‘Sīpoliņš’
‘Sīpoliņš’ is one of the most favourite old varieties in Latvia and Estonia. It is thought to come from a seed of the German cultivar ‘Edelborsdorfer’. In Estonia it is called ‘Liivi Sibulõun’, but older names are ‘Livländischer Borsdorfer’, ‘Livländischer Zwiebelapfel’ and others. For many years it was one of the few cultivars in the region, which had tasty apples with long storage and trees that were not killed by severe winters. The trees of ‘Sīpoliņš’ are long-lived and highly productive, it is told that once a ton (1000 kg) of apples were harvested from a single tree. The variety is highly tolerant to scab and canker. Yet now it loses competition with new winter cultivars with larger fruits and smaller trees.