Apples - do you grow or eat them?

[shenk1]

We have a minature in a half barrel which is called Red Falstaff - very tasty self pollenating and keep quite well (it takes us at least a month to eat them all and its only a small tree - 2nd year).

We have 2 others but no fruit as yet as I keep replanting them to fit in with garden changes ,can't remember what types they are but if they produce next year I will find out

shenk1

[Jez]

Having worked in a farm shop for 8 years selling over 30 varieties of apples over apple week I can vouch for every apple mentioned so far as being totally applicious. Some of my fav's being Falstaff, Jupiter, Fiesta, Spartan to name a few. Has Jonagored been mentioned yet? A good cropper, eater, cooker, juicer, very good keeper, tastes sweet with a lovely crunch! :

[badgerwatcher]

I'm still, after four years, hacking my way through my garden. I could see a couple of apple trees at one side, but this year discovered that I have an orchard the full width of the garden, including a sort of 'apple library', trunks with each branch labelled with a different variety of apple. I'm endeavouring, before winter stops me, to clear the brambles and ivy from them as most have only managed sparse fruit, and then I'll grease the trunks and see if they do better next year. Some that I cleared in time, the cooking apple section, have and are still having a very good year. I've also discovered several damson trees (yippee!) and at least one Victoria plum, but I'm still hacking through that area. And a badger's sett. And hundreds of slow worms.

[Kayleigh]

Wow BW that sounds just wonderful, like a secret garden has just been discovered..
Good luck with the mammoth task of dealing with the brambles..

[badgerwatcher]

It is great Kayleigh, a bit 'Lost Gardens of Heligon!' But very hard work, and the brambles, being well established, are very thick. I have to wear protective clothing head to toe which makes summer gardening unpleasant. But each new thing I discover is fascinating. I have flights of stone stairs leading up. And I think I've worked out where the spring is. I'm trying not to damage or disturb to much as I go.

[barnbear]

So many choices. However I would recommend varieties suitable for organic production as they are more tolerant of scab and mildew which are your main problems. Fiesta is a good start but Spartan is prone to canker and Jonagored is a triploid variety and therefore can get quite big. Speaking of size I suggest either M26 or MM106 rootstocks as replacements for A. negundo size wise. For desriptions try
Apples - flavors, tasting notes, identification, apple trees for sale Varieties which pick later will generally keep later.

[Littlesparrow]

Here is a photo of the last two apples on my trees, don't know what type they are but I use them for cooking.

[Johnny Redgate]

I spend a lot of time out and about habitat surveying and its an absolute bonus to come across fruit trees in late summer. Apple trees are quite common in hedgerows, industrial sites and road verges, pears less so. But I love hard pears - probably because of the days spent scrumping as a kid in Ironbridge. Over in Charnwood district this summer I found a bit of scrubland where the hedges were stuffed full of cherry plums or similar, green red and yellow varieties. Very tasty on a hot day.

Back home on the farm at 1000ft we have loads of damsons and some huge hedgerow crab apples which have fruited like mad this year. Our domestic apples are poor (might even be cider apples). I have planted 3 apple trees just behind our lowest and most sheltered hedge (probably 800ft) when I pleached it a couple of years ago. Still waiting for fruit. I wish I could remember the varieties, but they came from a specialist local variety supplier in Carmarthenshire.