Allegedly a cross of Golden Russet with Alexander Jasen Hatch of Iola, Wisconsin (U.S.A.), in 1849. The resulting seedling was then used as rootstock for another variety which ultimately failed. The seedling was ultimately overlooked until it started to produce fruit. When E.W. Daniels of Auroraville, Wisconsin sampled the apples in the 1870s, he undertook to promote the variety and introduced them in 1872. One of the most cold hardy American cultivars, according to the Western Agriculture Research Center in Corvallis, MT, “By 1900 it was presumably being grown in Montana for commercial purposes as it was listed as one of the hardiest apples in Ravalli County and among a list of cultivars inspected in the First District which included Dawson, Carbon, Custer, Park, Yellowstone, Sweet Grass, and Rosebud Counties in 1901.”

What piqued our interest with Northwest Greening was when Bruce Benson told us that in a year (2023) when many of his apple trees didn’t produce, his lone Northwest Greening apple tree bore 800 pounds, or 20 bushels…from a single tree! Granted this tree was grafted onto semi-standard MM111, but this is still quite the haul.

Given that it’s one parent, Alexander, is hardy to at least -50F, and that its other parent, Golden Russet, at least -40F, you would think that it would be hardy to around -40F to -45F, although there are reports of it surviving down to -50F of more. and some reports list it as hardy to -50F (although our trees haven’t seen that low of temps so we do not know).

In terms of the flavor, Northwest Greening is similar to Granny Smith fresh off the tree. It’s tart but the nice thing is that Northwest Greening keeps all winter, lasting for over 3 months in storage. People often note the flavor improving in storage as well.

Unfortunately our Northwest Greenings are grafted onto M26, which is only hardy to -40F. So if you’re in an area that sees below -40F, then you can grow this but you would want to bury the graft and let the tree root our above the graft (on the Northwest Greening genetics which will technically be the rootstock). It will then be full size but you’ll at least have the hardiness.