Sweet Russet

[NOTE: Source text may be incorrect — the sources describe several distinct apples under the name Sweet Russet: Warder's medium, conical, August sort; Downing's small sort received from Parsons & Co., ripe in September; Downing's medium, oblate sort of Massachusetts and New York; and a small, dark-russeted Kentucky sort. Details are kept separate where they cannot belong to the same fruit.]

Origin / History

Downing records Sweet Russet as received from Parsons & Co., Flushing, Long Island; origin unknown. He calls it "A nice Little Apple." Warder reports that S. B. Parsons of Flushing, Long Island, "considers it the best baking apple." Downing notes another Sweet Russet grown in Massachusetts, New York, and elsewhere, and a further Sweet Russet of Kentucky, which he gives in Warder's description.

Tree

Moderately vigorous, productive. Young wood reddish olive (Downing's first entry). The Massachusetts and New York sort is an upright, spreading grower, productive.

Fruit

Size: Small (Downing) or medium (Warder).

Form: Conical and uneven (Warder); roundish, inclining to conic, sometimes oblate (Downing).

Stem: Short (Warder); slender (Downing).

Cavity: Wide, wavy.

Calyx: Closed; eye small.

Basin: Shallow, folded.

Skin: Yellow, mostly covered with thin, light russet; a tinge of red in the sun (Downing).

Dots: Numerous, small, prominent (Warder); sprinkled with brown russet dots (Downing).

Flesh and flavor: Flesh yellow (Warder) or whitish (Downing); tender to very tender, crisp, fine grained, juicy. Flavor sweet; Downing adds "rich, sweet, aromatic." Quality good to very good (Warder); "Very good" (Downing).

Core and seeds: Core oval, open, clasping the eye. Seeds plump.

Season

August (Warder) to September (Downing). The Massachusetts and New York sort is given as November to March, and the Kentucky sort as December to February.

Uses

Baking (Warder). The Massachusetts and New York sort is "Good for cooking" (Downing).

Subtypes / Variants

Massachusetts and New York sort: fruit medium, oblate, yellow, mostly covered with nettings and patches of russet. Flesh whitish, half tender, rich, sweet. Quality "Good."

Kentucky sort, described by Warder: fruit small, conical, truncated, rough, dark russet. Dots minute, white, prominent. Flesh yellowish white, fine-grained, not tender, sweet. Quality "Scarcely good."

Other

Not described in source.