Ashmead's Kernel apple trees
- Best seller
- Gardening skill: Average
- Picking season: Late
- Keeping (of fruit): 3 months or more
- Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
- Pollination group: 4
- Uses: Eating fresh
- Uses: Juice
Ashmeads Kernel is a very old traditional English russet apple. It remains popular for its distinctive pear-like flavor which is quite different from most other apple varieties.
Although often considered as a connoisseur's dessert apple, Ashmead's Kernel is actually quite versatile. It can be used for cooking, or sliced in savoury salads, and it keeps very well in a cold store.
Ashmead's Kernel is also becoming increasingly recognised for its juice, which adds an interesting fruity component to cider and hard cider blends.
Ashmead's Kernel apple trees for sale
1-year Ashmead's Kernel apple trees bare-root
Small (6ft-9ft) mature height
$29.00
1-year Ashmead's Kernel apple trees bare-root
Medium (8ft-12ft) mature height
$29.00
1-year Ashmead's Kernel apple trees bare-root
Large (10ft-16ft) mature height
$29.00
You can pre-order trees now for delivery when shipping starts (fall for warmer zones, or next spring), you won't be asked to pay until nearer the time.
*Find out more about the apple rootstocks we use to control the mature height.
How to grow
Ashmead's Kernel is quite easy to grow, and perhaps because it is such an ancient variety, it is relatively disease resistant. It can be a light cropper and this usually caused by poor pollination at blossom time - planting another late-flowering apple tree or crab-apple tree nearby is a good idea.
Ashmead's Kernel has good winter hardiness on the right rootstock. It is one of the best-adapted of the major English apple varieties to US climate zones, including the warmer zones of the south-east and southern California.
Advice on fruit tree pollination.
Historical details
Originated in England in the 1700s, probably in Gloucestershire.
Ashmead's Kernel characteristics
Using
- Picking season:
Late
- Uses:
Eating fresh Juice
- Cropping:
Light
- Keeping (of fruit):
3 months or more
- Flavor style (apples):
Aromatic
- Juice style:
Sweeter Sweet (cider)
- Fruit persistence:
Normal ripening
Growing
- Gardening skill:
Average
- Self-fertility:
Not self-fertile
- Pollination group:
4
- Pollinating others:
Poor
- Ploidy:
Triploid
- Vigour:
Average vigour
- Bearing regularity:
Regular
- Fruit bearing:
Spur-bearer
- Organic culture:
Suitable
Disease resistance
- General resistance:
Good
- Cedar apple rust:
Some resistance
- Mildew:
Some resistance
- Scab:
Some resistance
- Bitter pit:
Some susceptibility
Climate
- Cold hardiness (USDA):
(4) -30F / -34C (5) -20F / -29C (6) -10F / -23C (7) 0F / -18C (8) 10F / -12C (9) 20F / -7C (10) 30F / -1C
- Summer average maximum temperatures:
Cool ( 20C - 24C / 68F - 75F) Warm (25C - 30C / 76F - 85F)
Identification
- Country of origin:
United Kingdom
- Period of origin:
1700 - 1749
- Fruit color:
Russet
- Awards:
RHS Award of Garden Merit
Similar varieties
Egremont RussetEgremont Russet is the most popular English russet variety, and a good apple tree for the garden.
Pine Golden PippinA classic English russet apple from the Victorian era, notable for its pineapple-like flavor.
Saint Edmund's RussetNot as well known as other russets, St. Edmund's Russet is nevertheless one of the best.
