I choose two of this variety to plant as it's an eater/cooker. My 3 trees are Minarette®
Minarette fruit trees are closely-pruned, single-stemmed columnar trees (vertical cordons) that grow only 2 to 3 feet wide and about 6 to 8 feet tall. They produce full-size fruit directly on short side spurs close to the main trunk, making them ideal for small gardens, patios, or tight spaces
They were planted (probably too close together) in the first Autumn I was here - 2021 - and have produced a few apples in most years since. They now have the fig tree to fight with too.............. the problem with once having 5 acres then 1 acre is failing to adjust to a small village garden!
A couple had fallen off already so I picked the rest and peeled them, removed all the maggoty bits leaving me with just two bags of slices for the freezer.
Better than nothing.
The other Minarette is Falstaff, an eating apple tree and has lots on this year. I should have thinned them in June- but it kept being too hot to work outside. It's thinned itself - lots have fallen off but I'm hopeful for several to eat soon.
Not sure if the variety of my apples. The tree was an Aldi bargain years ago
ReplyDeleteMy cheapie was supposed to be a Bramley but turned out to be Spartan (probably)!
DeleteOur little apple trees won’t be giving us much this year and I suspect there won’t be boxes of free apples outside gates after the summer weather. Good that you have some for the freezer.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
I had a gift of windfall Bramleys but they were very wormy. Might be given more but they aren't fun to process
DeleteI have a Peasgood Nonsuch in my orchard (and Ed has a Cox's Orange Pippin - we will have to give them an intro!!) A few apples are better than none. A couple of my apple trees have none at all, the pears ditto and the plums have never shown me a blossom yet, so are obviously getting established. I met a lovely lady (she sold me a corner cupboard) who sell fruit trees, so I shall go along to her in the spring and get a couple of nice ones for the plot.
ReplyDeleteYou need to do a paintbrush cross pollination and see what happens but I'm sure it's more complicated than that
DeleteHarvesting a small crop of apples is good. The trees will likely produce more as they age. Your smallish crop might be due to the hot weather and not enough rain. As gardeners, we always hope for a better year.
ReplyDeleteJust a few for winter now in the freezer. Always useful
DeleteWe are definitely leaving the apple tree that we planted at our current house behind when we move out. We have never had a really good crop of apples from it. Last we we got a lot but they weren't in very good condition.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend the Minarette rootstock, they take up hardly any room and give a bit of height.
DeleteWe have had a tremendous drop of fruit this year, hardly any pears left but fortunately plenty of Bramleys left, it was so laden that it was probably a good thing the tree shed plenty in the very hot weather.
ReplyDeletePenny