Gala Apple Tree – AB

Description

Gala apple tree

The Gala apple tree (Malus domestica ‘Gala’) is a modern cultivar from New Zealand, raised at Greytown in the Wairarapa by the fruit grower James Hutton Kidd from a cross between ‘Kidd’s Orange Red’ and ‘Golden Delicious’, and known for its crispness and its very sweet flavour. Gala now accounts for some 15 % of world apple production and ranks second in France behind Golden Delicious. We graft it organically in our Lot-et-Garonne nursery, alongside our heritage varieties.

Gala at a glance

About the Gala apple tree

The story of Gala rests on three dates that are rarely given together. James Hutton Kidd crossed ‘Kidd’s Orange Red’ with ‘Golden Delicious’ in the 1930s and planted several hundred seedlings; he died in 1945 before he could finish the work. It was Don McKenzie, of New Zealand’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, who carried it on at the Havelock North station and kept a single seedling, numbered Kidd’s D-8. Renamed Gala in 1962, it was not planted commercially until 1965, New Zealand growers being doubtful at first about an apple they judged too small and too lightly coloured.

Gala’s parentage is worth unfolding over three generations, because it explains the fruit. ‘Kidd’s Orange Red’, raised by the same Kidd in 1924, came from Cox’s Orange Pippin and Red Delicious: that is where the aroma and the striped colouring come from. The second parent, Golden Delicious, brings the sweetness, the regular cropping and the low acidity. Gala is therefore, quite literally, the sum of three of the most widely grown apples of the twentieth century.

The Gala tree has good vigour, branches readily and comes into cropping quickly — often in its third year. That early fruiting is an asset in a garden orchard, but it comes with a tendency to overcrop: left alone, Gala sets a great many small fruits.

Fruit characteristics

The Gala apple is medium-sized, often on the small side, round and slightly conical. Its skin is very thin, orange-red with vertical stripes over a yellow ground, and the depth of colour varies a great deal with the clone planted and with exposure to light. Thin-skinned though it is, the Gala apple stands up well to knocks and handling.

• Flesh: cream to pale yellow, fine-grained, firm and very crisp
• Flavour: frankly sweet, low in acidity, sometimes with a faint edge of bitterness
• Aromas: often described as notes of banana and pear
• Size: satisfactory provided the crop is thinned carefully

Gala’s profile is therefore the opposite of a reinette’s: little acidity, little aromatic complexity, but a crispness and a sweetness that read immediately — which explains its success with children and its presence on every shelf. In the kitchen, Gala suits fresh eating, fruit salads and juice; it holds its shape only moderately when cooked, and a sharper variety such as Granny Smith is the better choice for a tart.

Pollinating the Gala apple tree

The Gala apple tree is self-sterile: it must have another apple variety flowering at the same time. Gala is diploid, produces fertile pollen and can therefore pollinate other mid-season varieties in return.

Here is the point most sources miss. Gala’s incompatibility genotype is S2S5. Golden Delicious, recommended as a pollinizer for Gala on very nearly every site, carries the S2S3 genotype: the two varieties share the S2 allele. The Gala × Golden Delicious combination is therefore only semi-compatible — half the pollen is rejected in the style. This is hardly surprising, since Golden Delicious is Gala’s direct parent.

🐝 For fully compatible pollination of Gala, choose a variety carrying neither S2 nor S5. The Fuji apple tree (S1S9) and the Jonathan apple tree (S7S9) both meet that condition. Granny Smith (S3S23) is also compatible with Gala, but its later flowering limits the overlap: keep it for situations where flowering is spread out.

Growing and care

Soil and position

The Gala apple tree needs full sun and a deep, cool, free-draining soil well supplied with organic matter. Exposure to light governs fruit colouring directly in Gala: a tree that is too dense or too shaded gives dull apples, less sweet and less well striped. Avoid airless soils and damp hollows.

Planting

Plant Gala bare-root from late November to early March, outside frost periods. Allow 3 to 4 m between trees on a semi-vigorous rootstock. The graft union stays 10 cm above soil level, never buried. Stake the tree and mulch generously in the first year.

