Foreign varieties of apples - Florina, Hanik crisp, Red Delicious and Ligol - my reviews
FOREIGN APPLE VARIETIES - MY FEEDBACK AND DESCRIPTION
Foreign varieties of fruit crops are more and more actively prescribed in our gardens. They not only grow normally, but also delight and surprise the owners of the gardens with the first harvests. "Nenashi" varieties of fruit are also present on my site. For now, I'll tell you about apple trees, which, let's say, are at different stages of their development.
In the nursery, one-year and two-year-olds grow, in the garden - older trees in the form of separate plantings, as well as varieties grafted for testing into the crown of aboriginal apple trees. Looking ahead, I note that I have never experienced disappointments from the cultivation of immigrant varieties (partly because over the past decade we have not had a single harsh winter), on the contrary, the results obtained force us to move on and replenish the collection with other novelties.
New items are in fact almost all current collectible varieties. Some, in fact, are already half a century or more, but on our land their names sound "fresh". As I understand it, Poland has mainly experimented with most foreign varieties and continues to actively engage in this. One way or another, the Poles shared their best practices with Ukrainian and Belarusian gardeners. I also took planting material and cuttings from the latter, at the same time I borrowed something from foreign cultivation experience. So, about all the "immigrants" in order.
The very first foreign variety that I got was the French Florina of winter ripening. In 2005, three cuttings were given to me by members of the Voronezh Regional Society of Gardeners and Winegrowers, who received a gift from Belgorod gardeners, and those, in turn, from Ukrainian Sumy. I didn't "drive" the seedlings out of them, but grafted onto the skeleton of a three-year-old apple tree from the Oryol Veteran (I didn't like the taste of the apples). More precisely, I re-grabbed her. Since then, the tree has been alive and well. Along with it, another grows, grafted directly onto the clonal stock, and everything is fine with it too. This is contrary to the widespread description on some internet sites. They provide downright frightening information: Florina is freezing, very demanding for heat, bears fruit in a year, has a mediocre taste, and so on.
Perhaps, on some southern rootstocks, such shortcomings appear. On the domestic medium-sized rootstock 54-118 (I only use it), the variety tolerates frosts over 30 ° (even some Oryol varieties froze under such conditions), the harvest every year gives abundant, and did not observe any periodicity, even partially. The tree is self-pollinated. In summer with a lack of sun, the fruits do not acquire an intense carmine color, but this does not affect the taste in any way: they are sweet with a spicy aroma specific to table dessert varieties. Apples, however, are never large, which, I think, is associated with a high degree of stickiness. Well-tanned fruits are very beautiful. They are barrel-shaped with specks, weighing 100-180 g (depending on the load), keeping quality at their height, for all the years have not seen a single spot of scab.
See also: Varieties of apples with red flesh - surprise neighbors
Foreign breeders, it seems, have always worked not for amateur, but for industrial gardening. To match Florine and all the other varieties that I managed to appreciate. Honey Crisp is an American late-ripening variety, typically commercial: apples look calibrated, very marketable, transportable. Translated into Russian Honey Crisp - "honey crunch". I confirm that the name meets the definition. Last fall, in the second year after planting, the tree bore three fruits in the form of a bunch, and in the past - already two kilograms. I didn't weigh, but the apples were heavy by eye, about 250 g each.
They stain well during August. On an orange background, there are scarlet stripes, and so on almost the entire surface of the skin. A variety of excellent keeping quality. At first, the fruits are so hard that even with shedding they are not injured by dry rough near-trunk soil. You can eat them after a couple of months, if immediately after removal they seem almost plastic. Well, in the period of consumer maturity, the consistency noticeably changes: it becomes softer, pleasantly chipped, very sweet, with a honey flavor, you can see how the pulp shines from the abundant juice. Honey Crisp has an adequate supply of frost resistance and disease resistance. The only thing that I noticed (but so far only last season) is the formation of small cracks in the funnels of individual fruits. The reason remains to be seen, since fruits can rot from this defect.
In 2014, he planted a Polish Ligol... He also showed early maturity - he gave 7 fruits in the third year. By the end of the summer, they could barely hold on to a tree tied to a support. The largest apple weighed 400 g! Of all the imported assortment of Ligol, I still have the largest-fruited variety. It has been sold in chain stores and markets not so long ago, and if anyone noticed, for some reason it is comparatively pale in color. I get it with a rich color, especially from the south side. In the scientific literature, there is an explanation that the intense red color is facilitated by sudden changes in night and day temperatures. Maybe. Ligola fruits are firm, juicy, with a good sugar-acid balance, stored in the cold until the end of March, then their taste changes to a less interesting one. Two points are noteworthy for this variety.
