The 'James Grieve' apple has many qualities for successful cultivation in the home garden. Because of its thin skin, the variety cannot be found in the supermarket. However, we will show you how to grow the tasty apple variety in the garden.
The 'James Grieve' summer apple can be grown in many locations and is popular in home gardens. It was not able to establish itself in commercial cultivation due to its sensitivity to pressure and the resulting low storage and transportability. You won't find this variety in the supermarket. 'James Grieve' produces a lot and regularly and can be used in many ways - so the variety is rightly considered an all-rounder for hobby gardeners.
James Grieve apple: profile
| Fruit | medium to large; yellow-green base color with orange-red grained top color |
| Flavour | juicy, sweet, spicy |
| Yield | high |
| Harvest time | End of August to mid-September |
| Maturity for pleasure | End of August to end of September |
| Shelf Life | bad; can be stored until the end of October |
| Growth | initially medium strong, later weak; lots of fruit wood |
| Climate | low demands; Windbreak in frost-prone and draughty places |
| Diseases and Pests | susceptible to fireblight; on very bad locations susceptible to blood lice, aphids, red spider, fruit tree canker, monilia fruit rot |
James Grieve apple: history and origin
An avid apple breeder and grower named James Grieve raised seedlings from seed of the cultivar 'Potts Seedling' near Edinburgh around 1875. Various sources suspect the tasty variety 'Cox Orange' to be the pollinator, but this is not certain. From the 1880s the local Dickson Nursery popularized the new 'James Grieve' and it quickly grew in popularity. The apple was not officially registered as a variety until 1893.
Characteristics and taste of the ‘James’ apple varietyGrieve'
The James Grieve apple is medium-sized to large, sometimes very large. Its shape is high or spherical and usually quite regular, without dents or strong ribs. The peel is thin, tender and slightly greasy. The basic color is yellow-green, the top color orange-red veined and takes up only 20 to 50% of the shell surface. The top color is washed out, striped or spotted and only turns dark red with very good exposure and in warm regions. The skin is tender.
The flesh is light, yellowish-white and soft. Biting into it, it becomes juicy, sweet, and tangy while acidity is almost entirely absent. 'James Grieve' tastes floury after a long period of storage.
Cultivation and care: you should pay attention to this
With a little care, the 'James Grieve' apple tree is a very reliable and richly bearing tree.
It grows moderately vigorously when young, later vegetative growth is slowed down immensely by the heavy load of apples. The natural crown shape is broad pyramidal and stocky with few branches. A lot of fruit wood is formed, so that whorl wood can soon be found everywhere in the crown. Unfortunately, this only produces small fruits. The variety tends to become exhausted and must be kept vital by regular pruning.
In order to counteract aging and exhaustion, a rootstock with at least medium growth (e.g. M7, MM106) should be chosen. For tall stems it should be a strong growing rootstock (like M11 or seedlings). Rootstock A2 is suitable for growing as a bush tree.
Perfectly suited soil for the 'James Grieve' apple variety is nutrient-rich and sufficiently moist. However, less than ideal locations are also well tolerated. The demands on the climate are low: it can be warm, but also a little cooler. In places that are very cold, drafty and prone to frost, a windbreak, such as a dense hedge or a building, should be available.
The blossom of the 'James Grieve' apple tree opens mid-early in the year, lasts a long time and is hardly sensitive to frost. It is well fertilized by the varieties 'Geheimrat Dr. Oldenburg', 'Freiherr von Berlepsch', 'Goldparmäne', 'Boikenapfel', 'Klarapfel' and 'Glockenapfel'.
Rejuvenation pruning is part of the regular care of the 'James Grieve' apple tree. This repeatedly provokes new vegetative growth and thus counteracts senescence. An annual cut makes sense, but is not absolutely necessary. If the treeproduces an extremely large number of fruits, at least half of these should be removed in May/June. This thinning prevents the alternation from being amplified. Alternating apple trees bear a great deal of fruit and then almost no fruit at other times.
Diseases are basically not an important issue when growing 'James Grieve' because it is robust and resilient. However, there is a susceptibility to reportable fire blight. Blood lice, aphids, red spiders, fruit tree canker and Monilia fruit rot can also occur more frequently in very unfavorable locations.
Harvest Time and Use of the James Grieve Apple
James Grieve apples are ready to pick between the end of August and mid-September and can also be enjoyed straight from the tree. Because the fruits are not all ripe at the same time, they are harvested continuously. The James Grieve apples reach their best taste no later than two weeks after the harvest. Unfortunately, the fruits can only be stored in cool cellar storage until about the middle to the end of October, after which they become increasingly brown and wilt. It is therefore better to process all the fruits into mush, cake or juice as soon as possible.
The choice of easy-care, robust fruit trees saves a lot of work in the garden and sometimes also frustration. The same goes for the overall garden design: a natural garden full of native and hardy plants and with a variety of habitats is the best option for anyone who wants to find less work and more relaxation in the garden.