Disease resistant Apple varieties

Some Apple varieties add disease resistance. This section has a legend that explains the abbreviations for disease resistance below

FB=Fire Blight

AS= Apple Scab

CAR=Cedar Apple Rust

PM= Powdery Mildew

I= Immune R= Resistant S= Susceptible

V= Very M=Moderately

Apple disease resistant varieties Honeycrisp= FB-R, AS-R, PM-VS, CAR-S. Williams pride= FB-R, AS-I,PM-R, CAR-R. Co-op 39 FB-S, AS-I, PM-S, CAR-R Liberty= FB-R, AS-VR, PM-R, CAR-VR Minnewashta=FB-R,AS-VS,PM-R, CAR-R Co-op 33 = FB-R, AS-I, PM-S, CAR-S Sweet sixteen= FB-R, AS-R, CAR-R

New varieties coming in 2025 & 2026

Here are some new apple varieties in the growing phase. Co-op 30, Florina, Freedom, Goldrush, Kids orange red, Ny 35, Sundance, Winecrisp, Wolf-river, and Rolfe. New pear varieties are Patten and Lucious.

Tell us what your favorite varieties are below!

Site selection

Site selection is an important consideration for a healthy productive tree. Don’t plant your tree in a hollow spot where water doesn’t drain away on its own. Fruit trees need a sunny well drained area to thrive. If water is trapped around the root system it can cause rot which will lead to an unhealthy tree. Don’t plant your tree at the bottom of a hill. Elevation is good to drain away water but the bottom of the hill is where all the water goes. In the spring wet soil will drown the roots. Roots need oxygen and therefore water should pass through the soil but not stay there. Clay based soils need more elevation drop than sandy soils that drain quickly. Good soil with some organic matter in it helps the tree grow. Too much organic matter doesn’t give a firm anchorage for the tree. Don’t plant in a compost area. Plant where the tree will not be shaded by other trees for more than a couple of hours a day in the summertime.

Rootstocks

Apple, pear, and other fruit trees can be grown on many different types and variations of rootstock. Apple trees have been made by grafting a rootstock to a scion or cultivar of apple in the mid 1800s in Europe. Over a hundred years ago in England they began to standardize apple rootstock. That led to Mailing-Merton apple rootstock still used today. Like MM111 a 75-80% of standard apple rootstock. MM111 tolerates wet soil and is resistant to wooly apple aphids. It also has disease resistance to fire blight and collar rot. It is not as productive as modern rootstocks. In 1968 Dr. Jim Cummins started an apple rootstock breeding program at Cornell university in New York. From that breeding program Geneva rootstocks we’re developed. A lot of these rootstocks were developed for high density planting and require support from a trellised system. There were a few of their newer rootstocks that are stand-alone tree rootstocks. Two of these are the right size for a home yard or orchard. Geneva 210 is the smaller of the two about half standard size. Slower growing apple varieties on Geneva 210 will be a little smaller. Geneva 890 is good for these slower growing varieties to reach a larger size faster and therefore speed up production to a higher level. At Molli’s nursery we generally use the Geneva 890 on low vigor apple varieties. Geneva 890 normally produces a tree that is 60% standard size. For those that want a tree that gets above deer browsing height this is a good option for fast growing apple varieties. Both Geneva rootstocks are very resistant to fireblight, collar rot, crown rot, root rot and wooly apple aphids. They also are resistant to replant disease that causes trees on older rootstocks to grow very slowly if planted where another apple tree had previously grown.