In his article ‘Essential Pears and Apples’, on the main web-site, Adrian Baggaley rates Katy above Discovery as an early apple, but I think that this is under-rating Discovery, which in my experience is a splendid variety. Its fruits are a pretty pinky red and when really ripe the flesh becomes marbled with pink, which must indicate plenty of antioxidants if we follow the logic explained in ‘Red and Bitter’ on the phenol content of apples that Howard Stringer has translated – see main web-site.
Discovery is crisp, sweet and juicy with some of the strawberry flavour of Worcester Pearmain, one of its probable parents, but it must be well ripened to catch it at its best. In addition there is its natural resistance to mildew and scab and unlike most earlies it does not drop off but hangs on to colour and ripen up beautifully. This was one of the features that recommended it to the late Jack Matthews, the nurseryman who introduced Discovery in the early 1960s. To popularise his new variety he used to hold a party under the original tree, which is probably still growing at Langham in Essex.
Let’s extend the ‘must haves’ to Discovery?
Joan Morgan
To read: ‘Essential Pears and Apples’ go to: http://www.fruitforum.net/essential-pears-and-apples.htm and
for ‘Red and Bitter’: http://www.fruitforum.net/red-and-bitter-health-giving-phenols-in-apples.htm
In his article Adrian Baggaley mentions growing upright cordons on M26. I have several upright cordons on M27 and do not find this a satisfactory method of training.
Vigour is generally not a problem but the trees want to form a ‘head’ at the top of the cane which I have difficulty in controlling. I have found fruit bud production and consequent set poor. I have now tried training a growth at the top of the cane horizontally along a new cane. These horizontal growths are producing fruit buds but as yet this has not induced additional fruit buds on the vertical stem.
I have had good results with triple/quadrouple stem triploids on M27 and also trees on M9 trained with oblique and horizontal branches.
While I heartily agree with Joan Morgan’s preference for Discovery apple over Katie, we both live in the southern part of England, with guaranteed warmer summers. Sun affects flavour by enhancing the conversion of starch into sugar in the apple and this can lead to interesting comparisons between the same varieties grown in south and north of the country.
Some years ago a friend in Yorkshire told me how he could ripen apples in his area just as well as we could in the south. To prove his point he sent me samples, some early, some late mid-season ones. Colouration was as good as ours, but when it came to the bite test, our southern grown apples were distinctly of better flavour. A different process, night cooling, obviously more noticeable in the north, causes colouration of the skin.
Katie apple was bred in Sweden, looked good and cropped extremely well. It was quite popular in the UK and grown here for some years, especially by Pick-Your-Own growers. I never liked its weak flavour. Discovery stems from the village of Langham in Essex, needs to be well ripened to taste good. This was once also very popular, but market pressures caused growers to pick the fruit long before they developed the all-strong bright red flush and hence the flavour was second rate. It is now slipping away into obscurity now, as the public prefers the late crops from the southern hemisphere. In the garden, one has to protect from birds, they have a voracious appetite for them.
May I end by mentioning one of my own favourite early apples? Bakers Delicious, found in Wales, just as early, well flavoured, also red flushed, but for some strange reason, untouched by the birds.
In connection with the comment from John Kersey, dominance of the top will result if trees have not had their regular annual summer pruning – this should regulate growth and production of fruit buds. Also it is usually wise to lightly tip the apical shoot each winter in order to stimulate buds to break. Cordon training is really so easy and successful. However, I would query the use of M27, unless on a particularly good soil.
I know there are often problems of dominance with the upper tiers of espaliers, but this should not occur on trees regularly summer pruned. Sometimes people start off with poor quality trees and it is then more difficult to get a nice distribution of shoots and future fruit spurs. With cordons (and all tree forms) it is, of course, important to start with a well formed tree, one with side shoots (not a donkey`s hind leg), but varieties differ in their production of these ‘feathers’ in the nursery. But with cordons one has such good control over growth and cropping! It is the easiest way of growing apples and pears. And remember to consult the good old ‘Fruit Garden Displayed’.
In my view the only advantages of Discovery are its earliness and resistance to scab and mildew, which make it a good organic apple. I don’t regard it as crisp. I think that it is somewhat ‘pithy’. For the amateur growing this variety in a restricted form, it is a long wait. For summer pruning amounts to cutting off the following year’s fruit supply, as it is a tip-bearer or partial tip-bearer at best.
The fruit is very often poorly coloured on cordons. My neighbour who has a ‘proper’ tree produces marvelously coloured fruit, far better than any of my cordons, which suffer from premature drop and endless attack from wasps and birds.
Not a variety to recommend in my own personal opinion and I don’t care for apples that look or taste like strawberries.
In response to John Kersey, you would normally only use M27 rootstock for more vigorous varieties, such as Bramley’s Seedling, Blenheim Orange, Crowngold etc. Although the first two would take a long time to respond to summer pruning.
All trees naturally want to grow upwards, so restricted growing methods require the tops nipping off during the summer; this applies to trees that have filled their allotted space. I would not recommend upright cordons, but suggest 30 degree angle oblique cordons. The recommendation in books is 45 degrees, but this can still give some vigorous top growth; 30 degrees from the ground should stop this. I have read somewhere of a 30 feet long oblique cordon pear!
John Scott of Merriott and author of the ‘Orchardist’ of 1873 said ‘Fruit not Faggots’ and that sums it up – a lot of growth and little fruit or little growth and a lot of fruit, but once in cropping mode, always in cropping mode, and keep pruning to the minimum.
Books tell you not to prune the leader when growing cordons; I disagree. Some varieties, Cox’s Orange Pippin for example, naturally make lots of spurs. My oblique Peasgood Nonsuch, however, has long barren sections along the stem because it was not pruned; pruning the main stem leader would have induced lateral growth below each cut and cropping would have been more even from top to bottom.
One observation that I have made over the last two or three years is that upright cordons that miss a summer pruning crop better the following year, the fruit stays on longer, is better coloured and I would think tastes better. And if you forget to prune them for long enough you may end up with a spindle tree.