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.