Worldwide Fruit expects to benefit this season from its decision to establish two top-fruit trial sites in Kent, as its ongoing evaluation of new apple and pear varieties gets under way.
Caroline Ashdown, trials co-ordinator, also responsible for the development of Jazz, said that despite hail damage at one trial site, the selection programme is producing positive results. Pinpointing the affected site, Chandler and Dunn's farm at Ash, she said: "At Ash, there may not be much fruit but we are still able to assess limited quantities for taste, colour and shape."
The other trial orchard - Clive Baxter's farm near Maidstone, escaped the hail. New apple and pear varieties have been planted every year since both sites became operational in 2001. There are now 55 different varieties on trial, and during the early part of the season, attention is focused on varieties that may fit into the mid August-mid September window between peak Discovery and Cox volumes.
Most are still only identified by WWF codes, but some are about to be christened, and there is one that, by chance, was already found to be named.
Two of the early selections were selected from French breeders Davodeau Ligonniere and Delbard. The other, already named Festival, was originally purchased from the latter by Chandler and Dunn.
"Coincidentally, we had already believed that it showed promise," said Ashdown. “It was already on the fast track and has shown itself to fulfil the requirements of excellent taste, colour and shape and colour. There is already an exclusive agreement in place with Marks & Spencer to sell the limited quantities."
There are also some exciting later-cropping apple varieties in the pipeline. One is the product of the New Zealand breeding programme, the other is from the Continent. Over 100 trees of Evelina are already in the ground in the UK, which apart from its high colour is showing sufficient disease resistance to be grown organically.
The other is a Braeburn/Gala hybrid, similar to Jazz, which will be named shortly.
