Apple tree Autumn striped

The autumn striped apple tree has existed for a very long time, more than one hundred years. A description of this fruit culture can be found in the writings of European farmers in the middle of the 18th century. This variety deservedly received its recognition and love due to its excellent characteristics, wonderful taste and aromas of apples. Nowadays, the subspecies is no less popular and revered among gardeners. In this article, we will take a closer look at this subspecies, we will analyze all the pros and cons, as well as all its features for growing and caring.

Apple tree Autumn striped - description and characteristics

Let's start the description of this variety with the fact that it is a representative of folk selection, and a subspecies appeared due to accidental pollination. This very old subspecies can be found in many old gardens of the Central Russian plain, the center and north of Europe, the Baltic States and the Black Earth Region. The variety came to our country from the Baltic States, where, in turn, it was brought from Holland. The subspecies under consideration has several names, these are:

• - Autumn striped (popularly can be found under the names Autumn striped and Striped Autumn).
• - Starostino.
• - Streifling (in other words, Shtrifel, Shtiefel, Strefel).
• - Trim or Trimming.
• - Amtmanskoe.
• - Autumn Streifling and Striped Streifling.
• - Livonian Grafenstein.

The tree of this variety is quite powerful, has a high growth. The rhizome is quite developed, and the roots are quite well buried.

The crown of this tree has a wide spreading shape, with slightly drooping ends of the stems. Outwardly, such a crown looks like an inverted cauldron. The branches are quite strong, have a dark brown tint and are located almost parallel to the ground surface. The shoots are pubescent and brown in color.

The leaves have an intense green color, broadly oval or round, with “tomentose” pubescence. The petioles are endowed with a reddish tint and grow from the stems almost at right angles, forming dense clusters at the tips of the shoots.

The buds are endowed with a pale pinkish delicate color. The flowers are large and bowl-shaped, pinkish-white in color.

The fruits of this variety are formed on fruit twigs two to three years old, and on ringlets. These fruits have a wide conical, round shape, with a pronounced ribbing near the base. Diverse fruits can often be found. These apples have a yellow-green or yellow tint, with a rich blush, in the form of frequent stripes of a rich red tint. When grown in favorable conditions, the average weight of one fruit reaches 140 grams.

This variety is a representative of the autumn subspecies of apple trees.

Apple tree Autumn striped: features of the variety

Like any other variety, the subspecies in question has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this subspecies include:

• - Bountiful harvest.
• - Excellent taste characteristics of the fruits, as well as their aroma.
• - Ability to long-term transportability of fruits.
• - Long life of the plant, fruiting for several decades.
• - A good indicator of frost resistance, as well as the ability to recover itself after freezing.
• - A good level of immunity to diseases (including the most common - scab), as well as resistance to pest attacks.
• - Favorable for watering and feeding.

The disadvantages of this subspecies include:

• - Economic fruiting begins quite late, as well as a slow growth in annual yield.
• - The large size of the tree, making it difficult to care for and requires much more energy, and for such a tree you should have a lot of free space.
• - The periodicity of the yield of the trees of a fairly mature age.
• - Not long shelf life of fruits after harvest.
• - The quality of the fruit depends on the climatic conditions.
• - This apple tree does not tolerate a dry period.

As already noted, the tree of this variety is tall and quite powerful. In adulthood, this apple tree can grow up to 10 meters. The crown is also wide and has a spreading shape, it grows up to 9-10 meters wide.

This subspecies begins its first fruiting most often 6-8 years after planting, but in some cases the fruits begin to form even after 4-5 years. After that, the yield increases at a rather slow pace: from a tree aged 10 years, up to 10 kilograms are harvested on average, more significant economic yields are obtained only at 14-15 years of plant life, and this is 90-100 kilograms. Well, an apple tree, which is more than 25 years old, can produce a harvest of up to 300 kilograms.

It is worth mentioning one interesting fact: in the thirties of the 20th century, a record yield of this variety was recorded - almost 430 kilograms.

This subspecies of the apple tree is not self-fertile, therefore, to obtain a harvest, pollinator varieties should be planted nearby.