First. The tree is well formed in the form of a spindle, without leaving any tiers, it grows with restraint.
Second. The fruits are firmly attached to the wood, their shedding does not provoke a long break in watering and even a wormhole. In addition, the tree perfectly tolerates our winters, but is susceptible to wood diseases (my colleagues from Voronezh also confirm). So in prevention, this should be the primary focus.
At the end of the 90s, in one of the Voronezh fruit farms, as an experiment, one block was laid with the North American variety Jonathan. The plantations withstood severe frosts, but over the summer the apples did not gain the characteristic dessert taste due to the lack of heat. Time passed, and a new variety came to replace - Jonagold. As far as we know, the Rostovites began to promote it, now amateur gardeners in cooler areas start to grow it, the growing area has already reached the Moscow region.
In our area there are industrial plantings of Jonagold, the trees are brought to fruition, they are kept on trellises. I just recently tasted the fruits of this variety. In the autumnal striped crown, apples ripened at the end of September. The taste is excellent, sweet. The fruits themselves are conical in shape, even under the canopy of the leaves of the mother tree (grafted into the crown of the Autumn striped tree) acquire an orange blush with reddish stripes. While lying down, they gain a waxy gloss, so they do not fade for a long time in the room heat. And yet, with all the advantages of the variety, I managed to find such a minus. During the filling phase, the fruits are extremely sensitive to a lack of calcium, which leads to the defeat of the pulp with a bitter-pitted spot. As an "antidote", it is necessary to treat the leaves with calcium preparations in a chellate form, and it is useful to sprinkle the trunk circle with chalk or dolomite before winter. By the way, the same disease manifests itself in Ligol.
Another variety obtained with the participation of the mentioned Jonathan - Ida-ed... Until recently, he believed that the line of its distribution to the north was limited to the Rostov region. But today I meet him at home, as well as in the Lipetsk and Tambov regions - in private gardens. Apples ripen by the end of October, almost to frost, taste like a dessert. Large dark red fruits with a crimson shade, rounded. It is only because of one appearance that one can try to plant a tree of this kind. Experimenting with it recently and it's worth it. As for frost resistance, I will say this: the plant will withstand minus 25 ° without consequences. Checked. And hot summer for Ay dare yes - that's what you need.
Red Delicious from the southern varieties has always been distinguished by the characteristic conical shape of the fruit with ribbing. He, like no other, has many clones, quite tenacious in the conditions of harsh winters. From me and other Voronezh gardeners, many of the trees purchased at one time in spontaneous markets from Krasnodar sellers (they were issued, of course, for zoned ones) turned out to be Red Delicious. They still live in spite of everything. Some of them are 20-30 years old, they managed to get under 36-degree frosts, and nothing such destructive happened to them. I noted for myself another varietal feature associated with morphology - with age, trees form wide angles of departure from the trunk, which makes it possible to form them without much effort in a stanza form where winters are frosty and snowy. The fruits of Red Delicious are not lousy, they keep well, but they love the dry air of the store. The taste changes after January - closer to the core, the pulp becomes somewhat bitter.
And who doesn't know Golden Delicious? In common parlance, "apple-pear". Fruit market classics. It is still sold everywhere, many love it for its unique dessert taste. Unfortunately, the variety is gentle, loves a mild climate. But there is a worthy alternative for it. 12 years ago, one familiar nursery breeder who moved to us from Alma-Ata, shared a seedling of the variety Aynur... It was bred by the North Kazakhstan Research Institute of Horticulture from crossing the local Aport with Golden Delicious. And we must pay tribute to the genetics: they got practically a double, only with increased winter hardiness.
See also: Apple tree varieties Ainur (photo) - my reviews
The fruits are the same as those of Golden Delicious: elongated, yellow interspersed, with a long stalk, the flesh is creamy, sweet, with a harmonious taste. Winter 2010 with winds and February frosts up to 35 ° C affected Ainur only by damage to flower buds. The tree then did not bear fruit, that's all. The variety can be attributed to the intensive type. Fruiting is regular, abundant, the tree gives little "single" long increments, moreover, it is drought-resistant.
All of these varieties, I think, still show good plasticity. This and their other qualities give the right to recommend them to lovers of new things, first of all - to expand the range of apple trees.
The American Red Chief and the Czech selection Champion have recently added to their collection. I brought the cuttings from Michurinsk, from already fruiting trees, planted as experimental ones. This year I hope to get a "signal" harvest from three-year-olds.
© Author: Yu. PRYAKHIN, agronomist-gardener, variety tester Voronezh region
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- Varieties of apples with red flesh - surprise neighbors
- The best varieties of apple trees for the Moscow region - photo + name + description and my reviews
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