Hello, I wonder what kind of apple I can grow in a climate like this: Hard winters, early fall, late summers, extreme wind and short summers. I want to start an apple farm on my parents summer farm to make hard cider. Is there any hope that at least one kind of appletree can grow and ripe in this climate? I’ve heard it’s perfect for gooseberry, blackurrant and redcurrant, but not apples. Thanks for help in advance.
I see you live in Norway. Norway is a big place and how cold the winters are varies a lot depending on where you are in Norway. I think we need more information on where you live in Norway and what the USDA hardiness zone is.
It looks like Norway’s winter cold range is zone 2a to 8b for most of Norway. Here is a link that has a map of hardiness zones and a list of hardiness zone values for cities and towns in Norway. If you could let us know what hardiness zone you live in that would help. Also what type of soil do you have sandy, loam or clay? That would be useful too.
In general, if you are in zone 5 or higher most apple trees and rootstocks of apple trees will grow just fine. Fruit ripening is more complicated. In zone 4 there is still a fair number that will grow okay. In zone 2 and 3 it’s pretty tough and your options will be pretty limited.
But people grow apples in Alaska and in the prairies of Canada. The winters there are harsh.
2 Likes
@mroot mentions Alaska apple growing, and here is a link from the Alaska Extension service that might be useful to get you started.
http://cespubs.uaf.edu/index.php/download_file/1161/
And if there is an “Extension Service” in Norway, they may have better information for you._
I live in zone 6b,
What your described sounds like zone 3 !!!
If you are really zone 6b, there are plenty of apples you can grow. I am in zone 6 a. The only apples I don’t grow are those low chill as they could bloom too early.
2 Likes
There is one category dedicated to cider and apples for cider.
1 Like
This may give you a bit of a lead:
It’s a review of a “Scandinavian cider” from an Estonian cider, made from “a specific mix of Baltic varieties of apples, including (but not limited to) – Tellisaare, Alwa, Suislepp, Liivi Kuldrenett, Krugeri tuvioun, Talvenauding, and this gives a unique combination of acid, tannin, and sweetness.”
Link to the cidery itself:
1 Like
Is your parents’ summer farm in zone 6b, too? If so, you have plenty of cider apples to choose from.
Also, a little information about apple-growing and cider-making in Norway (apparently traditional in the Hardangerfjord region):
And the cidery mentioned in the article:
Perhaps “Redfield”, perhaps “Frostbite”, “Michelin”, “Alatau”, “Antonovka”,
“Otterson”, ah…there should be many for zones 4 to 6.
Okay your going to be planting trees in zone 6b. That’s good. In zone 6b you can plant any apple tree since hardiness is no problem. Now lets look at the growing season length. Growing season length helps determine if different apples will ripen properly. For me in Illinois located in the United States at the zone 5/6 border my growing season length is 182 days. What is your growing season length? If you don’t know use this link to determine it:
Go down to the section on Temperature and look at the chart. Find the city that is close to the location of your summer farm. Then move to the right on the chart until you get to the column that is “GS/FFD”. The first number in that column is the number of days in your growing season.
Once we have the growing season length we can try to find some apple trees that work for you. One problem may be that only certain apples are available for sale in Norway. I am most familiar with apples grown in the United States, Canada and England. I am not sure if all those apples are available in Norway for sale.
The GS/FFD of my nearest city is 165 / 138 forgot to say I want to plant in the inland climate in norway.
Okay your growing season is 165 days long. I take it that the summer farm is near Lillehammer and it’s climate is humid continental climate. Köppen climate classification is Dfb which the same as the upper Midwest in the United States- many people grow apples in that region. I am in climate class Dfa which is similar except the summers are hotter and a bit longer.
Do you know much about making cider? You probably want research making ciders. Most apples don’t make juice that has all the characteristics needed to make good cider. Most of the time the juice from several types of apples is blended to make good cider.
Certain apples don’t need to be blended and they are used to make single variety ciders. Here is a guide to cider apples that is a good general guide to cider apples and it lists a fair number of apples in a chart.
Here is list of cider making apples used in Michigan which is also a Dfb class climate. If you click on the individual apples it gives you the apple characteristics it adds to cider.
I would would also add St. Edmund’s Pippin to lists above. It’s a Fall Apple and ripens earlier than most cider apples.
I would look and see if any of the apples on these lists are available in Norway. If they are then we can try to narrow the list down to a couple apples that could work well for you. If none of the apple trees are available we can look at some other apples trees. You may want to also look at information supplied by government agencies that support farmers. Here they are called cooperative extensions in Norway they are probably know by a different name.
1 Like