Dr. Parmar: It is a mistake to focus exclusively on traditional low-chill apples in the tropics, as the fruit quality often is not acceptable and dormancy issues for other apples are easily overcome. The main obstacle I see for a tropical apple farmer is to compete with cheap imports from China. You won't be able to beat their price or appearance, and so you will have to produce better-tasting apples.
Here in Southern California I'm testing about 100 apple varieties in low-chill conditions. If I was to have to pick an apple for commercially growing in the tropics, it would be Williams' Pride. It colors up well and is productive in the heat, and is disease-resistant; my next pick would be Enterprise for the same reasons. Many russets would also do well, but the fruit is ugly and would be trouble to market. Wealthy is popular in central America and attains good quality, but both of these would have disease issues. You can see a list of what I have growing and notes on performance at www.kuffelcreek.com/applelist.htm Kevin Hauser Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery Riverside, California On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:00:16 -0700, "Dr. Chiranjit Parmar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear members, > > I want some information on growing apples under mild winter conditions or > subtropical conditions. > > I had once worked on a project like this here in India 40 years back. At > that time alongwith US varieties like Tropical Beauty , we had also tried > varieties from Israel like Vered, Naomi, Tamar etc. The trial did not > give good results and most trees were severely affected by various > diseases. The fruits were small and not at marketable in competition to > regular apples. > > What is the present situation. Have any new varieties been developed? > > Dr. Chiranjit Parmar > www.fruitipedia.com -- Kevin Hauser Kuffel Creek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 'Apple-Crop' LISTSERV is sponsored by the Virtual Orchard <http://www.virtualorchard.net> and managed by Win Cowgill and Jon Clements <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Apple-Crop is not moderated. Therefore, the statements do not represent "official" opinions and the Virtual Orchard takes no responsibility for the content.
