Peasegood Nonsuch Apples
Peasegood Nonsuch Apple trees bear lovely big fruit - in the book "Mr Paul" by Jonathan Cape, one character remarks of the Peasegood Nonsuch, "Capital! One of them makes a dumpling by itself." And he is right- for they can be used for both cooking and eating. The young fruit tend to have a large red patch that breaks up into stripes as it ripens, finally becoming an attractive, even red and yellow apple. The flesh is soft, slightly sharp and very succulent, becoming a light and sweet puree when cooked.
Peasegood Nonsuch's flowers are white, a little larger than most and the buds are bright pink, making this tree a good choice for planting where it can be seen in flower. They are fairly vigorous with a spreading habit. Though fully hardy, the flowers of Peasegood Nonsuch can be damaged by late frosts in April - the stress of being thawed too quickly by the early morning sun causes them to die back. Some farmers use warm fans to stop the flowers freezing, but for the amateur it is better to try to plant them so the morning sun doesn't hit the Trees- until about 9.30am, this will give the flowers time to thaw out more gently. You can use a long bamboo stick to check the position of the sunlight when planning where to plant your Trees. In any case, it would take a -4 degree frost to kill all the flowers (an extremely rare occurence in April, even in the North). We aren't sure about the parentageof Peasegood Nonsuch - all we know is that it was bred in Lincolnshire in the 1850's and has been used to breed six or seven other varieties. Harvest in mid-September.
Pollination Partners for Peasegood Nonsuch
We always recommend a crab apple like Golden Hornetthey the perfect pollinators and have good ornamental value too. If you would rather use another apple tree, Peasegood is just about mid- season and is compatible with any other fertile tree in the Early or Mid Season categories of the Apple Tree Pollination chart.
Peasegood Nonsuch Rootstocks
The MM106 group of rootstocks gives the home grower the widest range of manageable options, producing a 4 metre tree if left untrained. If space is an issue, you can take a maiden tree and grow it into a bush, cordon, fan or espalier.
If you are unclear about fruit tree sizes take a look at our Guide to Fruit Tree Sizing
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