Gallery: The Wondrous ‘Howgate Wonder’, Champion Apple of 2025
Once again it’s time to crown the largest, most impressively massive Champion Apple, and once again the laurels go to the mighty ‘Howgate Wonder’. Specifically, this epic specimen, which I had to pick back in October when I realised the woodlice had started excavating a hole at the stem end. Despite the early picking – we still have a few Howgates on the tree even now, on the 2nd of December and perfectly happy they seem to be – and even with a chunk missing, this beauty weighed in at an impressive 822g, which is a woodlouse’s nibble shy of 29oz, or 1lb 15oz, in old money.
This heavy hitter knocked the socks off the last three years’ champions – 771g in 2022, 646g in 2023 and 708g in 2024 – and I think it will take some beating next year, even if we’re fortunate enough to enjoy another near-perfect apple growing season. It’s not the world record holder by quite a margin, but it’s the heaviest apple I’ve ever laid hands on. A local champion for the ages? Time will tell…
Here, for those who are interested enough to scroll this far, is the stepover tree on our allotment plot on which these epic apples grow. This pic was taken in early November, and you can see that I’ve allowed the strong, vertical lateral branches to grow tall, rather than cutting them back. No summer pruning for this tree.
I reckon it’s this simple treatment that helps the apples – which are all growing on the main, horizontal branches at the base of the tree, or on fruiting spurs coming off those main branches – to become quite so large. All those leaves are photosynthesising all summer long, producing the sugars that the tree needs to boost the fruit. I then prune the verticals away in winter, and thin out the fruiting spurs as required, before letting the whole process begin again the following year.
The tree receives no other special treatment; no particular fertilisers, and just woodchip mulch around the base to help suppress weeds, and the results speak for themselves.
The one problem I do have with ‘Howgate Wonder’ on a fairly regular basis is bitter pit, as illustrated by the dark blotches on these fruits:
Bitter Pit is a physiological disorder rather than a disease or the result of insect damage. It was long thought to be caused by a simple calcium deficiency, but C21st research1For example, ‘Causes and Effects of Changes in Xylem Functionality in Apple Fruit‘, Dražeta et al 2004, ‘Cellular Approach to Understand Bitter Pit Development in Apple Fruit‘, de Freitas et al 2010, and ‘The Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Xylem Differentiation, Water and Nutrient Transport, and Bitter Pit Susceptibility of Apple‘, Griffith & Einhorn, 2023. has revealed that it’s more likely to be caused by an imbalance of major plant hormones that results in irregular development of the xylem tissues of the fruits, leading to those blotchy patches at the surface.
In any case, it’s not the end of the world, as said blotches can be peeled away when the fruit is prepared for eating. And not all of the apples on the tree will develop bitter bit, as these good-looking specimens demonstrate:
And just in case you were thinking “huh, those apples don’t look that big”, well, here are a few arty shots of a selection of this year’s ‘Howgate Wonder’ fruits. The first shows a group of them in all their glory, and in the next two a supermarket-standard-sized ‘Braeburn’ is included by way of size comparison.
I know, it looks like a crab apple next to a gang of ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’, doesn’t it? But trust me, that’s a regular-sized apple.
And the best bit? ‘Howgate Wonder’ apples taste great even when they’re as big as a baby’s head. If they’re nicely ripened on the tree, as the ones in those group pics were, they’re definitely sweet enough to eat raw – the only difficulty lies in finding enough room to finish a whole one, but of course they’re perfect for sharing – and they cook down to a lovely, smooth purée as well, should you prefer them that way.
How about you? Do you have a ‘Howgate Wonder’ tree and if so, how has it done this year? Do you grow super-sized apples, and what variety are they? Do let me know, via the comments, below.
Footnotes
- 1For example, ‘Causes and Effects of Changes in Xylem Functionality in Apple Fruit‘, Dražeta et al 2004, ‘Cellular Approach to Understand Bitter Pit Development in Apple Fruit‘, de Freitas et al 2010, and ‘The Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Xylem Differentiation, Water and Nutrient Transport, and Bitter Pit Susceptibility of Apple‘, Griffith & Einhorn, 2023. ↩︎
Hi Darren, we have a young Howgate Wonder tree and this year it gave us the biggest fruit in our orchard, around 500g. This just beat our Bramley and Grenadier. I had to harvest them a bit earlier due to bird attacks, so could have been bigger. Like yours, some bitter pit too. Tasty in a pie, retained texture and sweet enough not to need much sugar adding. Stores well too.
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy – It’s a great variety, isn’t it? The closest in weight to that 822g monster I saw this year was a ‘Withington Welter’ (a.k.a. ‘Withington Fillbasket’) that we grew at work, which weighed in at just over 700g. That’s a much earlier cooker though, doesn’t really ripen on the tree, tends to fall if the wind gets frisky.
Hi Darren,
When I was a child we had a Howgate Wonder on the allotment in Heaton Mersey, as a three tier espalier. Of the three apples we had, it was always the most robust, healthy, vigorous and heavy cropping – usually giving us far more fruit than we could eat and which ended up being stored on bakery trays in the shed until they shrivelled up too much or went brown. I’ve had a soft spot for the variety ever since. Makes a great apple cake or purée as you say.
Tom
Hi Tom – Wow, that sounds like an absolute stunner of an apple tree. I’d love to have been able to see that one in its prime. I do have a few stored in my unheated porch, and there are still eight or nine on the tree that seem perfectly happy, but I should probably bring those in before the birds get at them.
From your pictures, think its possible we have a howgate wonder that came with the house
They do get big where we thin them. Will thin some to one per spur next year and see if can get near you experts
Not seen much bitter pit on it but is canker prone. Do chalk the soil around them, every other year as read it reduces canker on the wet , acid , clay soils we have, which maybe reduces bitter pit
Hi Russ – Yes, chalking the soil should make more calcium available to the trees, but that research I referenced – although I haven’t been able to study it in detail, as it’s all behind various paywalls – seems to suggest that it’s the consistency of water availability through the growing season that’s the key factor. So perhaps your wet clay soil is retaining more moisture and making it available for the trees to take up when needed and that’s helping as well. I’d keep chalking though, if you’re getting good results.
Having read about the Howgate Wonder in your notes over the last few years I planted one. 2025 was year 2 and to my delight I had 6 beautiful apples!
The apples cook well without any need for added sugar.
They were much bigger than the Bramley apples grown in a different part of the garden . The Bramley is a stepover and I’ve struggled to get the pruning right – the Bramley is a tip barer ?
Hi Anne – Ah, that’s lovely. I’m so glad you were inspired to plant a ‘Howgate Wonder’. I do think it’s a much better apple than ‘Bramley’s Seedling’, or at least, the poor, underripe ‘Bramleys’ that most supermarkets sell.
‘Bramley’s Seedling’ is generally considered to be a tip-bearer, or at least a partial tip-bearer, yes. But I think what’s happening, based on observing the ‘Bramley’ I’m growing on our allotment, is that the tree tends to produce a lot of ‘long brindille’ shoots. These thin, whippy stems grow from ‘bourse shoots’ – the knobby, thick stem-ends that develop when an apple forms – and can often produce a blossom bud at the end. If those buds are allowed to develop into fruits then you do get the classic ‘tip-bearing’ pattern.
What I’m trying to do with my own tree is gently discourage the tip-bearing habit by pruning off the brindille shoots in winter, and hoping that another blossom bud opens on the bourse shoot itself. That way a shorter spur network might develop, which allows the form of the tree to be kept more compact.
It’s a work-in-progress though, so I’ll need to observer it for a bit longer before writing it up. But it might be worth a try?