Pruning

Gala branches of its own accord and therefore needs less formative work than varieties with an upright habit. The real issue lies elsewhere: it is thinning. Without hand thinning carried out soon after fruit set, keeping only one fruit per cluster, Gala apples stay small and the tree settles into biennial bearing. A light winter prune is then enough to keep the framework open and well lit.

Diseases and resistance

Let us be plain, because sales sheets keep this vague: Gala is not a disease-tolerant variety. In the scientific literature, ‘Gala’ and its clone ‘Gala Galaxy’ are routinely used as reference susceptible cultivars in work on scab and on fireblight — it is precisely because they are susceptible that they serve as controls for testing resistance genes.

• Scab (Venturia inaequalis): susceptible, no major resistance gene
• Fireblight (Erwinia amylovora): susceptible — a notifiable disease, must be reported
• Powdery mildew (Podosphaera leucotricha): moderately susceptible, worth watching
• Overcropping and biennial bearing: Gala’s main weakness in management

Under organic management, Gala therefore calls for real vigilance: keeping the framework open, raking up leaves in autumn to reduce scab inoculum, and cutting out at once any shoot showing the shepherd’s-crook dieback typical of fireblight. For a garden orchard that gets little attention, our tolerant heritage varieties will be the easier choice.

Gala or Royal Gala? The protected sports explained

Here is the information nobody gives the gardener. ‘Gala’ in the strict sense means Kidd’s original strain, with moderate striped colouring. But the variety has given rise to some twenty colour sports — redder mutations, selected by the licensing companies for shelf appeal. These are the ones in professional orchards, and often in amateur catalogues too, under the generic name “Gala”.

The main ones are Royal Gala (registered under the name Tenroy by Ten Hove), Galaxy cov, Mondial Gala®, Brookfield® Baigent cov, Buckeye® Simmons cov, Schniga® Schnico Red cov and Delbard Gala® Obrogala cov. These sports are covered by plant breeders’ rights and their propagation is subject to licence and royalty — unlike the original ‘Gala’ strain, whose protection has expired.

🔎 What this means in practice for the buyer: two trees sold as “Gala” can give noticeably different fruit, in colour and in the date that colour develops.

Frequently asked questions about the Gala apple tree

When should Gala apples be picked?

Gala apples are picked in early September in most French regions, and sometimes as early as late August in the South-West in an early year. Gala ripens about three weeks after summer varieties such as Akane. The fruit is ready when the green ground colour of the skin turns yellow and the stalk comes away without effort.

Is the Gala apple tree self-fertile?

No, the Gala apple tree is self-sterile and requires another apple tree flowering at the same time. Gala is diploid, of S2S5 genotype, and produces fertile pollen that allows it to pollinate other varieties in return. Without a compatible pollinizer nearby, Gala sets very little fruit.

Which pollinizer for the Gala apple tree?

Choose a variety sharing no allele with Gala’s S2S5 genotype: Fuji (S1S9) and Jonathan (S7S9) are fully compatible. Be careful with Golden Delicious, Gala’s parent and the pollinizer usually recommended: the two varieties share the S2 allele, which makes the pairing only semi-compatible.

What is the difference between Gala and Royal Gala?

Royal Gala is not a separate variety but a colour sport of Gala, registered under the name Tenroy. The fruit is redder and more evenly coloured than that of the original strain, for an identical eating quality. Some twenty sports of this kind exist — Galaxy, Brookfield, Buckeye, Schniga — most of them protected by plant breeders’ rights.

Is the Gala apple sharp or sweet?

The Gala apple is distinctly sweet and low in acidity, which makes it one of the mildest varieties on sale. Its cream-coloured flesh is firm and very crisp, with aromas often described as notes of banana and pear. That low-acid profile suits it to fresh eating rather than to baking.

How long does a Gala apple keep?

A Gala apple keeps for three to five weeks in a cool cellar and two to three months in cold storage between +1 and +2 °C. Its thin skin makes it prone to shrivelling in a dry cellar. Gala remains an autumn apple for everyday eating, not a long-keeping apple like the winter reinettes.

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