Apples of this variety grow very beautiful, large in size and with a bright interesting color. The inner part of the fruit has a pale yellow color, and under the skin itself it is pinkish. This pulp has a coarse, juicy and friable structure, endowed with a spicy piquant smell. The taste of such fruits is sweet, with the presence of a slight sourness, they have a wine or raspberry flavor.

It was noticed that the fruits of this variety, grown in more northern latitudes, have the most sour taste, while in the southern ones they are almost bland-sweet. During the tasting, professional experts singled out the fruits of this subspecies as the best among other apples of autumn varieties, and they received an assessment of 4.5 points out of five possible.

This tree is endowed with a fairly high level of frost tolerance, therefore this subspecies is rather actively grown in the northern regions of our country. A distinctive feature of the subspecies is its retention of fruiting, even after the critically cold winter period. Even if freezing of shoots or wood occurs (this happens in plants at a young age), the tree can quite successfully recover itself in one or two spring-summer seasons.

The tree of this subspecies of apple tree has good immunity to common diseases. In rainy and cold seasons, there may be minor damage from diseases such as scab.

Apple tree Autumn striped: planting and care

From generation to generation, farmers and gardeners pass on recommendations regarding the care of this subspecies.

Disembarkation

Planting a seedling of this variety is carried out in early spring, or at the very beginning of the autumn season. Moreover, experienced gardeners have noticed that the seedling takes root and adapts best of all when planting in the fall.

Before you start planting a given seedling, you should choose the right place for future growth. For this, a rather extensive area is selected, which must be protected from the wind and have a well-moistened fertile soil. The landing hole is prepared in advance. To do this, one to two weeks before disembarkation in the autumn, or before the arrival of the winter season, provided that the disembarkation will be at the beginning of the spring season. The landing hole should be approximately one meter in each direction and in depth.Mineral complex fertilizing, rotted manure and compost are introduced into the hole. On top of this, clean (no additives) soil is poured. A long and strong peg is driven into the middle of the hole, which will later serve as a support for the plant. A young apple tree is placed on a small resulting mound, and in such a way that the root collar is slightly above the level of the soil surface, the roots are gently straightened and sprinkled with clean fertile soil. After that, the planted seedling is carefully tamped and watered quite well (about 3-4 buckets of water should go away).

It is worth recalling that when choosing a planting site for a seedling, you should take into account the wide crown of the apple tree in the future, so you should take care in advance of sufficient free space for the tree.

The subspecies in question is rather bad for drought. That is why it is very important to monitor the constant moisture content of the soil, the land must be completely drained. Too dry air is also negative for the plant. To preserve moisture and soil structuring, the plant's near-stem circle should be mulched.

Features of cultivation

When cultivating this subspecies, it is required:

• - Provide sufficient moisture, abundant and constant watering.
• - Plant other pollinating varieties near this tree.
• - Introduce periodically mineral and organic fertilizing.

It is worth noting that this subspecies reacts very well to fertilizing and moistening the soil, and responds to such actions by issuing more tasty and large fruits.

Agrotechnics

Agrotechnical measures for this plant are quite standard:

• - Watering.
• - Top dressing with fertilizers.
• - Loosening.
• - Trimming procedure.
• - Preventive measures and treatment of diseases and infections.
• - Pest control measures.

This tree does not require any special steps to take care of itself. Its most important requirements are abundant watering on a regular basis and the introduction of nutritious dressings.

Organic fertilizers such as compost, manure, mulching, and sowing green manure in the tree trunk circle are best.

Pruning procedure and crown formation

Experienced gardeners claim that at a young age this tree does not have extra stems. Starting from the first years of life, it is advised to remove shoots that grow inside the crown, down from the main stems, or parallel to the trunk of the tree. You also need to trim weak, broken, damaged and dried stems. From 5-7 years of age, they begin to cut off the shoots that thicken the crown. The sanitary and formative pruning procedure is carried out in early spring, even before the flower buds swell. With a decrease in the yield level of fairly old trees, a rejuvenating pruning procedure is done. At this point, the crown should be conditionally divided into several parts and cut off in stages rather strongly over the course of 6-8 years.

