Early-ripening Apples

[FB.]

The downside to crossing with Pitmaston Pineapple is that Owen Thomas isn't large, it's Sunset sized, and PP is smaller still.

Triploids often have quite large fruit.
If a tetraploid parent could be acquired (e.g. Tetraploid Spartan or Tetraploid Jonathan - there are others) and if crossed with a diploid the offspring should be mostly triploid.
I believe that's how "Jumbo" came about; Tetraploid Jonathan x Charles Ross.

[boundtothesoil]

I'm happy to send some scionwood, or Brogdale might prepare a plant for you. It was originally supplied by Laxtons.

Thanks very much for the offer, yummersetter. I'll see what Brogdale charge for one-offs, but I don't really want to fork out too much money. I have one or two fairly obscure but interesting Welsh varieties (e.g. Gwell Na Mil or Seek No Further) I could swap.

[yummersetter]

I will just need a reminder, at the right time.

Interestingly I bought a copy of Scott's Orchardist, a nursery catalogue published in the 1870s, that had previously been owned by someone who underlined every bit of information about 'Seek No Further'. I was happy that he'd found it.

[FB.]

Some Epicure apples on the ground this morning, and a couple of wasps and a few ants investigating them.
I just ate the ant and wasp-damaged one (and picked the remainder; only a modest crop because the tree is only 2-3m in size).
The apple was good - not too soft, not too hard, not too dry, not too juicy, not too sharp, not too sweet.
The aroma was nice when I was cutting it up (I always cut up early and mid-season apples just in case a bug is living in it - but Epicure isn't much troubled).
The flavour was mildly aromatic also with hints of aniseed as is often found in Cox and Cox offspring; the aniseed is a bit more noticeable this year but not unpleasant. However, I expect the aniseed hint to become more potent with storing and after a few weeks the apples will probably taste like antiseptic as can many other Cox-types such as Fiesta or Ellison.

Some further comments on Epicure.....
I have had suspicions about the genetics of this variety for a while (non-diploid has been my guess for a while) and looking at the pips in my apple today, they appeared large and numerous but noticeably bent and flattened as is often seen in triploids.
Couple this with the large, thick, leathery, dark-coloured leaves, the difficulty inducing banching, the hyper-vigorous growth habit, its ability to grow and crop well in my nasty dry shallow infertile soil, and the "attractive" blossom and I suspect Epicure is triploid.