Apple varieties for north west highlands

[BigJim]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get some apple trees, but keep reading conflicting advice on what varieties would be best for round here. I'm not far from Inverewe gardens so as you can imagine the climate is relatively mild, reasonable rainfall but since I'm out on a headland it is more often cloudy with rain only in the mountains, soil is fairly fertile and drains well. So, the main problem is wind - as you can see from the photo below, there is not a lot of shelter.

(my house is the one with the light green roof btw)



I'm after an eater and a cooker, hopefully that will pollinate each other. Howgate Wonder seems to be recommended quite often, and for eaters things like James Grieve and Katy but am told these won't store for long. Anyone know anything about Court of Wick as well?

Thanks, Jim

[FB.]

Wet areas are more prone to canker and scab. James Grieve and Howgate Wonder have only average ability to resist those diseases.
However, both are widely grown in Scotland for their hardniess, which may mean there are plenty of old trees of those varieties, upon which diseases have evolved to specialise in atacking them.

I've found that the best varieties are those which are extremely rare. Their unusual genetic make-up means that the diseases take years to mutate and evolve ways to attack them.
Fruit tree diseases tend to come in different "strains", with each strain specialising in attacking just one or two varieties, partly because of the way that commercial orchards operate, with vast blocks of trees of the same variety. For example: a disease strain that efficiently attacks James Grieve will struggle to attack another variety such as Spartan.

Court of Wick, being a Somerset variety, may prefer warmer and longer growing seasons than Scotland. However, it is likely to be quite disease-resistant in Scotland.

I consider that you have several problems to take into account:

1.
Wet or humidity leading to scab and canker disease.

2.
Cold winters, requiring hardy trees.

3.
Shorter and duller growing seasons, requiring varieties that can ripen adequately.

4.
Fruit being blown off the tree (before it is ripe) by the wind.


..................

One way to try to overcome canker disease is to grow on a more vigorous rootstock, so that if you have to prune out many cankers, the tree will be strong enough to re-grow what is removed.
MM111 rootstock would be ideal for that purpose, being quite vigorous and having good tolerance to diseases and to extremes of nature. MM111 can reach about 4 metres when mature (about 10-15 years), but pruning can keep it much smaller. Choice of variety will also influence final size, with Howgate Wonder being more vigorous than James Grieve.
M26 rootstock would be my suggestion for a smaller bush-tree of 1.5-2 metres size when mature (about 7-10 years).
MM106 rootstock, in my experience, is not as hardy nor as resistant to "wet weather diseases" as M26 or MM111.
The dwarfing rootstocks M27 and M9 may not be hardy nor vigorous enough, while the very vigorous M25 rootstock may not be hardy enough nor resistant enough to diseases of wet regions.

You may want to consider renowned old Scottish varieties, which would have been developed by natural selection and therefore well-suited to your climate.

Here is a list of some varieties that are recommended for the North which I have proven as useful in my own unsprayed situation (with any problems or unusual benefits listed). I can't comment on the ancient Scottish varieties, but they may be even better than the list below.
Note that "no special resistance" means about average as far as apples go, but that may not be good enough in a wet area.

Ashmead's Kernel (poor pollinator, no special canker resistance, late ripening, bitter pit)
Beauty of Bath (fruit drops easily, no special canker resistance)
Charles Ross (no special canker resistance)
Court Pendu Plat (may not ripen properly, therefore may only be useful as cooker, wind resistant)
Crawley Beauty (wind resistant)
Discovery (no special canker resistance)
Edward VII (no special canker resistance)
Egremont Russet
Ellison's Orange (slightly prone to canker)
Fiesta/Red Pippin (variable reports of canker or scab)
Greensleeves (no special canker resistance)
Grenadier (fruit drops easily)
Howgate Wonder (no special disese resistance)
James Grieve (no special disease resistance, fruit drops easily)
Laxton's Epicure (slightly prone to canker)
Jupiter (relatively unproven variety, may not have any special resistance to canker)
Lord Derby (somewhat prone to brown rot)
Lord Lambourne (no special resistance to disease)
Reverend Wilks
Spartan (no special resistance to canker)
Tydeman's Early Worcester (no special resistance to canker)
Tydeman's Late Orange (may not ripen properly)
Worcester Pearmain (no special disease resistance)

[FB.]

You may also find some useful information regarding varieties suitable for Scotland on the website of John Butterworth:

> Link <

[BigJim]

Thanks for that, loads of good information. It's a shame butterworths have closed, they would have been perfect.

[pinns]

by the way jim, that photo is stunning, don't plant your apples in the way of your view!!