Diva apple tree

[Saraheliz]

Hi

I am thinking of buying a Diva apple tree as u get so many apples that are sweet does anyone know what pollination group its in, I have an egremont russet in the garden

thanks!

Sarah

[FB.]

Heard of it but can't recall much about it.

Who claims that it's some kind of super apple?
I try to grow disease-resistant and pest-resistant apple varieties and "Diva" has never drawn my attention. I'll go poke through some books in a minute....

Anyway, regarding pollination: there's a good chance that there are other apples trees nearby that will pollinate your tree, even if you can't find the pollination group.
You could compare how much earlier or later your new tree flowers when compared to the russet and then judge the pollination group from there.

[FB.]

Not much info available. No track record. Not many nurseries have it.

Limited reports claim:

Massive fruit yields.
Disease resistant.

Where's the catch?
No apple is perfect. I grow about 20 hardy and very disease resistant varieties in a no-spray environment and none of them are perfect. Every apple variety has some issue that offsets the good points.

To obtain 40 apples in the first year would require either:

a very well-grown, near-mature tree of 5 years old or more on an intermediate-vigour rootstock

a very strong tree (if it fails to pollinate in one season, the redirected energy from not having to support 40 average apples would make a 5ft tree grow another 2ft in each direction - a very vigorous grower)

biennial or erratic cropping

small fruit size

early fruit-drop that allows those remaining to reach full size

Unless you're a professional orchard, to realistically obtain 40 good-size apples, you need a several-year-old tree that is well-established in it's location and been pruned correctly for the previous 3-4 years to build up fruiting spurs. The tree is likely to need to be 5ft in size.


Found a topic on here (maybe ask some of the owners how they got on with theirs):
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...les_12386.html

[Saraheliz]

thanks both of you, a lot to think about, thanks FB yes on the thread they got 10 apples which would be fine for me, I am just looking for sweetness really and it being red apples.
I will do some more research

thank you both