On Fri, 14 Mar 2014 12:46:36 +0000, RustyHinge wrote:

On 14/03/14 08:03, Martin Brown wrote:

Cox lookalikes like Sunset are a lot more reliable.

True, but nowhere near as palatable.

Come to that even French golden delicious apples grown in the UK on
dwarfing rootstock are nowhere near as inedible as French pumped up
supermarket ones.


I wonder where these come from? We don't see them around here or even in
Paris, so probably grown for export. Maybe in the south.

Golden Delicious (derived from a Granny Smith IIRC) are quite good if
left until ripening (to gold!) before picking.

Granny is decent, and I was trying to grow one, but it got attacked by
boring beetles and needs to come out (maybe next week). It's getting
replaced by the excellent old variety 'Winter Banana.'

We also have a Reine de Reinette, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone
although it crops well. Another that's attacked by every disease known,
and I even spray it. Otherwise we have 'Boskoop' which I recommend
highly, pretty trouble free and big fruit with good flavour and texture,
and Reinette Blanch d'Espagne, another heritage variety with with small
spicy green fruit. Nice but not much of a cropper, or at least not yet
(10 years in the ground, though).


--
Gardening in Lower Normandy