Liberty Apple

The Liberty apple earned its name because it frees growers from needing to worry about common apple diseases. It is a very disease-resistant apple that is easy to grow organically, thanks to a breeding program that sought to combine excellent eating qualities with excellent disease resistance.

Liberty is a productive and precocious tree. In research trials Liberty produces relatively more fruit and fruits at an earlier age than other varieties.

Fruit: Considered by some to be the best of the scab-resistant apples. Crisp, juicy, McIntosh-like fruit. Good for fresh eating, cooking, dehydrating, juice, cider, and anything else you can think of doing with it. Ripens late-September or early-October.

Disease resistance: Resistant to the most common apple diseases – fire blight, apple scab, cedar apple rust, and apple mildew.

Pollination: Liberty is a good pollinator for other apple trees.

Parentage: Developed at the Geneva Research Station, Liberty is a cross between Macoun, a high-quality variety renowned for fresh eating and cooking, and 'Purdue 54-12', used for disease resistance.

Macoun itself is a cross of McIntosh and Jersey Black. Purdue 54-12 is a hybrid of Wealthy, a heirloom dessert apple, and a Japanese flowering crabapple known for disease resistance. So Liberty's grandparents are McIntosh, Jersey Black, Wealthy, and a Japanese crabapple.

Rootstock: EMLA 106.

References:

Liberty, a new disease resistant apple. 

Liberty apple cultivar release article.

Image 1: Plant Central.

Image 2: Orange Pippin.