Howgate Wonder

[FB.]

Having just taken out my last Howgate Wonder apples - one of the few with a good crop last year due to the late frosts, early summer drought and late summer heavy rain - I though that I'd take a few pictures.
These apples have been stored in an ordinary cardboard box in my unheated brick garage/workshop since October; five months ago.
They look remarkably good still - and the texture and taste is still perfectly edible (better than almost anything you'll buy off-the-shelf in the shop at this time of year, although the "coarse" and "crumbly" texture comes as a surprise to some people!).

You'll notice a few black "scab" spots and a few brown-with-white-centre "brown rot" spots, but their development is very slow. Once the temperatures get into the high teens for several days, any blemished fruit will rapidly decay. Not bad though, for five-month-old apples in the most basic of storage conditions. (I have a liking for long keepers!)

[northepaul]

Slightly off subject, but on the People's Supermarket the other week, the co-operative went apple picking in a commercial orchard for Howgate Wonders, which because the supermarket dont buy anymore, (the only want bramleys) are going to be pulled up by the owner.
The apples looked absolutely beautiful!!

[chris]

Interesting, thanks for posting FB.

I've never had a crumbly apple, are there any commercially available similar types? Recently we've started getting a veg box again, and they have uk grown/stored apples in them, which is great - some are local to us. I've developed a new liking to russet style apples, perhaps it's the "localness" in them reaching out to me!

I'd love to be able to abosrb some of your knowledge about fruit. Is it part of your career/job or just an interest? I vote for a GYO seminar, you can do the fruit part of it

[FB.]

Northepaul & Chris

Yes, Howgate Wonders are quite an attractive apple. In wet areas, the tree and fruit can suffer from canker and scab. You can see a few small scab spots on perhaps half of my (unsprayed) fruits - grown without sprays - but they were grown in a relatively low-rainfall area, albeit during a rather wet late summer last year.

Howgate have a conical shape, with smooth, green-yellow skin, with a red sunny side. The skin is quite tough and can get a bit greasy in storage. Howgate Wonder is the record holder for largest apple. If you grow them on a well-fed M9 and thin hard after fruit set, the few remaining apples can reach an enormous size. Formerly grown for exhibition.

Edward VII and Annie Elizabeth are also nice showy apples - possibly related to Howgate Wonder.

Howgate Wonder = Blenheim Orange (?) x Newton Wonder (?)
Edward VII = Blenheim Orange (?) x Golden Noble (?)
Annie Elizabeth = Blenheim Orange (?) x Dumelow's Seedling (?)

All those apples - and Blenheim - have attractive appearance and good keeping qualities.

Howgate and Blenheim are "crumbly" or "coarse" in texture. Annie and Edward aren't nearly as crumbly/coarse.

I understand that Howgate Wonder are still grown commercially on a small scale. I've heard of them being popular for juicing - along with Falstaff and James Grieve.
Perhaps try a farm shop.

I suspect that they are declining with commercial orchards because:

1. They are rather too sweet and mild-flavoured for a cooker.
2. They are too colourful for the stereotypical cooker.
3. They are much too large for one person to eat (although pleasant to eat) - although you can eat half today and the other half tomorrow!
4. The trees disease resistance is only average.
5. The trees are fairly vigorous.

[northepaul]

If I (ever) get an allotment, I would consider getting one, for all the reasons supermarkets dont want them, (except the desease resistance, which would make me think twice.)

[FB.]

If I (ever) get an allotment, I would consider getting one, for all the reasons supermarkets dont want them, (except the desease resistance, which would make me think twice.)

Average disease resistance is not as bad as it sounds; it is average - comparable with the average variety growing in the UK.
Not highly resistant, but not highly prone.
Wet climates put great demands on apples abilities to resist scab or canker. Dry climates (drought summers or poor soil) demand a lot of their ability to resist mildew.

Howgate Wonder has above-average resistance to mildew (say 8/10), but only average to scab or canker (say 6/10). Therefore, I described it as being about average.

Edward VII and Annie Elizabeth have more resistance to scab (say 8/10), but less to mildew (say 6/10).

Blenheim has resistance similar to Howgate.

Resistance can vary considerably with location. Sometimes a very resistant variety is widely grown, but the diseases - over many decades - eventually overcome its resistance and start to spread to other trees of the same variety. Bramley used to be highly scab resistant. Nowadays it is about the same as Howgate Wonder; average.

Crawley Beauty has profuse blossom and attractive fruit (although with a slight yeasty "bloom" like a plum). After the spectacular flowering display, the blossom of CB looks unusually messy for a few days after flowering finishes.
But Crawley Beauty has good resistance to just about everything - 8 or 9 out of 10 for scab, canker, mildew and pests. However, the fruit are only average flavour; a little too mild-flavoured for a cooker and a little too sharp for an eater until stored for some months.
As a spray-free grower, I wouldn't be without a Crawley Beauty.

