PARENTS OF TYDEMAN’S LATE ORANGE

The parents are Laxton’s Superb and Cox’s Orange Pippin. The intention behind breeding this variety was to produce a Cox’s tasting apple with better disease resistance and they did a good job.

APPEARANCE AND TASTE OF TYDEMAN’S LATE ORANGE APPLES

The size of a fully grown Tydeman’s apple is slightly larger than normal if the tree is prevented from over cropping. The green background is more than 50% covered in red with a skin which is slightly rougher than your average apple. The colouring is variable between apples from the same tree but in general the skin is dull rather than shiny. It’s not quite a russet apple but somewhere between that and a smooth skin. The apples have a definite tendency to grow with one half larger than the other.

The taste is similar to a Cox’s Orange Pippin with a good mix of both sweetness and acidity. If you eat this apple straight off the tree it has an over-riding sharp taste. If kept in storage for a couple of weeks that strong acidity starts to fade and after that you have an excellent tasting apple. This variety will store for five months but you need to ensure that their tendency to shrivel is prevented. They are normally stored in airtight containers or loose fitting polythene bags. Keep them cool in those conditions and you have a very long-lasting apple.

The flesh is light yellow, crisp, crunchy and juicy.

GROWING TYDEMAN’S LATE ORANGE APPLES IN THE UK

This is a strong growing apple variety in the UK and will produce a larger tree than most others. Our choices of rootstock would be M26 for most conditions or MM106 where the conditions are less than reasonably good. Avoid planting this tree in windy locations where the young branches are more easily damaged than is the average. The blossoms not only look very attractive but they have above average resistance to late frosts.

This variety does occasionally miss a year of cropping if left to its own devices. To avoid this, thin the small apples in early June. This will not only help it to crop more regularly but also to produce slightly larger apples. Normal pruning rules apply to Tydeman’s Late Orange (see here) and this is one variety where annual pruning is important. The new branches grown each year tend to be thin and liable to wind damage.

Disease resistance is above average and very good as far as bitter pit is concerned.

SUMMARY OF TYDEMAN’S LATE ORANGE APPLE TREES

USE: Eating and juicing

SKIN COLOUR / TEXTURE: Yellow-green background with lots of red, dull rather than shiny

FLESH COLOUR: Light cream

TASTE AND TEXTURE: Crisp and crunchy. Initially slightly acidic but sweetens after three weeks in storage

FRUIT SIZE: Slightly above average

STORAGE: Four to five months

SUITABILITY FOR CORDON / ESPALIER GROWTH: Yes

TREE SIZE: Slightly larger than average especially in the early years

REGULARITY OF CROPPING: Average, can miss a season

POLLINATION: Partially self-fertile. Pollination Group 4 (see here for suitable partners)

AWARDS: None

SPECIAL FEATURES: A late variety with exceptional keeping qualities

FLOWERING AND HARVEST TIMES FOR TYDEMAN’S LATE
ORANGE:

The average flowering time (optimum time for pollination) and date when fruits are ripe in the UK for the Tydeman’s Late Orange apple tree are set out below. If you have set your home town we can give you a more accurate estimate, if you have not set your home town (do it now by clicking here) the dates below will be the average for the UK.

Your town has not been set, the average main flowering time for Tydemans Late Orange in the UK is the third week of May. Fruit will be ready for harvesting in the third week of October. Click here if you want to set the dates to your home town.

Flowering and fruit picking dates vary according to the weather in any particular growing season so the above dates may well change slightly from one year to the next. The flowering date above is when the apple tree produces the maximum number of blossoms, it will also produce blossom, although less, a week or two either side of the date given.