Crab · 10 trees planted · confidence medium
Recorded as Fake Puget Spice because the orchard's trees were purchased as Puget Spice but are believed mislabeled — every attribute below describes what Puget Spice should be, not necessarily what is growing. True Puget Spice is a small (1.70 inch) WSU-bred cider crab that its breeder classifies as BITTERSHARP: WSU measured tannin 0.13%, malic acid 0.96%, pH 3.28, SG 1.057, 13.5 Brix, with a perfect 5/5 bloom density and 5/5 productivity, upright habit, standard bearing and no alternate bearing. WSU tasters describe high acidity and high astringency, straw colored, a great blender providing mouthfeel. It blooms very early (mean 4/25, the earliest in this planting) and needs a pollinizer.
Disease: True Puget Spice is scab immune and mildew resistant — its main selling point for maritime western Washington, and the single easiest diagnostic here. If these trees show scab, that is direct evidence of the mislabel.
Identified by the owner in September 2026. These trees were supplied and recorded as Puget Spice and are not: true Puget Spice is a WSU Mount Vernon release (2012) from a Prima x Alkmene cross. Kept as a catalogued entry so the mislabelling stays on the record rather than being quietly corrected away.