort to obtain a ‘Red Gravenstein,’ the newer Grav’s have a mottled look and appear to have lost their stripes ... and I wouldn’t call them “red.” So younger members may only have seen the ‘newer sports’ and be unfamiliar with the old-time Grav's.
Gravensteins are biennial bearers, if you don’t thin hard (real hard) during a heavy set, you’ll see very few apples the following year; the pattern can be broken though with that severe thinning. They're triploids, needing pollen from two other sources to accommodate that extra chromosome. And they bloom early, so finding pollinators blooming at the correct time can be tricky. I'd grafted on limbs of Yellow Transparent, and Summer Red's for pollinators, very early apples as well.
The fruit is highly susceptible to scab, but develops a waxy sheen with age. But with age comes the mellow texture of a 'summer apple.' So crisp-off-the-tree was my favorite! They've short stems - so will push themselves off and fall very easily ... the deer loved that! Some long-time members had said "They don't make good juice." I was able to dispel that myth at an HOS picnic with several gallons of fresh Gravenstein juice; their sweet-tart blend is a natural for juice!
...I miss them.. As vigorous a tree as any, they're hard to keep small. A couple branches grafted to another vigorous variety might work well. Or, often the owners would be fine if you 'kept them from dropping' by picking (getting rid of) them... Growing up on a small city lot in SE Portland, my Dad had a way of finding, then 'hustling' fruit! He'd ask the homeowner, and I don't think he was ever turned down. ...but now you've got me wanting another Grav 
Thanks for the responses Jafar and Viron.
I'm almost too shy to knock on somebody's door to ask for some apples or scion, but I might still do that. I walked the dogs past there again today. Most of the apples on the ground are green, but I picked up another stripy one by the curb. The tree can clearly afford to contribute a pencil sized scion. 🙂
I have room / energy, maybe, for one more apple tree. I think this will be the one. What beautiful apples. It's a crime to breed out the stripes for a redder skin.
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
1 Guest(s)