Sweeter apples ????

The rootstock is about influencing the final size of the tree, and making it suit certain soil conditions.

The graft comes about because often the fruit we want grows on a tree that we don't really want due to size, soil preference, disease resistance etc.

Also if you keep the pips from an apple, and successfully grow them, you probably won't get apples that are the same. The apple from which you took the pips might have been the love child of the tree it grew on and the promiscuous dirty crab apple tree that hangs out down the beck.

 

Yep. But you'd have no way of knowing what the fruit would be like, or what the tree would be like. It could eventually become magnificent, or it could struggle along as a scratty little twig of a thing.

As for the fruit, with the exception of actual crab apples, I've yet to find an apple i don't like. Except that French muck of course, that epitome of false advertising, the golden delicious.

 

You cup the apple in your hand and give a little gentle twist of the stalk; it should then come off in your hand. No pulling or yanking, those ones won't be ready

 

Yep. Stupid autocorrect decided that seeing as I mentioned apples, and the next word was I, of course I must have been on about the iPhone, even though I'd rather disembowel myself with a rusty six inch nail than pay about 600 quid for something that will have a cracked screen before I even realise it can't do as much as a much cheaper android phone

 

The other day, one of my neighbours came in to me with a big bag of baking apples, and dessert (eating) apples. As he makes his living growing these, he is very particular about which varieties he grows.

I had one of the eaters yesterday. It had the most taste of any apple I have ever had! Reasoning that if it grows here, it must grow there, I'll try to find out which one it is. He did tell me, but I forgot. I do know it was not one I have ever heard of before though, and presumably an older variety.

As regards the baking apples, I do know the variety was introduced around 1850...so I have high hopes of those also. Stay tuned...

 

It can be a difficult to get Scandinavian apple trees in this country.
As for Golden Delicious they are quite edible if grown in the correct climate. They need better summers than we usually get in the UK, also to keep well they are picked before they are fully ripe and stored which is never good as ripening on the tree.
I had one off the tree at Brogdale on a tour of the fruit fields there and as we had a good summer that year the Golden Delicious was crisp, sweet and juicy. I would recommend the guided tours..

 

Probably quite true, @NigelJ unless of course the same varieties are available.

 

I have 2 Braeburns and I am in the middle of picking them Now .
They look larger this year than any other year.
I feed my trees with lots of water and lots of Banana Peels, a tip I got from my Dad,many years ago.
With feeding them Banana Peels I'm trying to train them to drop from the trees into the basket..