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All about apples, pears, plums, and cherries - and orchards where they are grown

Dorsett Golden Apple tree

Owner: Dave

Location:  Santa Barbara, CALIFORNIA, United States

Age:Planted in about 2010
Age of this tree:15 years
Soil:heavy clay 
Climate at this location:warm spring, summer and fall, light winter frost
Pruning:mostly summer pruning for size control
Tree form:Central leader (widest at bottom)
Height:Between 6ft / 2m and 15ft / 4m
Cropping:Heavy crops
Growth:This tree grows easily here
Herbicides:Manual treatment (hoeing and weeding)
Pesticides:Un-treated

Owner's comments

This is a very early flowering and ripening apple tree from the tropics (Bahamas). It is self-fertile, precocious and heavy-bearing. By my tastes it is not a great apple but it is a good one for the time of ripening which is late June into July. Tart-sweet taste, good texture and fairly juicy so far. 2014: protracted ripening season (late May to mid-July) with later apples somewhat sweeter than usual. Good texture and juiciness. It is still not a great apple, but it's the only one I have ripening this early.

Season records for this tree

  • 2014

    Spring blossom: 1 February
    Size: 2.0m / 6.7ft high   1.5m / 5.0ft wide
    Canker: Not present
    Scab: Not present
    Mildew: Not present
    Fireblight: Not present
    Cedar-apple rust: Not present
    Woolly aphid: Not present
    Codling moth: Not present
    Apparently due to our unusually short and warm winter this year's crop started blossoming in mid-January and finished in early March. The harvest has been spread out from very late May until July, with 5 apples left on the tree on July 2. As always, apple sizes range from huge to very small.
  • 2013

    Harvest: 1st week July  4kg / 9lbs
    Size: 2.0m / 6.7ft high   1.5m / 5.0ft wide
    Canker: Not present
    Scab: Not present
    Mildew: Not present
    Fireblight: Not present
    Cedar-apple rust: Not present
    Woolly aphid: Not present
    Codling moth: Not present