Description of the Scala apple variety, the main characteristics and reviews of gardeners
To get a good harvest, you need to thoroughly prepare before planting and growing crops. This applies to everything, including apple trees. You can choose something, and then find out that the soil or location for the tree is not suitable, and be left without a crop. It's about the Skala apple trees.
Description and features
To begin with, you can familiarize yourself with the description of the species, talk with experienced gardeners, sellers of seedlings. The Skala apple tree is considered a medium-sized tree, the height of which reaches a maximum mark of 8 meters. The crown is wide, but not too thick.
The main features of this type of apple are frost resistance, as well as the fruits themselves - beautiful, large, with a sweet and sour taste. The apple skin is thin, smooth, greenish-yellow in color with a bright red cover. The pulp is of medium density, granular structure, juicy, creamy white.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
The apple tree of this species was artificially bred by crossing the Prima and Bessemyanka species in order to improve the main indicators. The advantages of the Skala variety include:
- frost resistance;
- rarely exposed to fungal diseases and scab;
- large crop volume;
- the regularity of the harvest.
But there are also disadvantages:
- short shelf life of fruits (up to 3 months);
- lack of the ability to self-pollinate.
Characteristics of the Scala apple tree
Below will be given the main characteristics of this apple variety, which will help determine the need to grow this species.
Dimensions
The tree itself is of medium height, the maximum height that it can reach is 8 meters. The crown is wide and spreading, but not dense. Separately, it is worth talking about fruits: round, regular in shape, the weight of one varies on average from 230 to 250 grams. With proper care, you can get apples weighing more than 300 grams.
Yield
The starting crop can be harvested no earlier than the 5th year after planting the tree. In the first years, it is necessary to pick flowers in order to get a lot of good fruits in the future. The yield is high - about 280 kilograms per hectare.
The frequency of fruiting
From the 5-7th year, the tree will bear fruit regularly and in large quantities. They ripen by about mid-September. A distinctive feature of the Skala variety is that even if the tree has suffered from frost, fruiting may decrease this year, but not disappear.
Winter hardiness
Winter hardiness is high.If the tree is properly looked after, then it will calmly survive frosts down to -45 degrees. Even unexpected frosts in spring are not terrible for this variety - the buds do not freeze over.
Disease resistance
Disease resistance is average. Scala apple trees practically do not suffer from scab and fungal diseases, but at the same time they are not resistant to fruit rot and bitter pitting. To avoid this, it is necessary to fertilize the soil on time, spray trees, form a crown, remove spoiled elements and harvest in a timely manner.
Fruit assessment
The average score for Skala apples is 4.3 points out of 5 in terms of the main tasting indicators. However, some gardeners note the excessive acidity of the fruit.
Distribution regions
The species was bred in the Tambov region for the needs of the Central region of Russia. It is for this reason that the Rock became widespread in the Tambov, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Oryol and Kursk regions. Here the apple tree shows all the positive characteristics and does not need any special care. In other cities of Russia, breeding of this variety is also possible, but it needs to be adapted to the local climate.
What are the subspecies
There are 2 subspecies of the Skala apple tree:
- Stamp. Differs in compact size (up to 3 meters), relatively short life span (up to 25 years) and earlier fruiting (more often in early September).
- Columnar. A short tree (up to 2 meters) with a small crown brings a large yield of large fruits of 200-300 grams. Of the minuses - a life span of up to 15 years.
Gardeners reviews
Nina, Republic of Adygea: “We have apple trees of different varieties growing on our site, and Skala is one of our favorites. The tree does not require special care, the size is small, and it bears a lot of fruits. The only drawback is the short shelf life. But we found a way out, making all kinds of preparations. "
Ekaterina, Saransk: “After we harvested the first harvest of Skala apples, I decided to replace other types of apple trees with this one. There are so many fruits that sometimes you have to prop up the branches to keep them from breaking. "
Petr, Kemerovo: “I like this view: it withstands our winters and bears fruit well. At the same time, I have never even formed the crown of a tree. The only thing that is required is timely prevention of diseases and pest control ”.
