Early-ripening Apples

[FB.]

As it's now early apple season, I thought I ask:

What are you growing?
When do they usually ripen for you?
Are the varieties you have worth growing (tasty and/or trouble-free)?
Whereabouts in the UK are they being grown?

Varieties such as (in alphabet order, but not by any means the only early apples):

Beauty of Bath
Devonshire Quarrenden
Discovery
Gladstone
George Cave
Irish Peach
Miller's Seedling
Lady Sudely
Laxton's Early Crimson
Laxton's Epicure
River's Early Peach
Scarlet Pimpernel/Stark's Earliest
Scrumptious
Tydeman's Early Worcester

[orangepippin]

Everything seems very late this year. Even my Vista Bella, looks weeks away from being ready.

[boundtothesoil]

As it's now early apple season....

I'm glad you posted this as I was wondering when the very first apples would be harvested this year, given the cold spring and subsequent 'heat wave'. Will it be an early, average or late season? Incidentally, it is looking like a very bad year for scab for my trees.

Anyway, none of my early varieties are ready, although they are growing pretty well now. Of the varieties on your list, my personal experience in wet mid-west Wales is as follows:-

Beauty of Bath (dates of first harvest in last four years: 3/8/9, 3/8/10, 21/7/11, 8/8/12), smallish fruit, crops well on mature tree, disease free barring a touch of scab this year, pest free, modest flavour, must be eaten within three days off tree.

George Cave (10/8/9, 13/8/10, 1/8/11, no fruit in 2012 due to squirrels). Misshapen king fruit, suffers dreadfully from scab, reasonable flavour, usually crops well, must be eaten within a few days of picking.

Discovery (17/8/9, 16/8/10, 1/8/11, 27/8/12) All round great apple, pretty much disease free, but suffers some maggot/bird/wasp damage

Scarlet Pimpernel: Tree too young until this year, but promisingly large, disease-free looking apples. Vigorous grower.

Tydeman's Early Worcester: Grown two trees both of which were killed by canker around the age of 4 years, also noted that it was very susceptible to scab (like Worcester Pearmain and Katy for me).

[yummersetter]

Beauty of Bath.

Pick up as they fall off the tree and place in a pretty bowl.
Put bowl on dining room table. Admire for about a week and enjoy the perfume of real apples in the house again.
Chop apples up and throw out for the butterflies. And wasps.

[FB.]

Tydeman's Early Worcester: Grown two trees both of which were killed by canker around the age of 4 years, also noted that it was very susceptible to scab (like Worcester Pearmain and Katy for me).

Out of interest, were both your TEW trees from the same supplier?
Were the cankers on the main stem/trunk, the primary branch nodes, the primary branch shoots or on pruning cuts/leaf scars/fruit scars at the ends of branches or spurs?
(I'm wondering whether the trees might have brought latent canker with them from the nursery, or been infected while with you).

Overall, I think fruit is ripe about a week, perhaps two weeks, earlier here than it is for you - the following "mystery apple" (presumed Discovery on M25) topic was started on 09th August 2012 and at the time I stated the apples "...have been ripening for a few days..." which puts Discovery about two weeks ahead for 2012.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ple_67397.html

My typical ripening times are below, varying plus or minus a week depending on the season (in my mild climate and light soil which warms quickly in spring and often causes trees to flower a couple of weeks earlier than they should):

Beauty of Bath: late July

Devonshire Quarrenden: (not grown)

Discovery: early August

Gladstone: late July

George Cave: (not grown)

Irish Peach: early August.

Miller's Seedling: (not grown)

Lady Sudely: (not grown)

Laxton's Early Crimson (not grown)

Laxton's Epicure: late August

River's Early Peach: (not grown)

Scarlet Pimpernel/Stark's Earliest: (not grown)

Scrumptious: late August

Tydeman's Early Worcester: late August

[boundtothesoil]

Out of interest, were both your TEW trees from the same supplier?

Interestingly, 'yes', both from Deacon's nursery, one on MM106 bought in 2004 and the other on M26 bought in 2007. Both cankered initially on one or more of the main framework branches, and later, terminally, on the main trunk above the union.

As an aside, I no longer use this nursery after experiencing two cases of varieties not turning out to be what they were labelled, only evident once they'd started fruiting. Likewise with Chris Bowers. Pretty shoddy really, because I imagine that some people buying trees wouldn't ever actually know that they'd been sold the wrong variety.

[FB.]

Both cankered initially on one or more of the main framework branches, and later, terminally, on the main trunk above the union.

