Today's pickings

Total 4 boxes. Smaller quanitities (1-2kg) of Ellison's Orange, Sunset and Egremont. Very disappointing yields from apple cordons. I need to do something to reduce vigour, I might start with root pruning.

Evaluation: Tydeman's Early Worcester

This is a bit harsh, but I think this is the worst apple variety I grow (after the one I suspect to be Sturmer pippin). I've given it quite a few years of grace now, but each crop has been disappointing.

Let's start off with flavour. The skins, though attractive and reasonably thin, are bitter. The flavour on first bite is not too bad, but soon the bitter, slightly tannic quality emerges. Even when peeled, the bitterness is still detectable and slightly astringent. The flesh has a soft, slight strawberry taste if well-ripened, but without sufficient sweetness or acidity to counter the bitter skin quality. Very occasionally a single fruit will ripen well (probably the king fruits), but the ones that don't can taste vile. 

Taking a bite from a tree-ripened Worcester Pearmain just after eating a Tydeman's Worcester, the fruit is much sweeter in comparison, with pleasantly fruity level of acid and a pleasantly fragrant pear-drops flavour; rather more aromatic than expected. The flesh is quite crisp, and I think probably keeps rather better than Tydeman's (though I never finish the latter in all honesty; most end up as chicken food).

TEW is also very susceptible to wasp damage, and the earliest, best-ripened fruits will probably be wasted. The tree habit isn't great either (mine is a small half-standard on M26), quite whippy and inclined to bend/break under the weight. Cropping is good, but then what is the point if the fruit isn't very nice? If you like early, fruity, soft-fleshed red apples, Devonshire Quarrenden has a better flavour.

Crop: Tydeman's Early Worcester

I decided to start picking the Tydeman's Early Worcester, even though I'd have preferred to leave a little longer, and hope for a little more sun but the wasps were starting to cause damage, having already nibbled small holes out of the ripest ones. I left the ones that really didn't want to break off, I hope they'll survive intact until I get back from Wales in a week or so. About 1.5 kg picked today.

Why M26 isn't great for half-standards

This is a good example of why the choice of rootstocks is important, even though there may not initially appear to be much difference between the semi-dwarfing and semi-vigourous ones on paper.

Most of my apples are on M26 (M stands for Malling, or East Malling) which is a semi-dwarfing. Not a problem for cordons, which are supported, or the strong-growing varieties with compact growth required as half-standards, but M26 lacks substance for weak-growing varieties prone to more whippy growth like this Tydeman's Early Worcester. Most of the fruit bearing branches are bent horizontal or further. I think MM 106 is a better rootstock for half-standards, and I'm trying it on a couple of espaliers which are looking good, and cropping earlier than the M26 cordons.