Pilot

Pilot is a late winter variety, which thrills by its firm fruit pulp and its nutty flavour. Furthermore it convinces by means of a high vitamine-C content. It fills a gap in the maturity group of long storage varieties and can complement ‘Idared‘. It is very well-suited as dessert apple, but also for processing into apple juice.

Parents:

Clivia x Undine

Growth:

medium strong, scaffold branches almost horizontal, loosely branched

Blossom:

medium early, medium, usually regular blossom beset, long-lasting, diploid; good pollinators are Idared, Golden, Elstar, Pinova, Remo, Rewena

Ripeness:

fruit ripe for picking: September; ripe for consumption: February up to June

Storage:

in CA-storage (CA = Controlled Atmosphere) durable until July/August

Appearance:

Flat to medium high, medium-sized fruits with tubercular calyx and broad, deep, stem deepening. The skin of the apple is rough and firm to pressure. The yellow to orange basic colour is covered up to 70 percent by a strong, veined, short striped vermillion.

Quality:

very firm fruit pulp, juicy

Taste:

sourish taste, strong, nutty flavour

Crop yield:

rather early, high, regular yields

Special notes:

Well-suited for education as a lean spindle with little pruning (cutting back/out) effort.