Essential Pears and Apples
Adrian Baggaley describes his 'must have' pears and apples for the amateur gardener.
The pears and apples that I consider ‘must haves’ need to meet reasonable standards of flavour, be easy to grow and crop well. For me, Beth and Concorde pears stand out as first class varieties and among the apples there is little to beat Katy and Fiesta for cropping.
Beth is a relatively new variety bred at East Malling Research Station in Kent and a seedling of Williams’ Bon Chrétien. Beth on quince A rootstock makes a compact tree, around nine feet high if the branches are pulled down. This is done using lady’s tights tied to bricks in the early stages and good crops will also assist the weeping habit. I have not had any success with Beth grown as a cordon. If you have limited space, I suggest you trying growing it as a dwarf pyramid or espalier.
Beth pears ripen in my garden in Nottingham during late August and early September. The season is only two and half weeks long but for me this is the first early pear with any real flavour. It knocks spots off many of the midseason varieties in my opinion. On my south facing slope, around 200 ft above sea level the blossom is not troubled by air frost, which possibly indicates some hardiness. Beth’s main drawback is its size. It is not large by pear standards and certainly needs thinning fairly early on. Irrigation is also essential. I have occasionally had the size up to that of a moderately large Williams’.
Concorde was also bred at East Malling and a cross between Conference and Doyenné du Comice. This was raised for English commercial growers, but it is also a very good amateur variety. I have no problem with blossom being damaged by spring air frost. It is far from vigorous, works well as a cordon and on quince A rootstock, which could be used for all modes of training. If grown well Concorde has a slightly perfumed flavour. The flesh, I think, is firmer than Conference and keeping qualities for the amateur may be better than Conference. Its season is October. I have never seen it affected by scab and I would class it as a good variety to grow organically.
Katy, or Katya as it is known in its native Sweden is preferable to Discovery in my view; they crop about the same time. Katy tends to be firmer, crisper and refreshingly juicy. Cropping is excellent with a season from late August to early September. I have kept Katy apples in a refrigerator to early October, although there are plenty of other varieties by then. On my upright cordons on M26 rootstock skin colour is lacking, while my oblique cordons on a M9 rootstock have much more colourful fruit, but the upright cordons are a good deal more vigorous. Colour is red nearest to the sun with a lemon yellow background; poorly coloured samples will have green at the expense of red and yellow. Strangely enough the oblique cordons produce long conical fruit but fruit from the upright cordons is less elongated and nearer to conic. Its long conical shape is supposedly one of the reasons that this variety was never taken up by supermarkets, but this is a real pity for it is a fine early apple.
Fiesta, now known as Red Pippin, was bred at East Malling and is a month later in season than Katy. It is reputed to have some flavour of Cox’s Orange Pippin, which is one of its parents, although in my experience this is not always the case. I grow Fiesta as an upright cordon and a bush, which is now four years old . The bush tree produces fruit that has a lot more colour and more flavour than the cordon. It is an excellent keeper and cropper and, although I know that not everyone likes its flavour, at our local Apple Day celebration it was one of the most popular. I am told it is rated one of the best for its capacity to produce juice for bottling.
Adrian Baggaley
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