Recommended Variety of Cider Apple Tree

[terryc...@gmail.com]

I have a small orchard of mostly dwarf trees of eating apples, inherited when we bought the property and have been making cider from them for about 6 years. I want to replace an unsuccessful damson plum with another "cider" tree. The original trees are a mix of Granny Smith, Red Delicious and one Fameuse/Pommed de Neige. We have since been given a Ballerina and added a Cox's Orange Pipptn and Bramley's Seedling (at tleast that is what the tag said but the apples seem too sweet to be true to type).

Our climate is challenging being typical S.E. coast Australia mediteranian with warm/hot summers (30C) but as we are at 1000M and about 200km from the coast in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, Winter is cold (-5C to +10C in the day) with Spring (i.e. now) likely to throw a -10C frost or strong winds just as blossoms are setting).

A few specialist nurseries offer some common cider trees so I would value any opinions re what would work and which way to go.

[andy...@googlemail.com]

bramleys seedling is good for flavour and great for acidity. Thus, if you are pushed for space, you could avoid buying bittersharps and aim for bitter sweets. Dabinetts, major and harry masters jersey are all safe bets (If they grow in your climate - i presume they will if you already have apple trees) 

Bitter sweets with a bit more acidity (but still on the less-acidic side) are Perthyre and Reine de pomme, the latter being very good.

thanks

[Andrew Duckworth]

Hi Terry,

Similar to you we've inherited a small orchard of mature trees when we bought our place in the Blue Mountains NSW which is at about 1000m elevation with winter temperatures generally in the 0-9C range (the minimums are more mild than where you are but we still get a bit of frost and occasional snow), summers are generally milder than where you are - our temperatures are actually quite similar to UK/France. The established varieties we have are Red Delicious, Cox's Orange, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Gravenstein, Bramley, Fameuse. After a glut of apples last year, I started looking into making cider with them and became really interested in the whole process and it was a revelation to see how diverse and complex traditional cider could be. 

This led me to planting a few cider apple varieties, initially to fill in the blank spots in the old orchard rows where trees had died and been taken out in the past. Last year I planted Kingston Black, Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, Brown Snout and Frequin Rouge on medium rootstock. I can't comment on the fruiting yet, however in terms of what is growing well, the Brown Snout and Frequin Rouge whips grew from ~ 70cm -> 190cm, the Yarlington Mill grew to about 150cm with multiple scaffold branches - these 3 varieties all seem to be growing quite strongly with minimal problems. The Kingston Black and Dabinett are both growing but more slowly, the KB grew to about 120cm and the trees generally look less vigorous and healthy.

This year I've planted a couple more varieties to try out Bulmers Norman, Stoke Red and Tremlett's Bitter along with a couple of crab apples for pollination to extend out the flowering period - these are all just starting to leaf out here which is always exciting to see that the tree is actually alive. 

If you're interested to buy some cider apples for pressing, I know there are some orchards in Orange that sell them, although the minimum quantity is a bit high for my needs - maybe if you're keen let me know and we could split them - that would let you try out some varieties to see what you like.

Cheers,

Andrew

[terryc...@gmail.com]

Thanks Andrew. Yarlington Mill seems to be a good choice, especially as yours has grown quite quickly in a climate similar to ours. A few yearas ago I was at a seminar organised by the Batlow Ciderfest. James Kendall from Small Acres at Orange was there and he seemed to be quite keen on YM so that sounds like the way to go. Inheriting an orchard certainly leads you down the cidermaking path... after all, how many apples can you eat in a year? Cheers!