Esopus Spitzenburg or Aesopus Spitzenburgh is a variety of

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

. It was discovered early in the 18th century near Esopus, Hudson, New York and is reputed to have been a favorite apple of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

, who planted several of the trees at

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

. In 1922, Ulysses Hedrick described Esopus Spitzenburg (sometimes simply called "Spitzenberg") as "one of the leading American apples ... out the best to eat out of hand, and very good for all culinary purposes as well." In particular, it is a good apple for baking pies and is also valued as a cider apple. It is fairly large, oblong and has yellow ground color and red overcolor. Flesh yellow firm crisp, juicy. Typical size according to Warder width 73 mm, height 75 mm, according to Downing width 77 mm, height 68 mm. Stalk three-fourths of an inch, slender, inserted in a wide cavity. Calyx small, and closed set in a shallow basin. Like many late-season apples, it improves with a few weeks of cool storage, which brings it to its full, rich flavor. Hedrick praised this apple as attractive and keeping well in cold storage, but added that it was imperfect in that the trees lack vigor and are vulnerable to

apple scab Apple scab is a common disease of plants in the rose family (Rosaceae) that is caused by the ascomycete fungus ''Venturia inaequalis''. While this disease affects several plant genera, including '' Sorbus, Cotoneaster,'' and '' Pyrus'', it is ...

. Its young shoots are rather slender, of a dark color. It is distinguished not only by this, but the form of its fruit, and its superior productiveness from the Flushing Spitzenberg. This cultivar is suitable for

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

s 4–7 and should be grown in full sun. However, the trees grow unevenly and sometimes the upper branches shade out the lower ones, which can be frustrating to the orcharder. It also has a

biennial bearing Biennial bearing (or alternate) bearing is a term used in pomology to refer to trees that have an irregular crop load from year to year. In the "on" year too much fruit is set, leading to small fruit size. Excess weight in the main branches can be ...

tendency, and is susceptible to any available apple disease. This cultivar is a direct lineal descendant of Reinette Franche (8). Esopus Spitzenburg also gave rise to the cultivar Jonathan, which was used in the breeding of a great many apples (8,9)

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

mentioned this apple in "

Bartleby, the Scrivener "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of ''Putnam's Magazine'' and reprinted with minor textual ...

: ''Bartleby, the Scrivener'', Putnam’s Monthly Magazine 2, November 1853
p. 549
/ref>

References

8 Muranty, H., Denancé, C., Feugey, L., Crépin, J. L., Barbier, Y., Tartarini, S., … Durel, C. E. (2020). Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm. BMC Plant Biology, 20(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-019-2171-6 9 Noiton, D. A. M., & Alspach, P. A. (1996). Founding clones, inbreeding, coancestry, and status number of modern apple cultivars. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 121(5), 773–782. https://doi.org/10.21273/jashs.121.5.773

External links

* {{Monticello apples Cooking apples

See also

References

External links