Hi Everyone,
Here are some photos of the apple that I planted from seed in 2002, which I am calling "Miss Jessamine", after my daughter Jessamine (pronounced jess-a-min). I took some to the All About Fruit Show, and they got a warm reception there. I will bring some scions to the exchange in March.
I don't know apple lingo well enough to describe the taste, but I would say it is more sweet than tart, juicy, firm flesh, with medium thick skin. Color is yellow-green with a blush of pink, and a little russeting on the top by the stem. Flesh is cream colored.
I am guessing it will store well because it ripens late (I picked the last batch today, Nov. 5) and the flesh is pretty firm. I have some in the refrigerator and some in a shed, to find out how long they store in those conditions.
The tree is super healthy, with only minor scabbing here and there. I have two other trees purchased from a nursery, one is somewhat scabby and the other is completely covered with scab, so the tree has definitely been exposed to scab. I do not spray anything on my trees other than a little compost tea 2-3 times a year. The soil is heavy clay, and the tree is crowded in between a pine, a fence, and an incense cedar. I really wish I would have planted it somewhere else, but there was nothing there at the time I planted it. I plan to remove the pine and cut back the cedar to give the apple more space.
I live in Camas, Washington, just across the river from Portland (USDA zone 8b).
If you want to see how it tastes, let me know. I would also appreciate help in properly describing it.
Here are some photos:
"Miss Jessamine". Photo taken Oct. 14, 2012
Oct. 23, 2012
Picked Nov. 5, 2012. Watch included for scale (probably should have used a ruler 
)
Picked Nov. 5, 2012
Picked Nov. 5, 2012
Picked Nov. 5, 2012
Jessamine in front of the tree Oct. 27, 2012
Oct. 23, 2012
From the top of the ladder, looking down. Oct. 23, 2012
It would be an honor to taste your lovely apple. Too bad I missed it at the All About Fruit show. It would have been amusing, but unkind, to take them to the apple ID team and ask them to identify it. I'd love to hear what they'd have said.
Do you know the female parent of your apple (what variety of apple the seed came from)?
I live in the Fern Prairie area.
For your pictures, did you pick out only the nicest looking specimens, or are those pretty representative of the variation on the tree? From the ones shown it looks like you were spared from the dreaded codling moth.
Does this apple seem less to their tastes than your others?
Have you done anything with the apples aside from eating them out of hand?
[quote="jafarj":17ennupc]It would be an honor to taste your lovely apple. Too bad I missed it at the All About Fruit show. It would have been amusing, but unkind, to take them to the apple ID team and ask them to identify it. I'd love to hear what they'd have said.[/quote:17ennupc]
At the show, I first went to the Information table and told them my story. They thought it was tasty and were quite interested in my story. They sent me to the ID team to let them try it & hear the story. The ID team had a camera mounted on stand so they sliced it open & took their reference photos of it, along with my information, which I assume goes into some database. Thanks to this forum I was able to put together an ID card in the same format as all the other apples, and I gave them a bag of the apples so they could put it on the table with all the others.
Do you know the female parent of your apple (what variety of apple the seed came from)?
No, unfortunately I forgot to write it down, or I lost the note, and I don't remember. I do remember that I had never heard of it before. The main differences from the parent that I recall are 1) these have more of a blush to them, 2) the flesh is firmer, 3) the skin is just a bit thicker, 4) I don't remember seeing any russeting.
I live in the Fern Prairie area.
I work at 164th & Mill Plain, let me know if you are going to be down this way and I'll bring some for you.
For your pictures, did you pick out only the nicest looking specimens, or are those pretty representative of the variation on the tree? From the ones shown it looks like you were spared from the dreaded codling moth.
The pictures are representative. The tree produced about 120 apples this year, I think there were maybe 5 that had codling moth damage. My other trees had way more codling moth damage, though a bit less than normal. I did use nylon footies on about 10 of the apples, I couldn't reach the rest.
Does this apple seem less to their tastes than your others?
Definitely. Also way more resistant to scab. One of the guys at the show thought that this may be due to the thicker skin.
Have you done anything with the apples aside from eating them out of hand?
I have dried them, but I haven't tried anything else. What did you have in mind?
That's a very beautiful apple tree you've grown. I have a couple first year seedlings from a Granny Smith apple that I've been considering grafting onto an M-26 rootstock to hopefully improve its manageability and long-term health. But your standard tree (I'm guessing standard because your daughter looks so short in front of it) looks very nice and gives me optimism about letting them grow as standard size trees. I'd love to taste one, but I won't make you ship one to Ohio!