Canker usually invades a leaf-scar or fruit-stem-scar of current-season growth, and may remain dormant for a year or two. Cankers subsequently forming on wood which grew before you bought the tree are almost certainly those which came with the tree from the nursery and are probably not your fault.

[FB.]

...both from Deacon's nursery, one on MM106 bought in 2004 and the other on M26 bought in 2007. Both cankered initially on one or more of the main framework branches, and later, terminally, on the main trunk above the union...

Same here.

As an aside, I no longer use this nursery after experiencing two cases of varieties not turning out to be what they were labelled, only evident once they'd started fruiting. Likewise with Chris Bowers.

Same here.

[FB.]

Have a read of this:

Defra, UK - Science Search

To quote a few parts of it:

"...circumstantial evidence, suggested that the fungus might have means of spread other than by external inoculum. Indeed it seemed probable that N. galligena was able to spread systemically within trees and that the initial infection had occurred at the propagation stage. Trees, which became infected at this early stage, might remain symptomless and only develop canker up to three years after planting. ....."

".....the level of cankers developing on trees from different nursery sources was influenced by the source of the trees......"

"....strongly suggest that the amount of canker that develops after planting is influenced by factors associated with the nursery that supplies the trees......"

".... there were significantly more cankers developing in trees which had been assembled at one of the nurseries....."

".....significant differences were again seen between nurseries which assembled the trees, with the same nursery being associated with significantly more cankers....."

[FB.]

two cases of varieties not turning out to be what they were labelled, only evident once they'd started fruiting. Likewise with Chris Bowers.

What were the varieties/rootstocks supposed to be, and what would be your best guess at what was actually supplied.

Reason I ask is that I still have some young-ish trees from CB but I am suspicious that I might have some on MM106 instead of my requested M25 (we all know how MM106 will end, in my soil) and that I might have some scions which aren't what I asked for (I may have two TEW/M25 rather than a TEW/M25 and a WP/M25 - the alleged WP looks too vigorous, too whippy and too spurry and generally virtually identical to the one labelled TEW/M25).


I also had a previous batch including three MM111 apples (several years ago) where the variety labels got put on the wrong trees, and the rootstock was claimed to be MM111 but they don't produce trees on MM111 and apparently never have.

Survival and quality of trees from CB has been excellent though - strong and healthy plants, although sometimes perhaps not what was requested.

[Hayley]

I have one apple tree which was here when I moved in (type unknown). It's now has a decent supply of apples hanging from it which are approaching a coxes apple size. Temptation got the better or me earlier in the week and a tried one but it was still a little bitter.

[chris]

None of mine are no where NEAR ready. :/ And they're still quite small..

[yummersetter]

Here's the Beauty of Bath, about 3-4 weeks away from dropping off the tree



and Red Miller, two thirds full size, just turning red. And in need of thinning, there was no June Drop there. A month to go.



Quarrenden is just turning red, and when ripe is nearly black. Owen Thomas is a month off too. I think my first usable apple will be Rev Wilkes, they're huge already. Scrumptious and Joanetting didn't flower this year.

[boundtothesoil]

What were the varieties/rootstocks supposed to be, and what would be your best guess at what was actually supplied.

I only ordered two apple trees from CB, a Christmas Pearmain on MM106 and a Lady Lambourne on MM106. Both were ordered as pot-grown for summer planting. The Lady Lambourne turned out to be a Spartan, which I kept and it has grown into a fine tree, looking like MM106 in terms of vigour. The Christmas Pearmain was actually a Charles Ross, which I grubbed up because I needed the space. To make matters worse, in the same order I bought a Warwickshire Drooper plum. This died (root rotten) within 18 months. So, nought out of three, and never again! I hope your suspects turn out to be innocent.

[FB.]

I hope your suspects turn out to be innocent.

I took a closer look earlier today - I'm fairly sure that the TEW and the WP appear identical in every way; 2x TEW (based on tree size, growth habit, the leaves, and even having main branches in almost exactly the same locations on the trunk - but WP should be chunkier-looking, slower-growing, less "spurry" and with sharper serrations on the leaf edge).

My confidence in the WP being true-to-type has gone, so the alleged WP (which I suspect to be TEW) will be removed in the next several weeks and something else planted near its location.
Never mind: due to my soil being poor and a lot of trees failing to establish, I keep a stock of several spare trees which I use as replacements.
I graft a handful of trees each winter, and I often buy a small batch from one or another nursery to "test" them.