INTEGRITY

SKILLCULT APPLE BREEDING PROJECT

THIS PAGE IS FOR INFORMATION AND NOTES ON MY SEEDLING APPLE INTEGRITY.

Integrity is a cross between Williams’ Pride and Vixen. It is an early pie apple that holds its shape when cooked. I would not say it is much good for eating out of hand, so it has a narrow niche of use in pies, cobblers, apple betty etc.

In 2023, I did a three way test of Integrity against two other apples, an earlier Williams’ Pride x Vixen seedling called Twang which overlaps it in season, and with Kerry Pippin, a classic Summer apple that is tart enough to cook with. Out of the three, I preferred Integrity, with Twang running a very close second. Both hold their shape well and have a similar flavor. If you mixed them together in a pie, you would probably not be able to tell one from the other.

As for eating, neither apple is anything to get excited about. At its very best, I’ve had Twang be alright eating if one likes tart apples. Integrity is quite firm, and I strongly suspected that it would hold its shape in cooking before I actually tried it.

I am hoping Integrity has inherited at least some of Williams’ Pride’s scab resistance, so far so good. As soon as the apples are ripe, they tend to fall off the tree very easily, which is not ideal, but at least you know when they are ready.. Otherwise, it seems productive, well behaved and healthy.

The flesh is white, though since Williams’ Pride can have partially pink flesh, I would not be surprised if we see light pink staining in this apple in the future. The fruit is a little blocky in shape. It has beautiful red skin and polishes up very nicely.

There are only so many summer and very early fall apples out there. The average early heirloom variety is thin and watery and integrity is not. In a collection of many hundreds of apples, having a seedling seem to be the best cooking apple going at any particular season, especially early, means something. As Twang is finishing off, it overlaps with Integrity, which runs into early September. So, introducing both Twang and Integrity, is somewhat like having the same cooking apple for much longer, stretching possibly as early as July sometimes for Twang, into the early fall apple season when there are many more choices coming on.

Almost no one needs a whole tree of this apple (or most others), but I’d certainly keep a small branch of it in a home orchard for seasonal cooking until something better comes along. Even then, pies are best made from blended apples, so I’d more likely use some Integrity and toss in some amount of other apples. Already, I’m envioning apple pie trees grafted to varieties that bear over a long season.