David, It was nice to meet you and chat with you about your fruit breeding project 
Thanks for the sample. I think Miss Jessamine has some real potential. It was better than most of my 25 or so named apple varieties that bore this year and it still had a bit of starchiness. So maybe it will get even better with a little storage or hanging a little longer on the tree.
I look forward to trying one that you've stored for a few weeks.
I'd be most gratified if you'd allow me some scion wood this February so that I can add this new variety to one of my existing trees.
[quote="jafarj":3i4ktn2t]David, It was nice to meet you and chat with you about your fruit breeding project
Thanks for the sample. I think Miss Jessamine has some real potential. It was better than most of my 25 or so named apple varieties that bore this year and it still had a bit of starchiness. So maybe it will get even better with a little storage or hanging a little longer on the tree.
I look forward to trying one that you've stored for a few weeks.
I'd be most gratified if you'd allow me some scion wood this February so that I can add this new variety to one of my existing trees.[/quote:3i4ktn2t]
Will do!
Today I did some pruning and cut a bunch of "Miss Jessamine" scions for the scion exchange. I wrapped them in a couple sheets of slightly damp newspaper, then put them in plastic bags, wrapped them with a few rubber bands, and put them in the refrigerator. I learned the hard way that I should have measured the width of the refrigerator before cutting them i.e. I had to unwrap everything to cut them to fit.
I have a box of the apples in our tree house, and also a bag of them in the refrigerator (picked in October). The ones in the tree house are a little soft on the outside but in the refrigerator they are still nice & hard. I think it gets a little too warm in the tree house to store apples well.
I checked my mason bees cocoons (also stored in the tree house) and found some mold on some of them so I gave them a 20 second bath in a mild bleach solution. I let them dry off then put them back in the insulated container. This is the first time I have tried cleaning my cocoons. Previously I just left them in the reeds but I guess that leads to a build up of parasites (I did find a few parasites during cleaning). Cleaning them is a lot of work, in the future I think I'll just make sure to replace the reeds each year. I actually use teasel stems since those work well and they grow in my yard.
Regarding the scion exchange, I guess I should make a label. Does anyone know what info is on the scion labels?
Hey Dave M,
NIce to meet you in person. What a great apple that is! Still crisp in March,large, still with a subtle, distinctive flavor. Golden color, seemed to not have much bug/disease pressure. Thanks for bringing in the scion. I'm definitely going to try to graft it into my trees.
John S
PDX OR
Nice meeting you too John. Thank you for the kind words. I hope your graft is successful!
At the show I had a scion grafted onto M9 stock so I can have a smaller tree, in addition to the original which is going to get quite big.
One person asked me if I had sprayed the tree, and the answer is no, other than with compost tea a couple of times.
I should have many apples to share this fall. I would love to get some into the mouths of people who can properly describe the flavor.
One of the other seedling trees from the same set of store apples back in 2002 has been really stunted -- but in the last two years it has been sending out big, disease-free branches. This winter I pruned it to one stem and staked it straight, so we'll see what happens with that one. However I know it is very unlikely that it will produce decent apples.
At the fair when I went to place the Red Delicious scions in the Red Delicious bucket, I found that there was no Red Delicious bucket. This was not too surprising since they taste so bad. To me it was sort of a poetic statement that the apple most commonly sold in stores doesn't even warrant inclusion in the biggest scion exchange on the west coast. I suspect that Red Delicious continues to exist because it ships well, not because of its taste. I heard someone remark recently that perhaps the reason many kids don't like fruits and vegetables is because most stores put storability/shipability above flavor when selecting fresh produce to sell. i.e. if as a child you were only given Red Delicious apples, would you like apples?
Dave
[quote="John S":126q7p1s]Hey Dave M,
NIce to meet you in person. What a great apple that is! Still crisp in March,large, still with a subtle, distinctive flavor. Golden color, seemed to not have much bug/disease pressure. Thanks for bringing in the scion. I'm definitely going to try to graft it into my trees.
John S
PDX OR[/quote:126q7p1s]
That's a funny observation about Red Delicious apples and I couldn't agree more. As a kid, I didn't know there were really any apples other than Red and Golden Delicious and Granny Smith. I still think Golden Delicious and Granny Smith have good flavor, but there are so many apples that have far superior flavor to Red Delicious. I've found that i tend to like those with a sweet/tart flavor like English varieties.
I was in the backyard taking some photos. Here is the other seedling tree that I planted the same day as the "Miss Jessamine" tree. It is about 6 feet tall.
For many years it was quite stunted but it has been really healthy the last few years. I wouldn't be surprised if it produces some apples next year.
Here is the "Miss Jessamine" tree for comparison (taken today). It is about 20 feet tall.
