Wednesday 28 April 2010

Blossom - Unknown russet

I can't remember what variety this is. It's in the row of cordons assigned to russets, and my dim memory is that I was considering either King Russet or Golden russet, but the label and other records have not survived. Identification has been made more difficult by this varieties point blank refusal to produce any fruiting spurs. Since I bend the extreme edge of one branch down at right angles to fill in a gap, flower buds have miraculously appeared after about 6 feet of bare wood. Hopefully I will have more information to had to help with identification now. Even so, it will be difficult as my original supplied (before I started grafting myself), Deacon's Nurseries,  have proved to be very unreliable at sending correctly labelled varieties.

Looking at the National Fruit Collection identification pages, King Russet , the fruit does look very similar to that shown. However, their pages says that King Russet blooms fairly late (mid May), whilst this variety is clearly in full bloom a good three weeks before the dates given. However, their site also gives very similar dates for Pixie, but says Sunset should be earlier; all three in full bloom simultaneously, so I'm not sure flowering season is terribly useful for helping to identify varieties.

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