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I'm seeking advice on the earliest ripening apple varieties. Which are the best ones and why?
The reason being that I'm looking for varieties to use in my small-scale apple crossing. One of my breeding aims is early ripening. So far, I've inter-crossed between Beauty of Bath, George Cave and Scarlet Pimpernel (a.k.a Stark's Earliest from the USA). These are the only earlies I grow and know. Each has its good and bad points under my wet Welsh growing conditions:-
Beauty of Bath is very early for me (first harvest date over last four years between 21July - 8 August). It looks great, is pretty much pest and disease free, but drops prematurely, has a high proportion of small fruits and loses what little flavour it has within a couple of days of picking.
George Cave (harvested 8 August- 26 August), is meant to have a superior flavour to Beauty of Bath, but for me is very prone to scab and codling moth, has misshapen 'king' apples and is very attractive to birds and squirrels
. It also loses its flavour within a very few days of picking.
Scarlet Pimpernel: My trees haven't yielded sufficient fruit to judge properly, but it seems to be a disease-free, modest flavoured, short shelf-life variety so far. It also has the possible genetic advantage of coming from the US (bred by Stark brothers? unknown parentage). This variety was grown commercially on a smallish scale in Cambridgeshire until the 1970s.
I've also used the very early cooker, Emneth Early as a parent, although it is a codlin shaped fruit.
In my opinion, the qualities one would want in an improved very early ripening variety, would be (1) better (i.e. more aromatic) and longer lasting flavour, (2) lower premature drop and (3) retention of the high pest and disease resistance of Beauty of Bath, 4) reasonable size, (5) perhaps a slightly softer initial bite experience. Are these right, or have I missed some?
I've assumed that crosses between two early varieties are generally more likely to yield early ripening progeny, compared with crosses between an early and a midseason variety. Likewise I've assumed that very early flowering, hence susceptibility to frost damage, wont be that much of a problem in many areas in the future, and, anyway, early flowering doesn't seem to be a prerequisite for early ripening (see Emneth Early which blossoms quite late but ripens pretty early). Too early and there might not be any bees around!
The reason being that I'm looking for varieties to use in my small-scale apple crossing. One of my breeding aims is early ripening. So far, I've inter-crossed between Beauty of Bath, George Cave and Scarlet Pimpernel (a.k.a Stark's Earliest from the USA). These are the only earlies I grow and know. Each has its good and bad points under my wet Welsh growing conditions:-
Beauty of Bath is very early for me (first harvest date over last four years between 21July - 8 August). It looks great, is pretty much pest and disease free, but drops prematurely, has a high proportion of small fruits and loses what little flavour it has within a couple of days of picking.
George Cave (harvested 8 August- 26 August), is meant to have a superior flavour to Beauty of Bath, but for me is very prone to scab and codling moth, has misshapen 'king' apples and is very attractive to birds and squirrels
. It also loses its flavour within a very few days of picking.Scarlet Pimpernel: My trees haven't yielded sufficient fruit to judge properly, but it seems to be a disease-free, modest flavoured, short shelf-life variety so far. It also has the possible genetic advantage of coming from the US (bred by Stark brothers? unknown parentage). This variety was grown commercially on a smallish scale in Cambridgeshire until the 1970s.
I've also used the very early cooker, Emneth Early as a parent, although it is a codlin shaped fruit.
In my opinion, the qualities one would want in an improved very early ripening variety, would be (1) better (i.e. more aromatic) and longer lasting flavour, (2) lower premature drop and (3) retention of the high pest and disease resistance of Beauty of Bath, 4) reasonable size, (5) perhaps a slightly softer initial bite experience. Are these right, or have I missed some?
I've assumed that crosses between two early varieties are generally more likely to yield early ripening progeny, compared with crosses between an early and a midseason variety. Likewise I've assumed that very early flowering, hence susceptibility to frost damage, wont be that much of a problem in many areas in the future, and, anyway, early flowering doesn't seem to be a prerequisite for early ripening (see Emneth Early which blossoms quite late but ripens pretty early). Too early and there might not be any bees around!
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