I am excited to try the apple that taste like a pineapple. I grafted a few this spring and they grew vigorously. I am thinking of taking cuttings from the whips and grafting more. I am wondering how they perform? I know many of the english varieties do not do that well here. Who is growing this variety?
http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/pitmaston-pineapple :
"Pitmaston Pineapple is an old English russet apple from the West Midlands area. It was originally raised as a seedling of Golden Pippin in the late 18th century, but presented to the London Horticultural Society in 1845 by Mr Williams of Pitmaston near Worcester. It crops heavily but has a tendency to biennial bearing - fruiting only every other year.
Its most notable feature is the unusual and prominent pineapple-like flavour. The flavour of apples can be most simply defined on a scale from very acidic to very sweet, but many varieties exhibit other flavour overtones on top of this basic axis, and Pitmaston Pineapple is the best example of a small group of apples where a musky pineapple-like flavour comes to the fore."
Interesting to know Ananas and PP may be the same cultivar, I’m growing both so should be able to make that call in a few years once they begin bearing. I tried PP at Poverty Lane Orchard in NH and enjoyed the intensity of flavor in that small russet package. I will also have some PP scionwood from a tree I top worked over to that variety two years ago if anyone wants to give it a try.
The two apples are not related, one is English the other Dutch. Not sure why BHCF has that synonym up.
PP is the most intensely flavored of the yellow-fleshed russets (I have fruited half a dozen of them). Also unlike many of the other English apples its a perfectly fine grower, little disease or other problems. Unfortunately for me I had my tree on G11 and most of my G11 have not lasted ten years - it died this spring. I managed to get a small graft going on another tree. The only fault is the small size. Also, to me I don’t taste any pineapple. The flesh does look like pineapple, its very yellow.
After searching a bit more, They seem to be different varieties. Ananas Reinettes seems to be a much older french apple but, there is conflicting information. I would love to have some Ananas Reinettes scion.
Thanks for the clarification Scott. My Ananas Reinette is also not a ‘russeted’ apple, it is very yellow. That was the only clue I had, as of now that it might not be the same at Pitmaston. Thanks!
Hi 39th. I will not have scion wood until for at least another year. One was ravaged by deer last winter, so I ordered another for this past spring. They are both too young and are very slow growers. But when the trees are up and going you’re welcome to scion.
I suspect that Ron listed that synonym because the two varieties are not infrequently confused. Ram Fishman posted a good comparison of them here at the Greenmantle site.
Very clean, like @mamuang’s. I was just telling her in another thread that mine are consistently covered in fine russet. They look just like the ones in @clarkinks’s post above. Very tasty, though, like yours.
@ramv
Did your Pitmaston developed any russeting at all? Mine has been rather minimal.
I also did not detect any pineapple flavor. In fact, mine tasted quite ordinary. One big factor could be that they are bloated by a lot of rain we have had these past several weeks.
Hi @mamuang , mine tasted so distinctly of pineapple that I was very surprised by it.
We’ve had little to no rain for 4 months now and the fruit season is the best in our history.
Agree about dry weather is good for fruit. My peaches ripen during our summer drought tasted so good.
Unfortunately, it has rained quite often since Sept. Our apples have gotten more rain than they ever need. I have seen cracking on several varieties including Pitmaston, Bullock, Rubaiyat and Honey Crisp.
If you asked me, it did not work out well this year due to bad timing rain. Most of my Pitmaston cracked and tasted poorly but it should not be counted as a real measure under the circumstance.
I have tried a couple times to unsuccessfully graft pitmaston pineapple onto a couple trees. As to apples being sweeter in drought, that does not seem to be the case here. We have been dry all year, in severe drought the last several months. My various varieties of apples were not very tasty this year.
