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

Wealthy apple

Malus domestica
Wealthy
Excellent dessert and multi-use apple, picked a few weeks early for cooking. Beautiful fruit ripens to bright red across the surface. Crisp, juicy flesh. Refreshing, sprightly, vinous flavor.

Wealthy apple identification images

All images copyright Orange Pippin unless otherwise stated.

  • Wealthy
  • Wealthy
  • Wealthy
  • Wealthy

USDA identification images for Wealthy

The identification paintings in the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection span the years 1886 to 1942.

  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy
  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy
  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy
  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy
  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy
  • USDA watercolor image of Malus domestica: Wealthy

Citation: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705.

Parents and other ancestors of this variety



Visitor reviews

  • 07 Jun 2019  MI, United States
    I started planting my home orchard (50 trees) in 2005..Afterb I found out how much I liked the wealthy apple I needed another one..So in 2014 I planted another..Wealthy is one of my favorite apples..Only complaint, is they produce every other year..Last year the tree was so full of apples the branches were on the ground..I had to pick some off so the branches wouldn't break..Great for fresh eating..Next year I'll try apple sauce with them..I highly recommend Wealthy if you are thinking about planting apple trees.
  • 01 Nov 2018  NY, United States
    With all the delishous apples that have come from the U of Minn I had to get this Wealthy apple tree planted in my heirloom orchard. Ordered 4 of them on G210 an they will be planted this coming spring of 2019. I now have Zestar!, Sweet 16 and Snow Sweet planted this past spring of 2018. My collection of Minn. apples are really growing.
  • 20 Oct 2018  OH, United States
    As my daughter and I picked apples today, I noticed Wealthy on the map...Wealthy !!! I was sure that was a name from my childhood...A forgotten treasure. I guess it's a little late in the season for then, but my daughter came up with a bag full...One taste and it was Heavenly...She is sold, I am happy picker..we were told they were an August apple...putting that on the calendar...I don't know where to start..pie.. ?
  • 01 Oct 2018  CEREDIGION, United Kingdom
    I have just DNA fingerprinted a Wealthy tree in a derelict orchard on an Aberystwyth University farm on the west coast of Wales in the United Kingdom. The orchard hasn’t been tended for 40 years or more :( The fruit gives easily on biting, is really crunchy, sweet and refreshing. Some would say tart. I’ll probably take graftwood this winter and propagate onto MM106. I really like this Apple. I know Wealthy trees were popular in the 1920s and 30s in the UK but it’s quite a surprise to find one growing in a relatively remote part of the UK.
  • 23 Sep 2018  MN, United States
    We have an apple tree that we are nearly certain is a Wealthy. The apples are somewhat tart unless fully ripe (red all around) and then they are remarkably sweet and tasty. You have to wait almost until they fall off the tree by themselves to get that peak flavor.
  • 13 Jul 2016  MISSOURI, United States
    RE: Chris of 30 Aug 2015 My grandmother and mother made pies from Wealthy apples, but they were used fresh and were single crust pies open like a tart. Otherwise the fruit turns to sauce.
  • 24 Oct 2015  MASSACHUSETTS, United States
    Wealthy makes the richest, smoothest apple butter of any variety I've tried. Very cold hardy and reliable bearer in the Upper Valley of Vermont. - Carter Wilkie, Boston
  • 30 Aug 2015  United States
    I bought 1/2 bushel of Wealthy as suggested they were good for pie. I made canned pie filling but they had pretty much turned into mush. I can still use it but I would not label this a pie apple - at least not for canning - would be great applesauce.
  • 19 Sep 2013  UT, United States
    I became officially acquainted with the Wealthy apple yesterday when a friend offered me some apples from her tree. I asked what kind they were and she said she had heard they were called Wealthy apples. I googled it and found the history. We live in a pioneer community in the mountains of Utah and I am sure this is the only apple that would do well here. There are many old trees around the town and many of the apples go to waste because people don't realize how good they are. I baked an apple crisp last night and it was wonderful. I plan to get one of these trees for planting next spring.
  • 18 Jul 2013  ONTARIO, Canada
    I have just recently planted a wealthy apple tree in my front yard. I got it at the local Home Depot. I was looking to replace the braeburn sapling I planted last year, that the rabbits got at. I have started to do a little research and am very hopeful this little tree will survive. It is a sapling, but has one little apple on it already. I plan to protect it from the rabbits this winter. I can't wait to eat my first apple and bake my first apple pie from my very own apple tree!
  • 01 Oct 2012  PA, United States
    I grew up with a whole orchard of Wealthies that my grandfather planted on his farm, and have made sauce (that gorgeous cherry-pink sauce!) and pies (those delectable tart-sweet pies that need only a smidgin of cinnamon as spice) all my life. More and more I hear that growers have never heard of them, a heartbreaking state of affairs, and I dare not even visit the old farm any more, suspecting that its new owner has cut the old trees down as she's eliminated all other traces of how it used to be. Can't we revive this wonderful apple in these decadent days? It's hard lines to have to drive to New England from PA to find them......
  • 06 Feb 2012  WASHINGTON/LINCOLN, United States
    On our family's ranch, near where the old homestead cabin stood, is an old apple tree, believed to have come by train with my great-grandfather in 1890. The variety was, to us, a mystery until 2004. We called them "canyon apples" because it was in the canyon below our farm. We liked the apples, but LOVED the applesauce and apple pies made from them. We had the tree identified through a program at Washington State University in 2004, as a Wealthy. The tree is now over half dead and still produces few to many apples, depending on the year. We are now pursuing the opportunity to have a graft taken from it, so that we can pass on the variety to family members for years to come
  • 20 Dec 2011  WA/ KING, United States
    A small tree was planted in our back yard by my dad, probably around 1958 or 1959. He bought it, though in ignorance of it's greatness, from a local nursery. The tree never grew large, but was very productive of the best apples I ever tasted. Sweet-tart, green burnished with a blush of red, popping with juice after an audible CRACK when bit. We could never get enough of them. Mostly, we ate them raw, right off the ground or tree. Once, a swarm of honey bees weighed down a branch, presumably with a queen at the center. The bees stayed put while we called a wood-shop teacher at our local high school, who was also a bee-keeper. He came over in his special "suit"and collected the mass of bees by holding a big box under the branch, then giving the branch one good shake. The whole swarm plopped into the box! Unfortunately, after my parents sold that house and moved, the new owner cut the tree down. We found that out when we stopped to look at our old (remodeled) house. I told the owner that the tree was a Wealthy apple, one of the finest, and asked him why he cut it down. He replied "the raccoons got all the apples anyway." :( It was clear to me he had no idea what he had done. I've never found a wealthy apple for sale in any store I've visited in the Northwest, Washington or otherwise. Still hoping, though.
  • 20 Oct 2011  QUEBEC, Canada
    A wonderfully tasty apple, we fight over the descriptions of its overtones: is there a lingering taste of banana or is it strawberry? Or both? It depends on the people. The taste is addictive. This apple gives its very distinctive character to the famous cider from the Pedneault orchard in L'Île -aux-Coudres in Quebec. Quite disease resistant and very cold tolerant too.
  • 17 Oct 2011  WISCONSIN, United States
    our best apple, very good for eating or baking, crisp and slightly tart. everyone loves them

