Of the more than 20,000 apple varieties known worldwide, only about 60 are grown in Central Europe today in an economically significant way. 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 various factors for apple trees, these are for example:

  • the adaptation of a variety to the regional climate
  • the composition of the soil at the site
  • the early or late harvest of apples
  • use for fresh consumption or for storage
  • the pollination performance in your own garden
  • the available space in your own garden

There are books and lists in which the individual varieties are described in detail with their respective properties. However, it is often easier for you to ask your garden neighbors or relatives in the area for the regionally proven varieties. Well-known varieties from the supermarket such as Granny Smith are often not among these, as the climate does not suit them particularly well in our latitudes.

Old varieties with good disease resistance

Modern cultivars of apples are often not very resistant to the worst apple diseases, even with good care and regular pruning. If you want to avoid using pesticides against pests and fungicides against fungal infestation in your garden, you should rely on old varieties with certain resistances. Examples of this would be:

  • Piros
  • retina
  • Alcmene
  • topaz
  • Renora
  • Rewena

The decision between fresh consumption and storage

You should also consider whether you want to use the apples fresh at the time of harvest or whether you want to store them. There are sometimes major differences between the different apple varieties in terms of the taste of the fresh fruit and the juice or must produced from it. In addition, some varieties can only be stored for a very limited time, while others can be stored in the cellar for almost the entire winter. In general, early varieties such as Piros and Retina can only be stored for a limited time and are intended more for fresh consumption. On the other hand, the varieties Reanda, Regine and Resi, for example, are stored for a longer period of time and their taste improves during this time.

The tree shape must match the variety

It is no longer a mysterious art to graft apple trees yourself. To do this, you generally need the following things:

  • an apple seedling or a special growing medium
  • one or more scions
  • a sharp knife or sharp pruning shears
  • a band to bandage the wound site

Please note, however, that not every apple variety is necessarily suitable for every growth form. You should therefore graft apple varieties intended for fresh consumption with an early harvest time to semi-stems if you want to harvest them yourself with the ladder. If it is a variety of orchard used for making must, then grafting it onto a standard tree is not a problem either. Larger quantities of the usually smaller fruits can grow on a standard tree and thus also bring a higher juice yield. At the same time, you should also keep the respective location in your garden in mind. If this is surrounded by high hedges that protect against the wind, the apple trees should be able to grow a little taller. Otherwise, in the lee of other plants and buildings, the risk of a permanently damp treetop and thus the risk of fungal infestation increases.

Raise a trellis of fruit trees

For a trellis of apple trees, weak-growing varieties with large fruits should be selected. Since the trees on a trellis are usually relatively sunny, heat-loving apple varieties can also be planted. Good varieties for an apple trellis are:

  • rondo
  • rhapsody
  • Burlat
  • Combine early and late varieties

If you like to eat fresh apples straight from the tree, you should pay attention to different harvest times when planting several apple trees in the garden. While varieties such as Piros and Retina ripen in summer, varieties such as Enterprise and Regine can still be eaten fresh and stored in late autumn.

Pollinating varieties for a better yield

Not all areas have enough wild insects or beekeepers to pollinate an apple tree. If there are also a few apple trees in the vicinity, you should at least not choose a self-sterile apple tree for your own garden. If you already have several apple trees in your garden and they are not fruiting well, you may be able to increase the yield by planting a pollinator variety. Suitable varieties with a particularly varietal-universal pollination performance are:

  • Alcmene
  • gold parmesan
  • ontario

The exact pollination performance can be found in tables in the specialist literature.

tips and tricks

Ideally, seek advice from a garden specialist in the area to choose the right variety. He can give you first-hand recommendations for regionally recommended varieties.

Category:

Trees