La Musica
NSO 16-9-127
Keepsake X Hudson’s Golden Gem cross made in 2015
La Musica produces large to very large, attractive, mostly russeted, rustic apples. La Musica produces fairly sweet, rich and complex flavored apples with a firm, breaking texture and an attractively russeted, rustic appearance. The fruit has a very good storage life. The tree is fairly early blooming, annual bearing, and very precocious. La Musica has moderate vigor with thin wood and a drooping growth habit. It bears on both lateral and terminal buds. La Musica ripens late in the season, 1 week before goldrush. The tree has no specific disease resistance or susceptibility, and it is easy to grow under conventional management. Performance under organic management is unknown. The fruit is susceptible to bitter pit, sunburn, and bird damage. It is very attractive to plant bugs and has many cracking problems throughout the season.
Pros: Excellent unique flavor and texture, attractive rustic apple. This variety has never failed to impress us with its flavor and texture. Even after tasting literally thousands of apple varieties and selections we continue to love it for its uniqueness.
Cons: With cracked fruit dropped in the field and some tolerance for blemishes our packable fruit has only been about 50%. That means maybe only 40% of the fruit that was on the tree is packable. Pack out has improved slowly with tree age.
Recommendation: Backyard and specialty growers who want to experience and/or sell an amazing flavored and textured apple. G41 rootstock is not recommended since La Musica shares a parent with Honeycrisp and G41 has been shown to increase the incidence of bitter pit in Honeycrisp. Provide sprays slightly reduced cracking and russet. The reduced russet makes the fruit less attractive in my opinion.
Origin: The parents were selected for their uniquely high fruit quality at our location. When the seedling first fruited we immediately identified it as a very interesting seedling based on flavor and texture. Lena Dati was assisting me in fruit sampling and exclaimed that it was a “rock star” after one bite. Hence the name La Musica which is also a star name. Each year in the seedling block it was one of only a few selections from which we anxiously awaited fruit. La Musica is the clearest example of my goal in breeding for flavor first. It is unfortunate that it is plagued with cultural flaws but the flavor and texture make up for it for growers who can tolerate its flaws.
4th leaf; Rootstock: g41
4th leaf; Rootstock: g41
Graded bushel