Pollinating varieties

The best pollinating varieties for this fruit tree are: Papirovka, Rossoshanskoe striped, Antonovka, Welsey and Slavyanka. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that the number of pollinator plants should be close to at least one third of the number of apple trees of the variety in question.

Vaccination compatibility

Experienced farmers are confident that this subspecies is most compatible in grafting with most semi-cultivated and cultivated varieties. Some gardeners are convinced that the best rootstock for this tree itself will be a rootstock of the same subspecies grown from seeds.

Reproduction methods

This apple variety is propagated in the following ways:

• - Sowing seeds.
• - Grafted seedlings, also on seedling stock of the same subspecies.
• - Side layering.

Fruiting and ripening

For this subspecies, there are several characteristics of fruiting and ripening.

With proper, high-quality and timely care, the first apples can form 4-5 years after planting, usually at experimental stations and nurseries. Usually, the tree in question enters its fruiting period only at 8-9 years of life.

The flowering period begins in this fruit crop in the middle of May, although the more accurate timing of the color production depends on the weather and climatic conditions of the growing area.

Also, the ripeness of the fruit for picking depends on the growing region; it can come both at the beginning and in the middle of September.

It is especially important to have time to harvest on time, since if you harvest the fruits too early, the taste of the fruit may suffer, and if it is too late, then keeping quality.

The fruits of this variety must be stored in a cool and dark room, where the air temperature is kept from 1 to 5 degrees. When stored in favorable conditions for them, the fruits are able to retain their marketable and taste characteristics for up to 100 days, that is, until about the second decade of December.

Subspecies options

- On a dwarf rootstock

Grafting this subspecies on a dwarf rootstock, you can achieve a higher indicator of such qualities as:

• - Reducing the waiting time for the first fruiting, the tree begins to give out the first fruits already 2-3 years after planting.
• - The growth of the tree is much lower, due to which it is much easier to care for it.
• - The crown stops growing in height, you should only limit its growth in diameter.
• - Young shoots of this tree are less susceptible to top frost.

But this also leads to the deterioration of some other characteristics of the variety:

• - The rhizome of a plant with a dwarf rootstock has a lower level of frost resistance.
• - The life of the plant is reduced.
• - It is necessary to monitor well the observance of the soil moistening regime, because the roots of the tree are located in the upper layers of the soil and begin to dry out faster, and this variety does not tolerate drought at all.

Growing regions

Apple-tree Autumn striped was zoned for most areas of the European part of our country, including the Moscow region, and the Leningrad region. The climate is most suitable for the cultivation of this subspecies. And the climatic conditions of the Leningrad region are quite similar to the Baltic, the birthplace of the subspecies in question.

A sharply continental climate prevails in Siberia; weather changes often occur here. But in this region, they are also engaged in the cultivation of this apple variety, and quite successfully, you just need to pay more attention to timely watering.

Apple tree Autumn striped: reviews

Interest and love for this ancient subspecies of the apple tree does not fade to this day. Very often this subspecies can be found in private gardens in our country. For many, the special spicy taste of its fruit is reminiscent of childhood. A little patience and simple maintenance is what it takes to get amazing yields of juicy, tasty and aromatic fruits.

For not many decades, this subspecies has been cultivated in areas of the middle lane. Therefore, there are enough reviews and opinions about this variety. Here are some of them:

- Apple trees of this variety have been growing in my garden for 45-50 years. The apple trees themselves are simply enormous. The plus is that they have never been sick, and they are going through the winter wonderfully. And the fruit harvest is always very tasty, the apples are large. I advise.

Gennady, Tver

- I live in the area. My garden was laid back in the 60s. I'm happy with my apple tree. It bears fruit perfectly, and then the fruits are stored for about a month in the refrigerator. I noticed such a feature that in the hot season the fruits are much sweeter. And if it's a cold summer, then the apples are sour. In general, such a taste as those of these apples cannot be confused with anything, it is special.

Petr, Bryansk

- This variety has very tasty apples! Juicy, sweet, sour and winey. They always grow large and beautiful in appearance.It's a shame that the shelf life is short. Therefore, I try to quickly process what I have not eaten. Jams, marmalades and juices come out excellently! They are also great to dry, very tasty and the pleasant smell is preserved.

Valentina, Moscow