Any Galarina growers? Opinions on this apple?

[Bowsnbucks]

I know it's a DR variety, but wondering how it tastes as an eater, ease of care, branching habit, is it fussy, etc. I guess it may be good as a deer apple? Any thoughts from hands-on growers is appreciated.

 

[Maya]

Bows I grow about 40 on B9 in my commercial orchard and have another 6 or so on B118 for deer. They are great for deer imo. Pretty easy to grow, precocious, bear yearly and hang real well due to their long stems. Mine mature around September 25-28, but hang much later. They do need some training of branches and tend to fork at the ends which require regular pruning, but otherwise the branches are a snap to train. Very easy to manipulate and are not brittle. They usually grow a lot of branches, which is good and bad imo. Good in that you will have branches where you wnt them, but bad in that you will have to prune out a lot on younger trees to get good light distribution. They do require a lot of thinning.

It's a sweet crisp apple to eat. Very much like its parent Gala. It's just later maturing w/ a slightly tougher skin and holds its flavor which makes it a good keeper. I sell a lot in October to people that want an apple for fresh eating later through early winter. It's a little to crisp for baking though. Small to medium in size.

 

[Maya]

The trees themselves a gorgeous. These were in early August I think.

 

[deepsleep]

I have a few I planted on M111 that will be entering 5th leaf this year. The trees themselves are very nice, but haven't produced an apple, whereas the rest of my M111s produced in 3rd or 4th leaf. Just something to keep in mind if you are looking for early fruiting. The trees have been DR except for a few spots of CAR. They have also been easy to train, as Maya mentions above--limbs are very forgiving when pulling down. I am hoping maybe I'll get a few apples this fall, as they sound like a pretty good eater. I believe Maya had posted pictures in the past of loaded, late-hanging Galarinas. That is the role these trees will (hopefully) fulfill on my property someday.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thank-you Maya, for the great info & pic. Sounds like a winner to me. Firmer, crisper is a good thing to me. You said yours ripen around Sept. 25 - 28. When would the ripening occur in northern Pa. then? I'm not sure how the north - to - south ripening timetable works.

Thanks Deepsleep for your info, too. You and I posted at the same time I guess. As soon as I posted, I saw your info pop up.

 

[deepsleep]

Here is a picture of one of mine from this past spring. I was unable to prune last winter, and as Maya alludes to above, the tree filled in a bunch of branches in the open spaces. It is convenient for idiots like myself who make rookie pruning mistakes frequently.

 

[Maya]

Deep, your trees look fine, very healthy, you just have a lot of wood there. As I said, they really like to branch. You need to take out several of those branches. I like to see a scaffold of 4-5 branches, then a space of about 15- 20 inches or so on m111, then another tier of 4-5 branches. Keep branches with good crotch angles and those going out at about a 45 degree angle. You may just need to train some more out. It looks like you trained some out at good angles. Also make sure the ones you keep are going out at different directions around the tree so they do not compete with each other for light. There are probably more there than you want to take out this year. Take out 5-6 of those ones with bad angles this year, and do some more next. The tree is real nice though!

Here's some reading and some good pics to better explain pruning and training.

http://eap.mcgill.ca/CPTFP_7.htm#Pruning Bearing Trees

 

[deepsleep]

Thanks for the info Maya. I had that tree looking perfect 18 months ago, but it definitely put on some wood! I really appreciate the recommendations on scaffold spacing. I always torture myself with that when pruning. Those more upright branches are a lot flatter now, as I had my dad pull them down this summer. Hoping for some fruit to help keep them down this summer!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That's a healthy looking tree Deepsleep. From the looks of it, you ought to be getting some apples soon. What are the other trees growing behind and to the left in the pic in post #6?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

my Galarina trees are doing fine some fruit last year but the previous year was great. I think they are great eating apple but I love all the apples I grow lol

 

[deepsleep]

That's a healthy looking tree Deepsleep. From the looks of it, you ought to be getting some apples soon. What are the other trees growing behind and to the left in the pic in post #6?

The one directly behind it is another Galarina on M111, and the other 2 are F. Querina on M7 (I think). One of those is stunted because I let it fruit pretty heavily in 3rd leaf.