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CrimsonCrispTM apple trees

• Gardening skill: Suitable for beginners
• Picking season: Mid
• Keeping (of fruit): 3 months or more
• Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
• Pollination group: 3
• Uses: Eating fresh
• Uses: Juice

• List of other varieties that will pollinate CrimsonCrisp

CrimsonCrisp is a modern scab-resistant apple. The skin has a yellow background, but predominantly dark crimson red.

As the name suggests, the flesh is very crisp, juicy and snaps cleanly, but not dense.

How to grow

A particular feature of CrimsonCrisp is that the apples will hang on the tree for a very long time - up to 4 weeks - whilst maintaining eating quality. This makes it ideal for the backyard orchard as you can pick fresh apples straight from the tree over a long period. The apples can be kept for several months in a refrigerator or cold garage, retaining good eating quality although the flavor will fade somewhat.

CrimsonCrisp is field-immune to apple scab disease, but has some susceptibility to fireblight.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

Historical details

CrimsonCrisp was developed in the 1970s by the well-regarded PRI co-operative of Purdue, Rutgers, and Illinois universities. It was originally known as Co-op 39. Its ancestry is complex, but it is distantly related to the crab-apple Malus floribunda, from which it inherits genes which confer good resistance to apple scab.