🌳 BELLE DE BOSKOOP APPLE TREE

🔹 Identification

• Botanical name: Malus domestica ‘Belle de Boskoop’

• Origin: Netherlands (Boskoop)

• Year of origin: 1856

• Type: Heritage apple tree for cooking and storage

• Synonyms: Boskoop, Reinette de Boskoop, Schöner aus Boskoop

🌳 Tree

• Vigour: Strong to very strong

• Habit: Broad, spreading and slightly weeping

• Height: Varies with the rootstock (4 to 8 m at maturity)

• Flowering: Mid-season

• Flowering group: 3 (RHS classification)

• Time to bearing: Rather slow

• Production: Abundant, sometimes biennial

• Hardiness: Zone 3b to 4 according to Canadian references.

🍎 Fruit

• Size: Medium to very large

• Colour: Yellowish green with red and orange tones

• Skin: Often covered with russet patches

• Flesh: Yellowish to cream, firm and crisp

• Flavour: Tart, rich and highly aromatic

• Texture: Juicy, becoming more tender in storage

• Uses: Excellent for baking, pies, applesauce, juice and fresh eating.

📅 Harvest and storage

• Harvest: Early to mid-October

• Best eating quality: November to March

• Storage: 4 to 6 months in good conditions

• Special feature: Its flavour mellows and improves after a few weeks in storage.

🌸 Pollination

• Self-fertility: Not self-fertile.

• Type: Triploid, with sterile pollen.

• Cross-pollination is essential.

• Suggested pollinizers:

  • Cortland

  • Empire

  • Cox Orange

  • Spartan

🌸 Belle de Boskoop is triploid: it needs two other compatible diploid apple trees that can also pollinate one another. It cannot serve as a pollinizer itself.

🌱 Growing conditions

• Exposure: Full sun.

• Soil: Fertile, deep and well drained.

• Moisture: Prefers soil that stays moist.

• Watering: Regular, especially during dry spells.

• Pruning: Thin the canopy and maintain annually.

• Resistance: Very good scab resistance according to several references.

• Special feature: Tolerates cool climates well.

⭐ Highlights

• Very large fruit.

• An excellent cooking apple.

• Very good winter storage.

• Tart, aromatic flavour.

• Vigorous, productive tree.

• A heritage variety known for its culinary qualities.

⚠️ Points to consider

• Sometimes slow to start bearing.

• Tends toward biennial bearing.

• Needs two suitable pollination partners.

• A large tree.

• Fruit may be prone to cracking in certain conditions.

🌿 Garden interest

Belle de Boskoop is an essential heritage variety for cooking-apple enthusiasts. Its large, aromatic fruit, firm flesh and long storage life make it excellent for pies, applesauce and homemade desserts.