Friday, October 18, 2013

Tydeman's Late Orange

This classically shaped apple is a little lopsided, a small large that is well ribbed. Dark crimson streaks mingle with lighter orange-red strips in the blush, covering a peel that is almost certainly yellow.

The net effect is orange with red stripes, quite handsome.

The lenticels are small on the darker, redder region of the blush and larger on the more-orange part that clearly got less sun. Tydeman's Late has a faint sweet aroma with hints of cider and tea.

Tydeman's flesh is light yellow and on the fine-grained side, nice and crisp. Well-balanced flavors are sweet and even but give out a bit before the end of the chew, leaving an impression of grassy grain.

Before that there is cane sugar, cider, and a little citrus. There is a slight peppery bitterness happening during the presentation of flavors as well.

These flavors do not entirely come together for me, but the crunch and overall balance are very good.

One of several varieties developed by H. M. Tydeman in the first half of the 20th Century, Tydeman's Late Orange is often praised for its Cox-like qualities.

I confess I could not find those in this sample (the very last one on the tree on September 30), but Cox's Orange Pippin is Tydeman's sire.



8 comments:

  1. This apple gets a lot of great reviews, so I'm sure it has very high potential. It has performed poorly for me though, with lots of cracking and uneven ripening. I'm giving it another year or two to come around and then it falls under the grafting knife.

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    1. It does get a lot of praise, so I am looking forward to finding a better sample again some time.

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  2. good morning, is it possible to keep this beautiful apple tree in a pot? we live in USDA zone 6 with lots of deep cold spikes in the winter so the pot will be mulch protected during the cold months. I do not have leeway to place this tree in the yard but it is so beautiful that I would like to try growing it in a pot. Is it doable?

    Thank you,

    L.

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    1. @L: What an interesting question, which you should really direct to a good tree nursery.

      Since this is my blog, though, and you asked, I will speculate that you'd need a really big pot, even with dwarf rootstock, and bonsai techniques. Normally the root structure of a tree is extensive.

      Such a tree would be largely ornamental and unable to bear the weight of many apples.

      There are cold-hardy apple varieties if you can bring yourself to enjoy something other than Tydeman's.

      Best of luck with whatever you do!

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    2. Tydeman's Late Orange is a type T3 (i.e.very vigorous),so it is a large tree. That being said it is not a tip bearer so you can keep it in whatever bounds you choose.

      I would graft it on M27 and depending on the form you choose a 3-5 gallon pot is usually sufficient. Eve after 10 years a M27 rootstock is very small.

      It needs to be supported on M27 and you will have to water but it is easy to pot them up on that rootstock.

      You can train it to a a large single U or a double (they both take a bit of knowledge to do well) or very easily horizontally.

      The trick with the single of double U on M27 is not to get impatient and let it fruit before the frame is fully developed with fruiting spurs. So what you have to do let it grow a bit vertically then either prune it back hard or deeply nick an notch it for spur development, thus sacrificing vertical progression. Most people error by just letting it grow to fill the frame out and end up with too few fruiting spurs and those that exist are usually at the top. this is because they let it grow too fast. I usually restrict mine to 6-10 inches of “keeper” vertical growth a year…meaning I expect that 6-10 inches to spur heavily as a result of notching or pruning of the growth above it. If you do prune instead of nick and notch to force spurs, make sure you alternate the top leaf bud so you get a straight vertical limb. A few notes, it takes longer to build a tree this way, and invariably it will want to fruit before the frame work is fully developed so you MUST remove the blossoms as M27 is not strong enough to push new wood and a produce fruit at the same time. So this negates on the advantages of M27, inducing early fruiting. Good luck..

      the fluffy bunny

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    3. @Annon, meet @fluffy.

      Now that’s what I call an answer; thank you Mr or Ms bunny.

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    4. No problem, glad to be of service. And it is Mr. Bunny or "the fluffy one" to my friends.

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  3. Got another bagful of TLO this last season. They averaged taller than your example and far more gold-and-orange, with the lively red only on an exposed shoulder. (I thought the tree needed pruning to open its structure.) The amazing summer we endured brought out honeyed flavors it lacked in years past. Slicing one amidst a tarter apple made for a fine apple pie!

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