Best eating apple variety for garden

[BrianO]

Have tried various over the years, thinking now Sunset or Spartan ?

Any opinions / experiences much welcomed , good eater, flavour and disease resistance, slightly to cold here in Dublin for cox's Orange Pippin

 

[pargyle]

Have tried various over the years, thinking now Sunset or Spartan ?

Any opinions / experiences much welcomed , good eater, flavour and disease resistance, slightly to cold here in Dublin for cox's Orange Pippin

Well you really need three apple trees - an early season ripener that you pick and eat such as Red Winsor or Worcester Pearmain.

A mid season apple which will keep for 2 or three weeks (Spartan although classed as a late ripener and will keep tends to lose its flavour the longer you store it - so I'd consider it more a mid-season apple).

And a late season apple - good ones are often the traditional varieties as they were developed as good apples to store over the winter - varieties such as Braeburn, Granny Smiths and Gala are good keepers, as are a lot of the cooking apples - I've stored Bramleys and used them as late as April of the following year.

But ... what you should really do is decide which apples you like the taste and texture of - and there are so many varieties to choose from - and then grow those because it's pretty pointless growing an apple which you know is going to keep for months and not like the taste of it !

You can also get from specialist growers family fruit apple trees where the grafting has allowed three different (but compatible pollinators) to be grown on one tree - so you can get an early, mid and late season apple all from a single tree. There is even one with a cooker and two dessert apples now available. Not cheap (about £35) but useful if space is limited and no more expensive than three separate trees. (If you like pears there's a couple of good family ones as pears only ripen once they are picked so you can enjoy quite a long pear eating season in the same way as a family apple - but they won't keep so you have to eat or bottle them).

They have a number of apple tastings over here where, in the picking season, you can go and try a lot of lesser known varieties and order trees of those you like - but you may have to trudge your way round Dublin's greengrocers to find anything other than the usual Golden Delicious etc etc.

So many varieties of apple to choose from that I would hesitate to recommend any one particular apple but for a good all rounder, disease resistant, late and heavy cropping keeper I like Braeburn - crisp clean taste, not too sweet and the wasps seem to stay away from mine. It's a bit of a boring choice but it's probably why it's so popular. I've got several other varieties for their taste but I'm still eating Braeburns that I picked in October and the rest are long gone ...

 

[Thymallus]

slightly to cold here in Dublin for cox's Orange Pippin

For what it's worth I was told the same about Cox's for where I live just on the edge of the Nth Yorks moors.....Tried one anyway.....it's been by far my best cropper for the last 5 years. It's not even planted in a sheltered spot either.
My Braeburn on the other hand produces a handful each year.

 

[alanf]

If you want a specific variety, it may be best to use a specialist nursery. Some of the offer stocks in the diy sheds don't worry too much about labels. A few years back a Bramley and Egremont Russet turned out to be otherwise and somebody else's Victoria plums were not Vics.

 

[Arfermo]

The so called experts will tell you that triploid varieties need compatible companions for fertilisation. I have never found that single planting is a problem especially if one has neighbours with other varieties that bees will visit and cross pollinate. Cox's has a tendency to scab and therefore a very similar apple is Sunset which is very similar in texture and flavour and keeps well too. Spartan is also an excellent crisp and sweet apple and well worth having as well. I had both as well as James Grieve, Russet, Bramley and Grenadier, the latter two being late and early varieties of cookers respectively.
Of them all you can't do better than Sunset or Spartan - get both if you can on compact rootstock so that they do not overwhelm you.

 

[itma]

...

You can also get from specialist growers family fruit apple trees where the grafting has allowed three different (but compatible pollinators) to be grown on one tree ...

Saved me typing! That is the way to go if you only have space for one tree.
And what size tree? Select the appropriate rootstock!

Go to a specialist.
Here that might be Brogdale http://www.brogdaleonline.co.uk - but Ireland ...

 

[MikeT]

My friend and former colleague the late Prof Michael Hennerty produced a book in 2014 on "The Heritage Apples of Ireland" it lists all 68 vars wh ch are still available in Ireland. Some of the varieties have been bred and selected from Cox and will therefore be fully suited to Irish conditions. The apples are listed on the following.

http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/The_Heritage_Apples_of_Ireland_p/book-appl.htm.

