Ribson Pippen

Type: Culinary, Cider, Dessert, Jelly, Juice, Pie, Sauce

Synonyms: Beautiful Pippin, Essex Pippin (there is a varietal by that name, please see Essex Pippin ), Formosa, Formosa Pippin, Glory of York, Ribston, Ribstone, Rockhill's Russet, Travers, Travers' Pippin.

Summary: A classic dessert apple which fell into relative obscurity with the arrival of the Cox's Orange Pippin.

Identification: Medium to large size. Round, slightly conic, often lopsided and angular. Base colour is greenish yellow with brown to orange flushes on the sun-exposed face and broken red stripes. Look for russetting at the calyx basin and around the stem cavity. Lenticels are moderately large, russetted and abundant. The calyx is medium size and partly open, set in a shallow and wide, lightly ribbed basin. The stem is short, slender and set in a deep and narrow, russeted cavity.

Characteristics: Flesh is a pale cream colour, fine-grained, firm. Crunchy. Moderately juicy and sweet. Very fragrant with a pear aroma.

Uses: Often used for pies and other apple delicacies. Popular for use in juice and hard cider.

Origins: The only survivor of three seedlings grown in 1707 at Ribston Hall in Yorkshire from five seeds (two of them turned out to be crab apples) sent to Sir Henry Goodricke from Rouen in Normandy (France). First listed in catalogues in 1769.

Cultivation: Vigorous, upright spreading tree. Bears fruit on spurs. Biennial. Well suited to growing as an espalier. It likes dry soils.

Progeny: Considered to be one of the parents of the popular Cox’s Orange Pippin . Progeny also includes Cox’s Pomona , Freiherr von Berlepsch , King’s Acre Pippin , Laxton’s Rearguard , Reverend Wilks , Saltcote Pippin .

Cold Storage: Does not store well.

Vulnerabilities: Susceptible to water coring, also canker and scab.

Harvest: Ripens in the latter part of the fourth period but needs to be picked a bit before that because it has a tendency to drop its fruit.

Notes: Extremely high in Vitamin C.

Pollination Group: C

Pollination Peak: 8

Ploidism: Triploid. Produces no fertile pollen.

Harvest Period: 4

Hardiness: 4