Apple Student

A late-winter variety developed at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov by S.I. Isaev, V.V. Vartapetyan, and G.E. Limberger from a cross in 1951 between Welles and Bessemianka Michurin (Skryzhapely x Bessemianka Komsin). The variety was submitted for State Testing in 1974 and officially registered in 1989 for the Central Chernozem region.

Medium-sized tree with a rounded crown. Bark and scaffold branches are gray. Scaffold branch arrangement is oblique-vertical.

Shoots are short, medium-thick, reddish-brown, round in cross-section, with moderate pubescence. Buds are numerous, medium-sized, located at the surface level. Internodes are short. Buds are pressed against the shoots, reddish-brown, conical. The predominant type of fruiting is simple and compound rings. Fruit ripening occurs primarily on one-year-old wood. Leaves are large, elongated, pointed at the tip, oriented sideways, folded along the central vein; leathery, wrinkled, densely hairy on the underside. Petioles are medium-sized, stipules are lanceolate, large.

Fruits are above-average size, one-dimensional, slightly flattened, round; surface smooth, without ribs, equilateral. Skin is thick. Main color is greenish, covering layer is strong, covering most of the fruit, in the form of a dense, blurred reddish-purple blush with bluish bloom. Pedicel is medium length and thickness, calyx is medium, slightly rusted. Receptacle is large, broad, with a wavy base at the calyx lobes. Calyx is half-open. Subcalyx tube is deep, conical. Seed chambers are closed. Seeds are few, medium-sized, light-brown.

Flesh is light-green, fine-grained, tender, with a very pleasant sour-sweet taste.

Chemical composition of fruits: total sugar content — 10.3% (8.1–13.2%), titratable acids — 0.75% (0.56–0.98%), tannins — 72 mg/100g (45–96 mg/100g), ascorbic acid — 12.6 mg/100g (9.3–13.5 mg/100g), P-active substances — 0.31 mg/100g (0.25–0.40 mg/100g), pectin substances — 8.9% (4.3–12.7%) on dry weight.

By ripening time (end of September) and fruit storage capacity (until mid-May), this is a late-winter variety.

Student is a rapid-fruiting variety: first fruiting of grafted saplings begins in the 5th year. In some years, saplings flower in the nursery and bear fruit in the second year after planting in the orchard.

Regarding winter hardiness, it slightly lags behind Antonovka ordinary, but it withstood severe winter conditions of 1978–1979 satisfactorily. Resistant to scab; in epidemic years, only slight damage is observed.

Advantages of the variety: high yield, leaf and fruit resistance to scab, excellent fruit storage capacity, good taste, attractive appearance, and rapid fruiting.