Apple trees varieties???

artieanna

Hi I'm planning to get a small orchard planted up soon, I am wondering what varieties of cooker and eater would be good.

Cooker and eater
medium/large tree
I want good cropper
medium to large apples
slight red blush on fruit

Any recommendations?
Some of the old varieties were superb but I don't have any of the names, is there anywhere I can get them?

I'm in the Wesht:D

slowburner

There was one variety which I always thought made the finest eating apple of all 'Beauty of Bath' - I haven't seen it for a long time and never saw it grown commercially. Not sure why, I inherited a mature one which was prolific and healthy as long as I had it.

mountainy man

The best place is seed savers in co. clare they have apple trees to suit all conditions and mabey one native to your own county, you can order online and they will post or go to them direct they have an outstanding collection.
I have a few from them inc. appletown wonder a fantastic large eater and unclejohn's cooker a dual purpose apple and gibbeys apple lovely sweet red eater.

http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/Organic_Apple_Trees_s/92.htm

(no conection just a very happy costomer:D)

theparish

Just picked the last of the "James Grieve".It is a good cropper and lovely eating at this time of year,can be used as cookers end of July August.No problems after the cold winters and a wet summer.

artieanna

mountainy man wrote: »

The best place is seed savers in co. clare they have apple trees to suit all conditions and mabey one native to your own county, you can order online and they will post or go to them direct they have an outstanding collection.
I have a few from them inc. appletown wonder a fantastic large eater and unclejohn's cooker a dual purpose apple and gibbeys apple lovely sweet red eater.

http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/Organic_Apple_Trees_s/92.htm

(no conection just a very happy costomer:D)

Yes I have heard of them, Dermot O'Neill sourced some trees from them in his tv programme. I will definitly look them up thanks for the link.

Mr.Applepie

http://www.orangepippin.com/

This is a great site for a bit of apple research. They have a store as well

Hesh's Umpire

I always loved Charles Ross apples. Yum, would love one now but sadly haven't seen them in years.

artieanna

I have neighbours with gorgeous apples for pies and have no idea what variety they are such a shame to see some of those great old varieties disappearing.

Would have a go at grafting but its soo much hassle getting rootstock, and I would probably fail miserably:(.....

Thinking strongly about buying from seedsavers must get in touch with them...trees are around €19 each delivery extra....

moceri

DESSERT APPLES IRISH
Ardcairn Russet
Ballyvaughan Seedling
Blood of the Boyne
Brown Crofton
Gibbons Russet
Irish Peach
Kerry Pippin
Kilkenny Permain(Also suitable as Cooker)
Lady Fingers of Offaly
Lough Tree of Wexford
Reid's Seedling
Ross Nonpareil
Sam Young
Scarlet Crofton

COOKER IRISH
Ballyfatten
Bloody Butcher
Uncle John Cooker

Available from Future Forests, Bantry, Cork

artieanna

update,

I decided against seedsavers because they are some distance away so I would have had to go to clare to pick them up or pay quite a bit to have the trees shipped.

So, I went to my local nursery and was very happy with the selection of trees they had, at only €8 each. I bought the varieties brambly seedling, beauty of bath and katy all on mm106 rootstock.

Northumbria

Hi I'm planning to get a small orchard planted up soon, I am wondering what varieties of cooker and eater would be good.

The Irish and English varieties are usually the most hardy, some of the hardiest in the world in fact so more suitable for Western Ireland.

The English varieties are usually more refined and easier to find though, a lot of the smaller Irish varieties have to come from specialist nurseries.

Older varieties can have a great taste but often don't store as well. Usually if an older variety is rare it's for a reason, just because it is old it doesn't mean that it is good. But upon saying that there are some good ones which put some of the newer varieties to shame.

I haven't looked into older varieties too much because they don't really concern me too much (because I'm not going to buy them at the inflated prices).
A lot of new varieties are just hybrids between a few older varieties anyway, but I do see the value of preserving some of the better old varieties. Around here we have "Lord Derby" which is a good cooker and suitable for cool, wet areas such as Ireland.

You can find some varieties listed here, both new and modern. Not all are there, but there's a lot.
There's a lot more English, French or American varieties than Irish or any other country for that matter. A lot of the hardier English ones are good for Ireland such as Lord Derby as mentioned above.

Don't forget Irish Peach though, its flavour is supposed to be great and it used to be exported to the UK. It doesn't store as well as some others though.

marknine

slowburner wrote: »

There was one variety which I always thought made the finest eating apple of all 'Beauty of Bath' - I haven't seen it for a long time and never saw it grown commercially. Not sure why, I inherited a mature one which was prolific and healthy as long as I had it.

That brings back a few memories regarding the Beauty of Bath apple.
Great apples, but they have a very short shelf life and are only good when in season. We used to grow them up in Donegal and the trees are still there, although they are well past there prime. I think they must be at least 100 years old if not more.