Michael worked very closely with Irish Seed savers and I believe the proceeds from the book go to this organisation.

I have selected for my garden old Norfolk Varieties of Apples, as I believe we should still use them as we are likely to loose the varieties if we do not plant them. The taste and flavour is much better than the Southern Hemisphere vars which are now being grown in the UK.

Let us now how you get on.

The equivalent to Brogdale in Ireland is the apple collection at University College Dublin, where the 68 Irish vars are grown.

Mike

 

[kighill]

I planted a small orchard a few years ago having bought 20/30 trees from a company by the name of Adams Apples. I just requested apple types which would give me a long period of continued pollination.
My favourite eater is named Katy a beautiful sweet red apple, in fact my mouth is watering simply writing the name.
None ever make it back indoors and are usually eaten straight off the tree.

 

[NickDub]

I vote for Ashmead's Kernel as the tastiest apple variety. It's a good late keeper and certainly crops better in my garden than Cox. If you are looking for a variety which will give you apples every year I'd definitely recommend chatting with local growers as they will know your area best.

All the best

Nick

 

[MikeT]

For what it's worth I was told the same about Cox's for where I live just on the edge of the Nth Yorks moors.....Tried one anyway.....it's been by far my best cropper for the last 5 years. It's not even planted in a sheltered spot either.
My Braeburn on the other hand produces a handful each year.

Braeburn is a NewZealand variety found in the early 1950s. It is grown commercially in the UK but it can only be grown successfully in the south. There are some orchards in North Cambridgeshire where the variety is the last to be picked. I would imagine your Braeburn is small and when eaten sour, as the growing season in Yorkshire is too short for this variety

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Have tried various over the years, thinking now Sunset or Spartan ?

Any opinions / experiences much welcomed , good eater, flavour and disease resistance, slightly to cold here in Dublin for cox's Orange Pippin

Based purely on what I like Laxton Superb is my choice.

 

[Thymallus]

Your are right, our apples ripen a little later than darn sarth, late Sept at earliest for the varieties I keep. Braeburn apples are fine, not sour and far superior in taste to shop ones, it's problem is how few apples it produces (less than 10 last year!). It may be due to soil type, as we are on heavy clay or my poor pruning skills....the Cox OP seems to love it though.

 

[Goran]

Enterprise, Florina and Goldrush are some.. For Spartan I heard tend to alternate. Here people are avoiding it.

 

[MikeT]

Most of the new commercial plantings of eating apples in East Anglia are of Gala and its red sport and Braeburn. Cox is now not planted to any extent.

My choice of apples with good flavour and suitable for the garden are:

Beauty of Bath - a parent of Discovery, probably not every ones choice but it
reminds me of my childhood

Worcester Pearmain The flavour of this old variety is outstanding, Eaten off
the tree it cannot be beaten. Only eat it off the tree as
it goes flowery if kept

Scrumptious A new English variety with exceptional flavour,

Sunset A Cox look alike but has better flavour.

Lynn's Pippin Another Cox type which has a tangy flavour

Ashmeads A very old variety with exceptional flavour

Laxton's Superb Cox flavour but the apple is juicier than Cox.

This is my short list but I expect others will have their opinions.

Mike

 

[theeggman]

down here our choice is "Cornish Aromatic or Cornish Gilliflower".

They suit the soil and VERY WET climate, very tasty and seem to store well.

 

[stevebrowning]

Tydemans Early Worcester for me
Check out Walcot Organic Nursery (Worcestershire). He doesn't ship to Ireland but he has a large, well described variety list which you could use as a guide. I've had 15+ trees off him and I can't recommend him enough.

 

[andydormer]

The best eating apple variety is the one you like the tase of. Buy a tree with a suitable rootstock for your garden size. Try apples grown on your friend's trees, if you like them, ask them if you can take a graft.

 

[Swarm]

A Russet.

 

[Chrisfnvs]

I like Lord Lambourne and Charles Ross the latter is also good for cooking and of course Russet

 

[Arfermo]

If you can only house 1 tree, why not opt for a family tree - the ones that have 3 different varieties grafted on?