I live on the lower portion of the Banning Bench,California, at approximately 3200 feet. We have a dozen or so peach trees, a few cherries, and several 35 year old Gravensteins, and a single Fuji that are doing quite well in this climate. After tasting a Honey Crisp recently, we are having thoughts of planting this wonderful variety. We are even having thoughts of possibly planting a dozen or so trees on an unused half acre portion of our property. It would probably be more sensible to try a couple of trees first, but that would take five or more years to get an answer.
Perhaps you might have some knowledge about the Honey Crisp, and how it might fare in this region. If it is a viable variety, where would you recommend that I buy them?
Gary Crowl
Honeycrisp would do just fine in your location. You could try the big nursery in Yucaipa who could order them from Dave Wilson Nursery. Barring that, Raintree Nursery or Stark Bros. could ship to you.
I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket like that. You would probably be well off planting White Winter Pearmain, Virginia Winesap, Williams’ Pride, GoldRush, and Rubinette to go along with it. All these varieties will do well in your location also.
You can read Kevin Hauser’s account of growing apples in Riverside, California on our main web-site ‘Apples in a Warm Climate’ . For those not familiar with Honeycrisp visit the Orange Pippin website and there is a good picture on The Fruit Blog.