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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

We have planted a small orchard this year and I am glad to say that dispite the sodden ground all the trees have put on good growth this summer. I have fourteen apple trees planted and have room for a few more. So what are your favourites?. I liked to grow a few local verities as well as the more popular types so . Whats good to grow in Ireland?

Cheers.

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Torc · Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 108 Location: North Clare

Hi Wayland,
Have you checked with the Irish Seed Savers Association? They have done great work in saving and propagating local varieties.
Wexford should be good apple-growing country; have a thought for those of us in the windy west. My Katya and Cox's Pippins did well this year but the pigs got more joy out of them than the humans.
I got a local heritage variety of cooker from ISSA, called Ballyvaughan, and it seems to be thriving.

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Hi Torc. I will try the I S S A as you suggest. Thanks for that. I did not let our trees produce much fruit this year and will probably do the same next. We have two old trees of unknown variety which after a severe pruning produced little fruit but tons of growth. They should be in full production next year. Thanks again.
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chook · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 305 Location: North Clare

Yep, ISSA's the way to go Wink

My favourite ISSA apple so far is Mrs. Perry (from Donegal), absolutely divine taste. Have planted one but it's too young yet to crop. But they offer a huge variety of apples and there should be plenty listed for the SE.

This is our list:
Katy / Katja, M26, 1997
eater, doing very well, very tasty but does not last long

Red Boskoop, MM106, 1997
dual purpose, doing very well after a slow start, excellent keeper

Grenadier, MM106, 1997
cooker, doing very well, nice for baking etc.

James Grieve, M26, 1997
doing well, heavy crops but prone to scab here even though it's not supposed to be

Irish Peach, MM106, 1998
eater, good crop, very nice + early, small apples but very tasty

Kaiser Wilhelm, MM106, 2002
dual purpose, don't know yet, tree very vigorous + healthy

Redsleeves, M26, 2002
eater, had good crop this year but thanks to the crows I did not get to taste them £$^&*!

Egremont Russet, M111, 2002
don't know yet, tree looks healthy + vigorous

Red Devil, MM106, 2002
as Redsleeves

Jupiter MM106 2002
eater, good + vigorous so far, only got a couple apples this year, tasty

Jonagold, M26, 2002
eater, don't know yet, tree looks good so far

Charles Ross, M26, 2006
eater, don't know yet, tree looks good so far

Early Victoria=Emneth Early, MM106, 2002
cooker, excellent 1. crop this year, totally blemish free large yellow apples, great for baking etc.

Mrs. Perry, 2006, from ISSA
listed as dual-purpose, divine taste, not cropping yet here

Annie Elizabeth M25, 2002
cooker, delicious; first small yield this year, tree exceedingly healthy and vigorous

Dabinette, M25, 2002
cider apple, first crop this year and a good one at that

Winston Winter King, M26, 1999
eater, getting good crops but very late ripening so could do with some more sun than we get here in Clare

Worcester Pearmain, MM106, 1999
eater, lost it to canker

Lord Lambourne, MM106, 1999
eater, lost it to canker but according to a fruit expert who hails from Kenmare a very good choice, will try again (it had canker when it came from the nursery which then spread to the Worcester Pearmain...)

Uncle John's Cooker, M106, 2001 from ISSA,
cooker, don't know yet

Sam Young, M106, 2001 from ISSA
first bit of a yield this year, too early to taste

Gladstone, M106, 2001 from ISSA
eater, don't know yet

Ard Cairn Russet, M25, 2000 from ISSA
eater, don't know yet

Frank's Seedling, M106, 2000 from ISSA
dual purpose, don't know yet

Ballyvaughan Seedling, M106 2000 from ISSA;
dual-purpose, first good yield this year, bit too early to taste yet

Red Gravenstein MM106 2006
eater, don't know yet

I should say that the 6 last listed ISSA trees were planted along our driveway where not only they are more exposed than most others but also got the odd bit of harassment from cows that wandered in from the road and tore at their branches or from goats of ours that broke out. By rights they should be bearing already but they've had a bit of a rough start.

I went mostly with older varieties recommended for northern areas and/or wettish climate, recommended for use in Scotland, and which were said to be relatively disease-resistant. C. 2/3 eater, 1/3 cooker/dual and covering from the earliest August apple to the latest keeper. I bought the first ones from Future Forests in Cork and from Cornucopia in Sligo. The 2002 batch came from England (Frank P. Matthews) together with some interesting pears and Asian pears.
We are in North Clare, about 10 km from the coast and the soil is loamy and relatively well drained (drumlin slope).

