Content
- The unmanageable abundance of many apple varieties
- Choose the right variety for your own garden
- Old varieties with good resistance to diseases
- The decision between fresh consumption and storage
- The tree shape must match the variety
- Educate a trellis of fruit trees
- Pollinators for a better yield
- Tips & Tricks
The unmanageable abundance of many apple varieties
Of the more than 20,000 known apple varieties worldwide, only about 60 are economically grown in Central Europe today. However, it can be quite interesting to select old and rare apple varieties for your own garden.
Choose the right variety for your own garden
The selection of the right variety for your own garden depends on apple trees on various factors, these are for example:
There are books and lists in which the individual varieties are described exactly with their respective characteristics. Often, it is probably easier for you to ask garden neighbors or relatives in the area for the regional proven varieties. Well-known varieties from the supermarket such as Granny Smith are often not among these, as they do not fit very well into our latitudes climatically.
Old varieties with good resistance to diseases
Modern cultivars of the apple are often not very resistant to the worst apple diseases even with good care and a regular pruning. If you want to avoid the use of pesticides in your garden against pests and antifungal fungicides, then you should rely on old varieties with certain resistance. Examples of this would be:
The decision between fresh consumption and storage
You should also think about whether you want to consume or store the apples fresh at the time of harvesting. There are sometimes big differences between the different apple varieties in terms of the taste of the fresh fruits and the juice or must produced thereon. In addition, some varieties have very limited shelf life, while others can be stored in the cellar almost throughout the winter. As a general rule, early varieties such as piros and retina have limited shelf life and are more likely to be consumed fresh. On the other hand, prolonged storage and a taste that refines during this time are present, for example, in the varieties Reanda, Regine and Resi.
The tree shape must match the variety
It is no longer a secret art to refine apple trees themselves. To do this, you generally need the following things:
But make sure that not every apple variety is suitable for every growth habit. Therefore, if you want to harvest them yourself with the ladder, you should refine certain early-harvest apple varieties to half-crop. If it is a fruit variety for the preparation of musts, on the other hand a refining on high trunk is no problem. On a high tree, larger amounts of mostly smaller fruits can grow and thus bring a higher juice yield. At the same time, however, you should also have the respective location in your garden in mind. If this is surrounded by high, wind-shielding hedges, the apple trees should be able to grow somewhat higher. Otherwise, in the slipstream of other plants and buildings increases the risk of a permanently damp treetop and thus the risk of fungal attack.
Educate a trellis of fruit trees
For a trellis of apple trees, low-growth varieties with large fruits should be selected. Since the trees are usually relatively sunny with a trellis, heat-loving apple varieties can certainly also be planted. Good varieties for an apple trellis are:
If you like to eat fresh apples directly from the tree, then you should pay attention to different harvesting times when planting several apple trees in the garden. While varieties such as Piros and Retina mature in the summer, varieties such as Enterprise and Regine can be eaten fresh in late autumn and also stored.
Pollinators for a better yield
Not all areas have sufficient wild insects or bees kept by a beekeeper to pollinate an apple tree. If there are still a few apple trees in the vicinity, you should at least not select a self-sterile apple tree for your own garden. If you already have several apple trees in the garden and these fruit poorly, so you can increase the yield perhaps with the planting of a pollinator. Pase varieties with a particularly varietal pollination performance are:
The exact pollination performance can be found in corresponding tables in the literature.
Tips & Tricks
Ideally, ask your local garden specialist to help you choose the right variety. This can give you first-hand recommendations for regional recommended varieties.