Apples: News, 2026
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Events and our Leicestershire Heritage Apples news are on our Leicester Heritage Apples page. Note that we put updates at the TOP. This page is for more general news about apples.
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UNHELPFUL WEATHER
Last year, 2025, the country experienced a bumper apple crop, in spite of a long dry period over the summer. This year is not so good for apple growers; blossom was light, and although we had plenty of rain in spring and early summer, we are now experiencing drought.
The light blossom has led to a spike in apple sawfly activity. Fewer flowers mean that sawfly affects a much greater percentage of the crop. In Leicestershire, it's clear that crops will be very small compared to 2025. In my own plots, 70% of the trees had no flowers at all. Nevertheless I am working hard on the trees - just to ensure the drought doesn't kill any important ones. I also had to protect several rows against vole activity; five trees had their roots three-quarters eaten away and I had to dig them out and regenerate then in deep pots, giving them daily attention. I managed to save four of the five; the fifth was doing ok until the hot weather started in late June and then it couldn't cope.
On a more positive note, the top-working I carried out in Match (see note below) has worked well; 23 of the 25 grafts worked and are now growing well. Please remember when you're top-working that the new shoots may become very long extremely quickly; you must shorten them if this happens (and take the tape off once they're a foot long or so) or they will snap off in the wind. They can allowed to grow more in subsequent years.
1 Aug 2026
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF ANNIE ELIZABETH
I and others have recently been asked to help contribute to a programme (title above) about the Annie Elizabeth apple and the history of how it was raised; an interesting human story. Annie Elizabeth was known to me for years as the Sutton Elms apple; the people who marketed it (Harrison's Seeds) once lived in the old brick farmhouse in Sutton Elms, which has now been turned into an old people's home. When I was a child it was a dairy farm.
The programme, a mixture of apples and genealogy, will be broadcast in the Sunday evening "Illumination" 30-minute documentary slot fairly soon, presented by Lois Pryce and produced by Louise Orchard of 2° West, for BBC Radio 4. Details are on the Annie Elizabeth page. I will alert you closer to the time.
3 May 2026
ANNIE ELIZABETH PARENTAGE
Annie Elizabeth, a Leicestershire apple raised from a pip by Samuel Greatorex in 1857, was rumoured for years to have had Blenheim as a parent.
This has always appeared to me to be a tall story; there's no way it can be true. Annie Elizabeth is a very vigorous variety; the original tree reached about 40ft in its heyday. Blenheim is triploid so its seedlings struggle to grow; they are invariably puny, assuming you can get any of the pips to germinate.
We now have an update about the parentage, as follows:
...DNA analysis confirms Rymer, paired with Northern Greening, as the parents of the cultivars Annie Elizabeth and Newton Wonder. Both Rymer and Northern Greening also appear as a parent or grandparent of Bramley’s Seedling. (From Hortnews.com)
I will be putting this update on the LHAP page too since Annie Elizabeth is a Leicestershire apple.
1 May 2026
LATE STORING APPLES
Another apple tasting filmed - very late storers; 20 Mar 26. Longer list at bottom of page.
Apple Tasting 5, Very Lates / Winter Storers, 20 Mar 2026
21 Mar 26
CONVERTING SOME TREES TO BETTER VARIETIES: TOP-WORKING
I have three trees, grown from the seeds of a redfleshed apple (MM106 x Bienrode) which are extremely vigorous; they are 12 years old and have never formed any flowers or fruit. I was about to grub them; they were starting to turn into monsters - then realized it might make more sense to convert them to useful varieties. I've therefore removed all of the large branches, and am in the process of cleft-grafting (and whip&tongue grafting) into the smaller upright branches; they are all about half an inch in diamter. I'm adding about twenty grafts of four of our best own-bred seedlings (two whitefleshed, two redfleshed) on the frameworks. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Some pictures are shown below. I can't melt wax on the plot (it's too windy) so to seal the grafts I'm using lac balsam instead, applying it with a paintbrush. Click the thumbnails below for clearer pictures.
SOLVED - ROTE MOND & WEIROUGE
Rote Mond and Weirouge, two red-fleshed apples well-known to collectors, are the same variety.
I've just found a paper which relates the history of how they are connected.
"During World War II, the red-fleshed apple tree was introduced from Ukraine to Germany. This was either a local form or one of the varieties of the Michurin selection, grown in Germany under the name ‘Rote Mond’ and patented as ‘Weirouge’ in 1997 (Sadilova et al., 2006; Pomiferous, 2021).
Baya Marisa (also known as Tickled Pink - Ed) is the result of Michael Neumüller’s
crossing of the ‘Weirouge’ with the ‘Kreuzung’ (a tasteful ‘Zuchtklon
166’) and is released by the Bavarian Fruit Center, Hallbergmoos. "
(Ref: An overview of the red-fleshed apple: History and its importance for horticulturists, gardeners, nurserymen, and consumers V. M. Mezhenskyj, D. V. Pyshcholka, L. O. Mezhenska, O. S. Havryliuk National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. [Biosyst. Divers., 2024, 32(1)]
23 Feb 26
APPLE TASTING VIDEOS
We have filmed five more apple videos so far this season; due to circumstances beyond our control we were rather late starting, but we are making up for it now. I did one video with Alison on Leicestershire varieties, and have done several with Julie Drake with more 'international' apples. The links are below:
Apple Tasting 5, Very Lates / Winter Storers, 20 Mar 2026
Apple Tasting 4 Late Apples, 18 Dec 2025
Apple Tasting 3 Late Apples, 25 Nov 2025
Apple Tasting 2, More Late Midseason Apples, 5 Nov 2025
Apple Tasting 1a, Leicestershire Varieties, 12 Oct 2025
Apple Tasting 1, Late Midseason, 3 Nov 2025
3 Jan 26