Tree register

United States

Canada

Spring blossom records for this variety

2017 season

  • 5th June  2017  - tree owned by Steven in Skandia, United States

2015 season

  • May  2015  - tree owned by Andrew in Ashfield, United States
  • May  2015  - tree owned by Andrew in Ashfield, United States

2014 season

  • 10th May  2014  - tree owned by DC in Poncha Springs, United States

2012 season

  • 15th May  2012  - tree owned by DC in Poncha Springs, United States

Record your blossom dates in our Fruit Tree Register - more >>.


Harvest records for this variety

2023 season

  • 2nd week September  2023  - tree owned by Will in Severn, Canada

2022 season

  • 2nd week September  2022  - tree owned by Will in Severn, Canada

2016 season

  • 2nd week August  2016  - tree owned by The in Richmond, Canada

2015 season

  • 4th week September  2015  - tree owned by Andrew in Ashfield, United States
  • 4th week September  2015  - tree owned by Andrew in Ashfield, United States
  • 4th week September  2015  - tree owned by Andrew in Ashfield, United States
  • 4th week August  2015  - tree owned by Cast in Sooke, Canada

2013 season

  • 3rd week October  2013  - tree owned by Alison in Albion, United States
  • August  2013  - tree owned by Dave in Santa Barbara, United States

2012 season

  • 1st week September  2012  - tree owned by DC in Poncha Springs, United States

Origins

  • Species: Malus domestica - Apple
  • Parentage: Seedling of Siberian Crabapple
  • Originates from: Minnesota, United States
  • Introduced: 1860
  • Developed by: Peter Gideon, Minnesota
  • UK National Fruit Collection accession: 2000-098

Identification

  • Country of origin: United States
  • Period of origin: 1850 - 1899
  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
  • Fruit colour: Red
  • Annual cycle: Deciduous
  • Flowering duration: Long
  • Fruit size: Average

Using

  • Picking season: Very late
  • Keeping (of fruit): 2-3 weeks
  • Cropping: Good
  • Fruit persistence: Normal ripening
  • Food uses: Eating fresh
  • Picking month: October
  • Picking period: mid-October
  • Wildlife: RHS Plants for Pollinators

Growing

  • Gardening skill: Average
  • Flowering group: 3
  • Pollinating others: Average
  • Ploidy: Diploid
  • Precocity: Precocious
  • Bearing regularity: Regular
  • Fruit bearing: Spur-bearer
  • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile

Climate

  • Cold hardiness (USDA): Zone 4 (-34C)
  • Climate suitability: Temperate climates
  • Climate suitability: Warm climates
  • Cold-hardiness: Cold-hardy

Other qualities

  • Disease resistance: Poor
  • Scab (Apple and Pear): Some susceptibility
  • Powdery mildew: Some susceptibility
  • Fire blight: Some susceptibility
  • Cedar apple rust: Very susceptible

Where to buy trees

The following tree nurseries offer Wealthy apple trees for sale:


Where to buy fresh fruit

The following orchards grow Wealthy:

United States


Canada




References

  • Cedar-Apple Rust  
    Author: Stephen Vann, University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture (FSA7538)
    Rated as highly susceptible - control always needed where CAR is prevalent.
  • Apples of England (1948)
    Author: Taylor

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