HTH
chook

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

WOW Chook!. What a great post Very Happy

. I have some of your list already but I will have to go through them and complie a list. I am particularly interested in those that can deel with wetter ground. My land is at the bottom of a slope and is grey clay over broken shale, and is quite thin in places. My orchard seems to be the wettest with springs flowing out of the surface. It was not like this last year Confused

I will be putting in some drainage soon and hope this improves things.

Cheers.
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Torc · Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 108 Location: North Clare

I'm putting Chook's post up on the wall as something to aim for.
I like the idea of a driveway lined with apples and like all good ideas that come along I'm going to copy it.
I made the mistake of planting too close along a boundary and now my apples have to fight it out with alder, sycamore, ash and god-knows-what else but along the driveway they would get individual attention.

chook · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 305 Location: North Clare

Glad to be of assistance Very Happy

Actually if yous know your way around Excel and filtering, I can e-mail a long list of varieties I compiled when I planned this out.
The list has the varieties, descriptors and columns for
time of use, recommended for Scotland, cold clay, high rainfall, scab/disease resistance, exposed garden, biennial croppers, bloom period, susceptibility to frost, good pollinators etc., good keepers etc.
There was so much info in books and on websites that it was the best way for me to organize it to come up with a shortlist. I should say that ISSA varieties are not in there as I did this before ISSA started selling apple trees.

So for example. if I filter for 'cold clay' and 'high rainfall' together I get
Brownlee's Russet (Brownlea's Russet)
Elton Beauty (James Grieve xWorcester Pearmain)
Grenadier
Lord Derby
Sam Young = Irish Russet
Worcester Permain

If I filter for "recommended for Scotland' and 'high rainfall' I get:
Brownlee's Russet (Brownlea's Russet)
Ellison's Orange
Grenadier
Laxton's Superb
Lord Derby
Monarch
Sam Young = Irish Russet
Worcester Permain

You can see how I ended up with 3 of my varieties. Availability can be a bit of a problem, which is why I ended up pulling a bunch of strings to finally get some trees from Britain.

Of course, down in the SE the high rainfall problem is, well, not such a problem. So if I just filter for Scotland I get a nice long list:

Adam's Permain
American Mother
Annie Elizabeth
Arthur Turner
"Beauty of Bath (Schöner v. Bath)"
Bramley's Seedling
Brownlee's Russet (Brownlea's Russet)
Charles Ross
Court Pendu Plat
Crawley Beauty
Discovery
Early Victoria = Emneth Early
Edward VII
Egremont Russet
Ellison's Orange
Galloway Pippin
George Cave
Gladstone
Golden Spire
Grenadier
Howgate Wonder
Irish Peach (Early Crofton)
Jupiter
Katy
Keswick Codlin
King of the Pippin's
Lane's Prince Albert
Laxton's Fortune
Laxton's Superb
Lord Derby
Lord Lambourne
Merton Knave
Monarch
Norfolk Royal
Redsleeves
Sam Young = Irish Russet
Stirling Castle
Sunset
Suntan
Tydeman's Early Worcester
White Melrose
Winston (Winter King) !
Worcester Permain

I reckon, if they grow in Scotland, they grow here... and once that's sorted I can put them together by eater or cooker, pollination partners, keeping qualities etc.

Oh, and the list also contains pears, plums-gages-damsons as well.
Anyone who wants it, send me a PM. No need to reinvent the wheel.

chook

blowin · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 2:01 am Post subject:

Wow , some serious thought has gone into that Wink

.
I don't want to sidetrack this thread but would strongly advise anyone to put at least as much consideration into practical ways of protecting your young trees if you have deer in your area . The same might apply to rabbits but it was definitely deer that reduced my thriving 4 year old orchard to what now looks like a field full of broomsticks . See separate thread for pics of very expensive and heart-breaking broomsticks .

macconraoi · Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:42 pm Post subject: orchard

A great idea for anyone considering planting a few apple trees is to go along to the apple day that irish seed savers hold at the end of September each year.(28 Sept 0 Cool

You get to sample lots of different varieties of apples cookers and eaters, then you can buy or place an order for the apple that you liked and plant it in your garden. This way you know you will get the apples that you like. They are also great to answer any questions you may have.

Graney · Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 81 Location: East Clare

Great stuff Chook. I always aspire to make decisions based on sound analysis like that ..... but almost always fall well short.

Can't offer much help from my orchard. Mostly old trees that I was hoping to get identified at ISSA but was away when in England when the apple day happened. Do you know, Chook, whether they would do identification on another day if I turned up with my samples?

The varieties I know have been awful but mainly due to pollination problems this year couple with a bad attack of bullfinches. The buggers are so attractive ... but equally damaging.

Have got some Laxton Superb, but they far from live up to their name as they're very cracked and scabby.

Jonagold produced no fruit, nor did Cox. A few Egremont russet, but very small fruit.