Top 10 apple tree varieties for the middle lane

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A favorite fruit tree wherever the climate is suitable for growing it is the apple tree. Early, middle, late, sweet, sour, with a spreading crown and columnar, apple trees occupy the first place among fruit crops.

Moderate watering and climate are sufficient for apples, without a large number of bright sunny days. They are unpretentious in leaving. In cultivated form, fruiting begins in the 4th - 10th year and form crops until the age of 40-50. Apples are loved in every family and are needed for a long period. How to select the best of the best, what features should you pay attention to when choosing varieties?

How to choose an apple tree for your garden?

In order to select an apple tree for your garden that is suitable in all respects, you need to study the varieties bred for the region / district and pay attention to the following characteristic signs.

Winter hardiness varieties

The ability to withstand the most severe frosts characteristic of the region and successfully resist spring return frosts, sudden autumn temperature drops and other weather disasters. The winter hardiness of the variety in apple trees is not raised. Resistance to cold is transmitted from parents at the genetic level. Therefore, regardless of the region, you always need to buy zoned varieties of apple trees for planting. They are bred for certain climatic conditions, less affected by pests and less infected by diseases.

Offensive fruiting and productivity

For the house, it is better to buy early apple varieties that form the first crop in the 2nd - 4th year. Medium-fruited produce a crop in the 5th - 8th year and late-fruited in the 9th - 10th - 12th year.

Productivity It is advisable to choose varieties of apple trees with annual fruiting.

Ripening period of apples

For a personal plot, it is necessary to select varieties with early, middle and late ripening so that summer varieties are replaced by autumn, and those by winter.

Harvest of summer apple varieties is harvested in late July-early August, depending on the region. They reach biological ripeness by mass eating fruits, but they must be used immediately for food.

Harvest mid-ripe apples harvested in technical ripeness in September. When selecting varieties, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that some autumn varieties need ripening after harvesting in order to acquire their characteristic taste and aroma.

Late apples are usually picked at the end of September - the first half of October. In addition to late and mid-late, there are late-ripening varieties that are harvested in late October or before the onset of frost. Such varieties are immediately stored. Their fruits reach maximum ripeness gradually.

Apple keeping

From varieties of apple trees of different ripening dates, according to the catalog of varieties, varieties with good keeping quality should be selected. At the same time, pay attention that summer varieties have a shelf life of 1-3 weeks, but some lose their quality indicators after 6 days (darken, rot, etc.). In autumn varieties 30-60 days are considered to be good keeping quality, and in winter at least 3-4 months. The best winter varieties of apples can be stored (if appropriate conditions are created), preserving all the qualities, until the end of March - May and even until the next harvest.

Resistance of apple trees to diseases

You should choose a variety of apple trees with high resistance to diseases, especially to fungal (scab, rot and others) and pests. For “high-immune” varieties, fewer treatments will be required, which will reduce the time and care costs in the future and will allow you to get harvests of ecologically healthy fruits.

Crown shape

For a private garden with a small area, it is more practical to choose a variety of apple trees with a small or medium, compact crown shape. Coloniform varieties that form a crop on the central trunk and do not have a crown in the conventional sense are especially advantageous in this case. A loose, loose crown will be good in a corner of rest, where it creates the necessary shade for vacationers, but in the garden it will occupy a large area and oppress other cultures.

Taste is not in last place

Be sure to when choosing a variety of apple trees, pay attention to the quality indicators of the fruits: sweet, sour, juicy, with dense or loose pulp. Sweet varieties contain sugars from 10% or more.

For example: Start and Bolotovskoye 10.5%, Kandil Orlovsky 10.3%, and Rozhdestvensky 11.1%. The fruits of these varieties contain up to 0.4% free acid.

Pay attention in the characterization of varieties to such an indicator as the sugar-acid coefficient. With an indicator of 25% or more, apples are sweet (acidity is not felt in the aftertaste). At lower rates (10-20%) - the taste of the fruit is sour, like a lemon. From 20 to 25%, the taste is felt as sweet and sour, sweet-sour with a different aftertaste.

We present you the ten best varieties of apple trees for the middle strip.

A list of the best varieties of apple trees for the middle strip, see the next page.