Fruit Trees

Well not exactly pineapples but the next best thing. If you have never tried a Pitmaston Pineapple apple then you are missing out.

It is a funny little thing, maybe only three inches long, conical and bright yellow when ripe. It is a child sized apple but don’t let the kids eat them all…

Texture is crunchy – a good Pitmaston Pineapple cracks when you bite it. It had better because they are so small that you will only get 2 or 3 bites; BUT the taste packs a punch well above their weight. Lightly acid with masses of sugar and a flowery scent. Delicious for the first 5-10 seconds and then an unmistakable after-taste of pineapple rushes in and grey, chilly, windswept Somerset suddenly becomes Jamaica.  Not just Somerset actually, I just live here. The Pitmaston Pineapple hails from Worcestershire as so many good apples do. It is as tough as old boots and will grow pretty much anywhere that apples can in the UK.

Which is a good thing because it is one of those apples that get children (and adults) interested in fruit. Every garden should have one.

There seems to be a general consensus that Kingston Black is the best cider apple tree there is.  No favouritism here even though both it and I come from Somerset (albeit in different centuries).

When cider is described as vintage, it refers not so much to its age, but to the fact that it is made from a single variety of apple.  In cider parlance vintage = unblended.  Sort of a single malt.  Opinions vary about the best single malt (my favourite is Glenmorangie) but few argue that cider made from Kingston Black apples stands on its own.  I have heard it described as the Cox’s Orange Pippin of cider apples and the analogy is not a bad one.  The flavour in unrivalled but Kingston Black is also harder to grow than some others and (like Cox’s Orange Pippin) is a modest yielding apple. But balance against that the ideal combination of acid, alcohol, body, fruit and tannin and you can see why this is an apple apart. Which of course is why Kingston Black apples are generally used to improve a blend of other apple juices from heavier yielding trees.

Just like other apples with the word “black” in their name, Kingston Black is extremely dark in colour – deep red turning to dark purple, at times almost black. The apples themselves are short stalked and quite little.  There are lots of them, but they need thinning .  It has a pronounced biennial habit and as hinted above, is a relatively weak cropper which has low resistance to both scab or canker.  Absolutely not a tree for an organic orchard unless you are a real pro.  Having said which it grows wonderfully well for some people.

For the reasons of low yield, being disease prone and having a biennial cropping tendency don’t plant this as your only cider tree (there are more reliable vintage varieties).  However, if you are planning to plant an orchard with cider in mind (6+ cider trees) then Kingston Black should be first on your list.  If it grows for you an crops well in a good year, spoil yourself and make an unblended cider from Kingston Black.

Tasting it yourself before offering to share with your friends is a great test of the meaning of the phrase “self-sacrificing”….

Scott’s of Merriott was, as my father (who was born in the reign of the Great Queen) used to say, a name to conjure with.  In their day they were unquestionably the premier fruit tree nursery in the country.

Scott’s have been around a long time – so long in fact that there is considerable evidence to support the claim that the use of the word “nursery” as applied to plants originated with them. They grew roses in considerable number (and well) but fruit trees and apple trees in particular were their speciality.  Holders of a national collection of apple trees, one of the biggest trainers of skilled grafters with (in the 60′s) the largest apprenticeship scheme in the UK fruit industry, tragically Scott’s are no more.

They lost their way perhaps 10 years ago as they tried to “modernise” and become a garden centre. Merriott is a lovely town in Somerset, but passing trade is not its strong suit.  Marketing was weak – the last Scott’s catalogue was produced in either 2004 or 2005, they came late to the internet and customer service which had once been the best, declined.

The death throes lasted for about three years – Scotts accounts show it lost money consistently over that time and it went though an administration (reflecting an inability to continue trading solvently) and settlement with its creditors in 2007.  However all that came to an end when the liquidators were appointed in September 2009. Sadly, no one is interested in the business any more – sales are perhaps 10% (in real terms) of what they were even 5 or 6 years ago, the site is off the beaten track, the trained staff have gone to other specialist fruit tree nurseries such as Ashridge Trees, Keepers, Matthews and others. And as a result the customers have gone too.  The liquidators have a closing down sale in the second week of November.

