Short shoot mutants are an orchard curiosity and although the name may raise some concerns, these varieties are bred and grown in a traditional way.
The same cultivars may bear different fruit in different climatic conditions. It may also happen that through a spontaneous mutation a tree of a known variety starts to bear fruits that differ in the appearance of fruits.In this way, many new, interesting varieties were created, differing in the color of the blush.
These varieties are referred to as sports or color mutants.A separate and much less numerous group of varieties are short-shoot mutants.In this case, the mutation was not the fruit, but the shoots of the tree. As the name suggests, the crown of the short-shoot mutant consists mainly of short, weakly growing shoots.Thanks to this, these varieties practically do not release unnecessary long shoots. Tree growth is also much weaker.
Compared to the standard variety, short-distance sports grow even 40-50% weaker. Thus, these varieties can be planted even in small gardens. The crowns of trees are compact and quite dense, because short shoots dominate, on which fruit is usually planted.This makes the formation of such trees easy. As a rule, it is enough to cut the excess shoots.Sometimes the problem can be caused by excess fruit. In order for all apples to reach the right size, it is advisable to thin out excess fruitlets.
Paradise varieties of apples
Short-term mutants often have the second part of the name added to their variety names - spur (e.g.Red spur, Mac spur).If you notice such a term on the tree label, it means that the given variety is a short-shoot mutant with shortened internodes and will therefore grow less.