[littleexperience]

thanks for some advice on the Howgate wonder FB i just ordered one yesterday to replace a wild cherry which grew out of control 25ft tall and it was only 11 years old believe it or not it had to go.if you dont mind FB could you tell me if its a regular cropper and if its better to eat raw or cooked cheers

[FB.]

thanks for some advice on the Howgate wonder FB i just ordered one yesterday to replace a wild cherry which grew out of control 25ft tall and it was only 11 years old believe it or not it had to go.if you dont mind FB could you tell me if its a regular cropper and if its better to eat raw or cooked cheers

Howgate Wonder is a heavy and reliable cropper. It is also reasonably frost-resistant.

Most of my Howgate Wonders get eaten raw (in two halves on different days!).

"Down South", it is OK as a a mild-flavoured cooker early in the season (only needs half the sugar of Bramley), but the acidity fades by about Christmas, making it better as an eater.

"Up North", it will probably be more acidic and retain the acidity into the new year, before becoming an eater in spring time.

Many apple "experts" consider Howgate Wonder to be above-average in the cooler and duller North, but beware the heavier rainfall causing higher levels of scab or canker.

Here's an extract from Crawford's Directory:

Pick: Early-mid October
Cook: October-December
Eat: January-March
Flowering: 12 (D) <mid-season>
Partially self fertile

Fruit: large, round-conical, pale green, flushed brownish-red, striped red, skin greasy. Flesh: pale cream, quite sharp, juicy, flavour pleasant. Cooked qualities: flavour very light. Texture: keeps shape. Good for making juice.
Cider apple category: full sharp. Tree: vigorous, spreading, hardy, heavy cropping. Parentage: Blenheim Orange x Newton Wonder. Origin: UK (Isle of Wight), 1915.

Here's an extract from another text:

Flowering: mid season
Use: culinary
Season: late
Cropping: heavy
Storage: March
Vigour: T3 <T3 means above average>

"Impressively large culinary apple and popular exhibition fruit, raised Isle of Wight, 1915. Blenheim x Newton. Sweet Juicy fruit. Vigorous trees, crop well, very hardy, so popular in the North"

Here's another extract:

"Famed for lare size. Eaten fresh: quite sweet, juicy, pleasant. Cooked: keeps shape but very light flavour in comparison with Bramley. Exhibition garden variety. Grown small extent commercially. Flowering: 12. Vigour: T3. Spreading tree habit. Resistant to mildew. Cropping: heavy. Pick: October, store: March."

[northepaul]

Kind of bumping this thread, as I am now pretty likely to get one, but wondered if FB (although I havent seen him around since the update!! )could advice on a suitable pollinator for them, pref a russett or dual purpose? Thanks for your help

[FB.]

Howgate Wonder is very fertile (officially part-self-fertile), often producing seedless fruits.
With other apple trees or crab apples in nearby gardens, I don't think that you need to worry about a pollinator.
Howgate Wonder flowers around mid-season, so most other apple varieties should have some flowering overlap.

I'm not sure whether Howgate Wonder has enough scab or canker resistance to cope with the wetter coastal or Western areas. The scab spots on my apples are in the dry-ish East of the UK. It will be much worse the further West you are, due to heavier and more prolonged rainfall.

In wetter areas, I would favour Annie Elizabeth as a slightly more scab and canker resistant substitute for Howgate Wonder, although Annie's fruit is easily blown off in windy autumn weather.

[northepaul]

ok thanks for that advice.
We have just got a new allotment, which the council have opened up, and its literally in a very woody and wild area, not alot of houses nearby. The tree would be situated infront of the wooded, wildlife area, so well protected from rain/wind etc, although the allotment does slightly slope and it would be at the bottom. The ground itself is very rich and crumbly, not at all stoney and fairly neutral, although somewhat compacted through lack of use at the moment. Of course we would revise our plans should the area seem waterlogged for example. Thought its hard to judge as there has been very little rainfall lately.

Therefore I suppose I could say ideally I would like a Howgate Wonder, however on your advice will look closely at the situation as the summer progresses.

Looking around the area, (about a mile square) I cannot see any apple or crab apple trees at all. However we have a big plot and another apple tree would be nice.
Thanks again

[Noosner]

Just stumbled across this thread and wanted to say thanks for all the Howgate Wonder lore. I planted one at my lottie last year - it was bareroot from Blackmoor Nurseries if memory serves me right - and it produced one huge apple, which the nursery said was okay to leave on the tree. Now I can't wait for this year's crop, fingers crossed that there will be one!

[Sylvan]

Thanks for that very useful info FB.
We're about to plant a Howgate Wonder, an Edward VII and an Annie Elizabeth. (They're heeled in at the moment, waiting...)

[chrisdb]

This week I've eaten the first couple of Howgate Wonder apples of the year, raw. I really don't understand how this apple is normally called a cooking apple, since I find them palatable more or less straight off the tree. They're much less sharp than a Bramley, and even less sharp than sharp eaters like Granny Smiths.

Tomorrow we're going to cut off the good bits of some of the scabbier apples and use them to make a cake.

[burnie]

Mine is prone to scab, so rough bits removed they are now fermenting in a demi john. Have had some crumbles too.