Jelly King®

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Jelly King is aimed particularly at cooks who want to make crab apple jelly - the orange/pink fruits produce a jelly of the same colour.

However Jelly King is more than just a crab apple jelly specialist, it is actually a great all-round crab apple. The white flowers are borne in profusion and provide an intense and long-lasting display in spring whilst in autumn the large fruits are particularly attractive too, and persist well into December (although unlike other persistent crab apples birds tend not to go for them).

Once the tree is a few years old it becomes a heavy-cropper, so even if you pick some for the kitchen there will still be plenty to provide autumn colour on the tree.

Growing and Training

Jelly King is a relatively vigorous grower but with compact upright proportions. It is also a good pollinator of mainstream apple varieties in flowering groups 2 and 3.

History

Jelly King was developed in New Zealand in the 1970s, and is sometimes known as Mattfru.

Jelly King characteristics

• Gardening skillBeginner
• Fruit persistencePersistent
• Self-fertile?Self-fertile
• Pollinating othersGood
• Pick seasonLate
• Picking monthSeptember
• Picking periodlate September
• Keeping2-3 weeks
• Food usesCulinary
• Country of originNew Zealand
• Period of origin1950 - 1999
• Fruit colourOrange / Red

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  Laura
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  Scarlet Brandywine
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