Apple 'Mutsu'

Synonyms: Mutsu, Crispin ('Crispin')

Apple Mutsu (Malus domestica 'Mutsu') – a late cultivar of the domestic apple (Malus domestica). The cultivar was developed in Japan in the Mutsu province (Mutsu-no kuni) in 1948 from a cross between 'Golden Delicious' and 'Indo'.

It is a medium-sized tree with a dense, broad-pyramidal, flat-rounded or spreading habit, with drooping branches. In youth it grows rapidly, during the fruiting period – moderately. Strong scaffold branches depart from the trunk at an angle of 30—65°. Bud vigor is below average, shoot-forming ability is average. It fruits on ring spurs, fruiting shoots and tips of one-year shoots.

Materials used from http://proxima.net.ua

Leaves densely pubescent beneath, richly dark green, oblong or elongated-ovate in shape, with a pointed or rounded base and a pointed tip. Sometimes slightly twisted clockwise, with coarsely undulating doubly serrate margins.

Flowers medium-sized, white, saucer-shaped. The cultivar is partially self-sterile and therefore requires pollinizers. It blooms in mid-late terms. It produces very little viable pollen — 0.5—2.5%, therefore unsuitable as a pollinizer. Fruit set from open pollination — 6—19%.

Fruits of large and medium size, 160-220 (200-280) g, flattened-conical in shape, yellowish-green in color, with numerous white and rare corky black lenticels. Flesh white with a delicate creamy tint under the skin in ripe fruits, firm, medium-grained, very juicy, aromatic, harmonious sweet-and-sour taste. Skin thick, firm, smooth and glossy. Begins to bear in the 5th-6th year. Harvest maturity occurs in late September — early October, eating (consumer) maturity — in January; storage 3—4.5 months, and in refrigeration until May. Yield increases gradually. Ten- to twelve-year-old trees produce about 40—70 kg, in some years up to 150 kg of fruit.

Best pollinizers: Gala, Golden Delicious, Champion, Aydaret, Alwa, Braeburn, Gloster, Katja, Spartan, Melrose, Everest, James Grieve, Lodel, Melrose, Red Delicious, Professor Springer.

Hardiness zone: 4a (-29°C).

Location: prefers sunny, sheltered-from-wind sites. Does not tolerate waterlogging or very dry sites. Groundwater should lie no closer than 2.5 m from the surface. Not demanding regarding soil, but prefers fertile, fresh soils.

Planting: The seedling is preferably planted in spring before bud break or in autumn 1-15 months before frosts. The planting hole should be at least 80x80x100 cm; the distance between seedlings should be calculated depending on the crown size at maturity (not less than 5-6 m). The seedling is filled with a soil mixture consisting of leaf soil, humus and sand in the ratio 1:3:2; a little peat and granulated double superphosphate (250-300 g per planting hole) can also be added.

Diseases: resistance to scab is average, to powdery mildew – above average. May be affected by bacterial spot.

Pests: hawthorn tortrix moth, hawthorn moth, brown fruit mite, upper-surface fruit moth, apple blossom weevil, oriental fruit moth, pear sawfly, pear tube-maker, oak-leaf silk moth, cambium borers, western bark beetle, green apple aphid, winter moth, gooseberry (sawfly), ringed silk moth, red-gall apple aphid, red apple mite, woolly (blood) aphid, leaf-mining moth, gypsy moth, common pear psylla, fruit moth, fruit and subcortical leafroller, a species of geometrid moth, rowan leafroller, currant leafroller, a species of noctuid moth, striped fruit moth, apple spot-like scale, psyllids, apple tortrix, apple tortrix and leafroller, apple codling moth, apple clearwing, apple-plantain aphid, apple sawfly.

Care: In the second year after planting it is necessary to apply a complete mineral fertilizer (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium). During the winter period protection against freezing and rodents is necessary. Whitewashing of apples is applied in the 5th-6th year after planting the seedling. In spring-summer it is necessary to provide nitrogen fertilization and moderate watering. Feedings are carried out after flowering, then after fruitlet drop and the last – at the end of August - beginning of September.

Pruning: is carried out in two ways: thinning and shortening. For shortening, remove half of the upper parts of shoots, and for thinning – remove the shoot or branch entirely. The optimal period for pruning is early spring – March-May. Apples planted the previous autumn should be pruned before sap flow begins. Summer pruning (pinching) can also be applied.

Propagation: propagated by seed (in autumn – freshly collected, in spring – after 1.5-2 months of stratification), by grafting and by layering.

Use: Mutsu apples are consumed fresh and are also used for juice production.