Wow, talk about what a difference a seed can make. Were these just 2 seeds from the same apple? I'm growing some seedlings right now also. 2 from a granny smith last year and another 2 or 3 from a gala this year. No idea what the male parent is though. It's a fun thing to do, even with its drawbacks. The 2 from the granny smith appear to be susceptible to powdery mildew. If you feel like taking some more scions, I'd love to see how it grows in Ohio next spring. I'll pay for shipping of course and a little extra for your labor.
[quote="sohoppy":3og49yg5]Wow, talk about what a difference a seed can make. Were these just 2 seeds from the same apple? I'm growing some seedlings right now also. 2 from a granny smith last year and another 2 or 3 from a gala this year. No idea what the male parent is though. It's a fun thing to do, even with its drawbacks. The 2 from the granny smith appear to be susceptible to powdery mildew. If you feel like taking some more scions, I'd love to see how it grows in Ohio next spring. I'll pay for shipping of course and a little extra for your labor.[/quote:3og49yg5]
I don't remember if they were from the same apple. I was fairly clueless about growing apples from seed back then so I did not keep any notes.
I think it would be great if everyone grew a few apples from seed. It seems like some of the seedling trees adapt to their environment more than grafted trees. e.g. they may look stunted & sickly for many years, then all of a sudden they are super healthy and grow quickly. On the other hand I had one seedling (out of 3) which was always stunted and sickly so I cut it down.
I would be happy to send you some scions, just send me your address via private message.
I borrowed a 14' orchard ladder to pick the apples. Even with my 8' pole I cannot reach all the apples, so the tree must be about 25' tall.
I grafted a cutting onto semi-dwarf stock in March, and that tree is 7' tall now.
The apples are not quite fully ripe but a squirrel has decided to take a nibble out of many of them, plus the windy weather is knocking a lot of them down so I am trying to get the rest of them. I had a lot of them drop off in August, perhaps because I didn't give the tree any water?
Rare deep watering is better if you aren't moving the trees and you don't want to have to water them. It is just an adjustment until the tree develops the deep roots that will protect it during the drought time of year. Also mycorrhizal fungi helps that too.
John S
PDX OR
I just wanted to mention that I received my Miss Jessamine scions from Dave a couple weeks ago and I don't think I've seen better packaging from even a professional nursery. I'll be grafting three of them to rootstocks and the others will be grafted onto other established apple trees. I'll post results. Thanks, Dave!
[quote="sohoppy":xslkao4v]I just wanted to mention that I received my Miss Jessamine scions from Dave a couple weeks ago and I don't think I've seen better packaging from even a professional nursery. I'll be grafting three of them to rootstocks and the others will be grafted onto other established apple trees. I'll post results. Thanks, Dave![/quote:xslkao4v]You're welcome! I am curious to hear how Miss Jessamine does in Ohio.
I still have about 100 scions in the refrigerator, in case anyone else wants some.
Hi,
Your wonderful apple was included at the Peninsula Fruit Club show yesterday! They had hundreds of different apples, pears, and other fruit on display, including your Miss Jessamine apple. If I recall, the label said something like, it was a new variety from southwest Washington. Like your pictures, it's really pretty. It was also utterly free from scab. We could get a sample, and the flavor was very nice, too. After following this thread, it was pleasant surprise to meet the apple "in person."
Cheers to you!
katmendeux
Your wonderful apple was included at the Peninsula Fruit Club show yesterday! They had hundreds of different apples, pears, and other fruit on display, including your Miss Jessamine apple. If I recall, the label said something like, it was a new variety from southwest Washington. Like your pictures, it's really pretty. It was also utterly free from scab. We could get a sample, and the flavor was very nice, too. After following this thread, it was pleasant surprise to meet the apple "in person."
That is great! I have sent scions all over the country, this is the first time I have heard something back.
Re: scab, it can get scab but not much. In my yard it also seems to be fairly resistant to codling moth, I think mainly due to the relatively thick skin. But it is not resistant to apple maggot.
I have found that the best flavor and color occurs on apples that get a lot of sun, especially in late summer/early fall.
If anyone wants scions, let me know. I prune it pretty heavily every year.
I also have about a dozen other seedlings in the pipeline. I have grafted most of them already, but my sunniest tree is already heavily grafted and my other trees get some shade so the grafts grow more slowly (i.e. have not yet produced fruit). But the seedlings themselves (still in pots) are starting to really take off. My yard is pretty packed, but this winter I'll find some space to put the seedlings in the ground. I need to keep them around long enough to see if the fruit is decent.
Dave
Idyllwild
John S
Marsha H
Viron
jafar
portlandian
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