The sad moral of the story is that fruit tree nurseries, like any other business need to stick to their knitting.  Be clear about what you are doing, be good at it and  never stop trying to be better than you were.

Given the way the industry has moved on, we are unlikely to see the like of Scotts again – Sic transit gloria…..

It is a sad fact of life that clearing up is a fact of life….

Never more so than in October and November in the orchard. When you are not picking apples (and we have plenty to pick as last year we harvested, stored, juiced, cidered, dried and ate just over 500 Kgs of apples) you are picking them up. Windfalls make good cider, but they encourage slugs and provide shelter and late season food for a range of pests. So pick them up and use them or lose them; but don’t leave them on the ground.

Same goes for leaves. Rake them up and burn them. Please DO NOT PUT THEM ON THE COMPOST HEAP.  Fruit tree leaves invariably carry some disease or another by the end of the season and the only safe place for a diseased leaf is on the fire (or down at the council dump). You can eradicate a number of fungal infections just by being scrupulous about getting rid of fruit tree leaves – most notably scab which overwinters on detritus under fruit trees.

And ditto for prunings.  They smell sweet when burned and you can spread the bonfire ash on the ground around your trees or just put it in the compost.

And finally, clear grass and weeds away from the trunks of the trees in your orchard. Spread some well rotted organic matter where you have cleared away and you will hugely increase your crop size next year.

Not that we need to of course…..

We needed to send a picture of a bush apple tree carrying fruit to a someone who wanted some at their wedding reception ….

My eyes lit on a good looking Spartan which I duly started to photograph.  It had a cluster of red apples that, although young were good looking…

Turning it round to see if it had a “better side” I noticed that it also had a cluster of completely green apples.  I had a really good check to make sure this was not one of our family apple trees that had got muddled up with the single species apple trees, but the leaves are the same all over, the fruit shapes are identical and there is only one graft. It may not be a Spartan but it is assuredly a single species apple tree.

Now Spartan apple trees tend to ripen in a rush (i.e. pretty much all at once) and these, as you can see from the pictures are weeks apart.

While waiting to send plants out, we tend to keep them quite close together and the only possible explanation I can come up with is that the green apples were in deep shade, while the reds were in the sun. This leads one to thoughts of delaying the ripening of some apples on a tree by deliberately shading them. Paper bags, fleece, socks all spring to mind as potential parasols…. suggestions anyone?

If you have not got any fruit trees and want to try take a look at these Apple Trees

Plant a crab apple tree this winter such as Malus hupehensis (blossom pictured) or Malus Golden Hornet.

Sargents Crabapple or Malus Hupehensis in Flower

Crab apple trees flower over an extended period in the spring and so are able to pollinate virtually all the apple trees you are likely to grow. No more worrying about fertile apples, pollinators and triploids.

As an added benefit, most crab apples are truly beautiful in flower and carry brightly coloured fruit deep into the winter. The crabs are extremely bitter but make great jelly.

As the Meerkat says – “Simples”

Hugh Ermen is the king of apple breeders in the UK.  The man is a genius (and proof that amateurs can win) and has a list of apples to his name of which perhaps the best known are Limelight, Red Devil and Winter Gem.

Well, Scrumptious is another. It is a lovely apple, nearly full red, with crisp firm flesh when picked.  It ripens in September and holds well on the tree for at least four weeks and will keep well for a further couple of weeks if you store it in a cool place.   For a relatively early apple, these are brilliant qualities (none of those discoveries all ripe on the same day…)

Scrumptious apple trees are self fertile (remember in the apple world self fertile means they carry fruit without the need for a pollinator but crops are always better if cross pollination occurs). This is a disease resistant frui tree and handles frost pretty well making it a good choice for colder parts of the country.

This site is dedicated to all things to do with fruit trees.  Over time it will grow into an information resource to help with choosing fruit trees. There will be articles on how to plant fruit trees and, where necessary tables dealing with fruit tree pollination.  This is not a commercial site, we are doing it for fun, so all fruit tree contributions will be welcome.  Recipes for when you have too many apples, things to do with pear tree wood, models you can make with cherry stones, how to meddle with a medlar or make quince cheese.  The fruit tree world is your oyster.