Sharp · 11 trees planted · confidence medium
A famous New York heirloom, the classic American pie apple, and a very late sharp that cidermakers use as a high-acid aromatic backbone against low-acid English bittersweets. It brings bright acidity and distinctive aroma but almost no tannin, so it needs a bittersweet or crab partner for structure. It overcrops once established, so thinning is required to avoid locking in biennial bearing.
Disease: Susceptible to apple scab, most major apple diseases and bitter pit; only slightly resistant to fireblight. Immune to woolly apple aphid - the trait that made it the breeding parent of the Malling-Merton (MM.106/MM.111) rootstock series. Notoriously slow to bear: about 4 years on dwarfing stock, up to 10 on standard. Upright tip bearer with long gangly branches.
Discrepancies: Absent from WSU's cider cultivar database, so no climate-local bloom, harvest or juice data - typical_sg left null rather than estimated. Bloom group: sources split between 4 and 5, both described as late - recommended 4 as the more commonly cited. Origin date varies by source (seedling grown c.1800 vs first fruiting and naming in the 1840s); both are recorded rather than picking one, since they describe different events.