Devonshire May and June 18

Devon GARDENING Apple Varieties
Apple photos by Jane Pay
All Doer
Apparently it's a fantastic dual purpose apple,
used for either cooking or cider production.
Having a sharp taste with a sweet edge to it,
the flesh is dry and yellowish in colour. It has
very good scab resistance (see photo above).
Michaelmas Stubbard
A yellowy-green apple with a brownish flush,
this apple has a ribbed basin, long stem and
a large eye. A popular and early dessert apple
ready in August, whaving a distinctive flavour.
Limberland
Originating from North Devon, again another
dual purpose apple, for use either in cooking or
as a sweet desert apple. Its colour is yellow with
green dots and has excellent disease resistance
(see photo above).
Grandpa Ailes
Having exceptional resistance to canker and
scab, it's a relatively new variety, brought from
Kazakhstan by former Reuters correspondent,
a Mr Ailes, back to Woody Bay in North Devon.
Kazakhstan is where our domestic apple varieties
are originally descended.
Ellis Bitter
Being an old East Devon variety, they don't store
well and need pressing soon after harvesting. The
tree is vigorous, makes good juice (see photo
above).
Devonshire Buckland
One of Monty Don's favourite culinary apples,
this tree originated before 1831 and is vigorous,
producing lots of sharp apples with good flavour
and excellent resistance to disease and scab. The
apples keep well and becomes sweeter when
cooked. The skin is waxen yellow, strewed with
small russet dots.
opment of apple varieties. A notable figure from
this time was Thomas Andrew Knight, the son
of a Herefordshire country squire, educated at
Oxford (born 1759). Upon his return, he took
a keen interest in fruit growing, coming up
with new theories about canker and disease
in old apple varieties, one of which was that
each variety has a give life cycle, beyond which
waning vigour gives way to disease. It begs
the question if you can clone and apple tree
infinitely. You have to take into consideration
that the rootstock of the graft has a limited
life of about 70-100 years maximum (less for
dwarf varieties), so perhaps when a new tree
is produced with a graft from the old tree, the
rootstock provides renewed vigour?
Of course, one area for discussion is the
subject of root stock. We know today
that there are various rootstocks approved
for grafting (incidentally, you can also graft
certain apple scions to Hawthorn, they are
both members of the Rose family (Rosaceae)).
The Ministry in Britain stepped in to control
disease in the apple and developed the ‘M’
series rootstocks (M stands for East Malling,
where development and research was carried
out initially).
Here are various examples of rootstocks:
M25, the biggest of the rootstocks having the
longest life expectancy of around 125 years.
M26 is a dwarf rootstock, which would need
clear ground as grass would compete with
the roots, and staking also.
M111 - resistant to wooly aphid and Phytophthera,
passing resistance onto the scion.
Drought resistant and able to cope with wet
conditions.
M106 - very popular in Wales, good success
rate in pots, lifespan around 50 years.
etc.
Viruses can infect grafted trees, but a heat
treatment (originally developed for potatoes)
has been developed to clean up these
viruses, carried out through keeping the scion
in an environment of 38 degrees celsius which
doesn’t kill the virus, but inhibits division, and
means that virus free tissue can grow at the
top of the wood, which can then be used to a
virus free soft graft in early season. Although
these heat-treated trees cannot be bought in
the UK, they're available from Holland.
References - The Apples of England - first
published 1936
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