Late season variety apples.

[GF3]

Hello.
I am thinking about doing some more apple grafts next spring and I have been looking at some late variety apples such as May Queen, Brownlees' Russet, Rosemary Russet, William Crump. But, reading up on these varieties I get the impression that they need some time in storage before eating. Basically, my question is - is there much point considering late varieties if you don't have the storage facilities?

[ameno]

It depends on the variety. Some late varieties don't need storing first, and others hold well on the tree and so can essentially be "stored" on the tree.
I have a Christmas Pippin, which is ready mid to late October, but there are still some fruit on it now.

[GF3]

Thanks for the reply.Christmas Pippin is one that I am considering, quite a modern apple found growing at the side of a road. That is the type I'm looking for , a late hanging variety. I could store some apples boxed in the garage, but the garage is not mouse proof.

[ameno]

I would definitely recommend Christmas Pippin. It's a good cropper, doesn't have problems with disease, and is probably the best tasting apple I have ever tried.
They are nominally ripe from mid-October (in that they are fully coloured and no longer get any sweeter), but I feel they don't develop their full flavour until early to mid November.

[It never rains..it pours]

Interesting thread, thank, will look out for a Christmas pippin scion to add to my multi variety trees.

[ameno]

Just thought I'd say I picked one small apple which I had previously missed from my Christmas Pippin tree about a week ago. It survived the freeze just fine (I think it went as low as -5 here) and was still good and tasty.
To be honest, I didn't realise apple fruit were so freeze resistant. I knew their sugar content offered them some degree of freeze resistance, but I had assumed they'd onlybe good down to about -2.

[FB.]

I'm currently sat here enjoying a D'Arcy Spice, tasty (tastes rather like a Williams pear) and still firm, picked mid-November, left outside in a sack and frozen down to -11'C a couple of weeks ago, plus several other nights between -5'C and -10'C around the same time.

No pests, no diseases, no need for feeding, no bitter pit, no sunburn, no need for watering even in the extreme heat and drought we had this summer - fruit size was in fact larger than normal in the hot dry conditions.

It gets my vote for ultra-late-picking and long-keeping apple.

The downsides?
The tree is extremely slow growing (best on M25 rootstock but even then it remains very slow), it's probably triploid (IMO) so might not be a good pollinator of other trees, is said by some to be an irregular cropper, and the apples are ugly - yellow with orange sunny side, speckled with russet spots and patches.