Karmijn de Sonnaville Apple (Spring 2027)

This is our first year growing Karmijn de Sonnaville, so everything below is secondhand until we get more long-term data from our own mother trees.

Overview

Karmijn de Sonnaville is a Dutch apple with about as much flavor as an apple can carry. Raintree says it measures highest in both sugars and acids, and Cummins calls it "one of the strongest flavored apples, extremely citrusy." Raintree also says it can overwhelm some tastes right off the tree, and recommends waiting about a month for the flavor to mellow.

Origin and History

It was raised in 1949 by Piet de Sonnaville at the horticultural plant breeding institute in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and introduced in 1971, according to the National Fruit Collection. Most sources give the parents as Cox's Orange Pippin and Jonathan.

Fruit and Uses

The fruit is a dull red to orange-red over a yellow-green background, often russeted, and it can be lumpy. It's picked in early to mid October and it keeps, somewhere between two and five months depending on who you ask, and it gets better in storage. It's a fresh-eating apple, and with that much sugar and acid it's also a good one for cider. Salt Spring Apple Company calls it "a very good cider candidate."

Growth Habit and Spacing

Ours are on Bud 118 semi-dwarf rootstock. Plan on about 15 feet between trees, up to 18 feet for airflow. Raintree calls it a vigorous grower. Most sources say it's susceptible to scab, and Cummins notes it does best where summers are cooler.

Pollination

Read this part before you plant. Karmijn is a triploid, which means its pollen isn't reliable. Raintree says flatly that it won't pollenize other varieties. It also needs a pollenizer itself, so it can't be one of only two apples in a planting. Put at least two other diploid apples near it that bloom around the same time, and everything works. Honeycrisp, Black Oxford, Northern Spy, Wealthy, Oriole and Sweet Sixteen are good choices. Ashmead's Kernel and Roxbury Russet are triploids too, so they don't count.

Cold Hardiness

We've listed it at zone 4 for now. Raintree rates it USDA zone 4, but keep in mind that's an average-winter rating, not a record of the coldest temperature it has survived. We'll update it once we've wintered our own trees.

Photo credit: “Karmijn apple” by ConT, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photos: “Karmijn de Sonaville jm55229” by joergens.mi, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; “Malus-Karmijn-de-Sonnaville” by Sven Teschke, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 de.