You tube is full of rumors and gems of information, and this one came from the highly valuable ‘Grow Your Own Greens’ channel. When John visited the Permaculture Skill Center, and about 31 minutes in, he talks about a new find for him, an apple that is true to type when grown from seed. The Antonovka Apple.

My other half is Russian, and when ask about this apple he said it was a common apple in Russia and the Ukraine, that had the flavor of a Golden Delicious, but only tastier. And loving a good argument, he set out to prove it was not 'True to type', by reviewing the Russian research on it.

What he found was that the Antonovka has a low level of variation from the parent plant, giving you a similar edible apple, which is a characteristic not know of in any other apple. All other apples vary wildly, with cross pollination resulting in 1 new edible apple out of over 2000+ attempts, with the likely outcome a crab apple that is not good for effective eating, juicing or cooking.

Thanks John! Great Lead!

While it is common in Russia, it is very uncommon in Australia, so I immediately tried to order seeds from overseas. These were stopped at Australian Customs, and no one in Australia is selling seeds.

After much searching, I found two nursery in Australia that sell grafted Antonovka's, one of which flatly refuses to ship to Western Australia (WA). The second confirmed they had two trees ready for Winter 2016 shipping if I was happy to pay for the excessive WA customs charges. I said Yes! as these will provide my apple seeds to propagate all the apples at Serendipity in the future.

These are likely to be the most expensive Apple Trees that I ever buy, but hopefully, they will be the last apple trees I ever buy (with the possible exception of cuttings for grafting), so they will be a bargain when you think about it that way.

Here is my Plant Element Summary for the Antonovka, your feedback and comment is appreciated.