In the meantime, more and more of the several thousand apple varieties worldwide are available in well-stocked plant shops. However, it can be worthwhile for hobby gardeners to rely on old varieties for the apple harvest.

Find regionally proven varieties

Even if you appreciate the taste of commercial varieties such as Granny Smith and Golden Delicious, these fruit trees in Central Europe do not necessarily deliver satisfactory results. You can certainly grow seedlings from the cores of the fruit you have bought, but the quality of the fruit in home gardens often falls short of expectations. Therefore, consider whether you would not prefer to rely on an old variety with proven suitability for your respective regional climate.

Ask fruit growers and gardeners for advice

Local gardeners and fruit growers are often happy to help if you ask for their advice. Look out for orchards with mature apple trees in your area. These often consist of the following old apple varieties:

  • Gravensteiner
  • boskoop
  • Gdansk Cantapple
  • gold parmesan
  • Kaiser Willhelm

These strains are often doubly useful, as they tend to be less prone to disease and fungus than newer strains. If you can't find an old apple variety on the market, you can also ask an apple grower for some branches from their trees and copulate them on a rootstock or an existing apple tree in your garden.

Old varieties are particularly suitable for allergy sufferers

More and more people are developing cross allergies and food allergies that also extend to ingredients in apples. Nevertheless, apple consumption does not necessarily have to be ruled out, since many old varieties are usually relatively well tolerated. This is due to the polyphenols, which naturally give the apples of old varieties an intense flavor. However, since these substances can also be responsible for spots and discoloration of apples, they were often artificially bred away from newer yielding varieties. If you are allergic to apples, you can look out for old apple varieties at regional markets or graft one onto your own apple tree.

tips and tricks

In the meantime, some mail order companies have also specialized in the sale of old apple varieties. Some of these also offer advantages in terms of storability or use for extracting juice or as baked fruit.

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Trees