Liberty

LIBERTY

Origin	New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, New York, 1978.
Parentage	PR154-12 x Macoun.
Availability	Early October on from special outlets.
Source	Available from many nurseries.
Quality	Attractive blushed red with some stripe; excellent flavour, sweet and sprightly aromatic; crisp and juicy.

Fruit:

Size	Medium, may be smallish if not thinned.
Surface	Smooth, glossy.
Ground Colour	Yellowish.
Over Colour	Up to 90% dark red with some stripe.
Flesh Colour	Creamy yellow.
Harvest Season	Early October.
Storage	To December in cold, to March or more with Controlled Atmosphere.
Strains	None recognized.

Tree:

Vigour	Medium to low.
Habit	Upright spreading but wood is brittle and subject to breakage from heavy crops.
Precocity	Good.
Fruit Placement	Lateral on shoots, some spurs as the tree matures.
Bloom Period	Late mid-season.
Pollination	By other diploids.
Nutrition	Vigour needs to be kept up.
Crop	Very productive and, so far, is classed as an annual heavy producer.
Synchrony	Good.
Adaptation	Seems to do well in the northern tier of apple regions across North America. Fairly hardy.
Disease Reaction	Immune to scab. Resistant to cedar apple rust. Mildly susceptible to powdery mildew and juniper rust. Low susceptibility to fire blight. Susceptible to core browning after storage, especially if fully mature at harvest. May develop vascular breakdown in long term Controlled Atmosphere/Low Oxygen storage.
Insect Reaction	None recognized but watch for stinging bug attack.
Rootstock	In the NC-140 trials it has performed well on many rootstocks and heavy crops have kept trees small, even on the semi-dwarf stocks.

Comments:

Liberty is to date the highest quality among the scab resistant cultivars, ranking equal to or better than most cultivars both new and old, whether scab resistant or not. It merits widespread testing in order to find the parameters for its management.

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