Shizuka Apple is a Japanese-bred cultivar that brings together the best qualities of Golden Delicious and Indo apples, producing large, firm fruit with a beautiful yellow skin blushed pink. These apples ripen in mid-October and deliver a remarkably sweet flavor with low acidity that keeps you reaching for another bite. Hardy in zones 4-9 and reaching 8 to 12 feet at maturity, Shizuka thrives in full sun with moderate water and well-drained soil. As an exceptional keeper, these apples store beautifully, making them perfect for enjoying your harvest well into winter.
Full Sun
Moderate
4-9
144in H x ?in W
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Moderate
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Shizuka apples are notably large and firm with a distinctive golden-yellow color suffused with pink, and they're genuinely sweet with unusually low acidity that sets them apart from many other apple varieties. The fruit ripens around mid-October, and here's the practical bonus: these apples store extraordinarily well, so you can enjoy them long after harvest. Since this variety is triploid and pollen sterile, it won't pollinate other apple trees, so plan your orchard with this in mind.
Shizuka apples excel as a fresh eating apple, where their low acidity and exceptional sweetness shine brightest. They're equally valuable as a storage apple, keeping remarkably well in cool conditions so you can enjoy them for months after harvest. Their firm texture and sweet flavor also suit them to fresh pressing and juice applications.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Transplant bare-root or container-grown trees in early spring once soil can be worked, or in fall four to six weeks before the first frost. Harden off nursery stock gradually to outdoor conditions over a week before final planting. Space trees 15 to 20 feet apart in a location with full sun exposure.
Shizuka apples ripen around mid-October. Pick them when the ground color shifts from green to a full yellow with pink blush, and the fruit yields slightly to gentle pressure. Use a gentle twist-and-lift motion to detach ripe apples from the branch, or harvest slightly early if you'll be storing them and allow them to finish ripening in cool storage.
Prune Shizuka apples during dormancy in late winter to early spring, removing any dead, diseased, or crossing branches and maintaining an open vase or central-leader shape to allow light and air to penetrate the canopy. Thin fruit in early summer, leaving one apple every 6 inches or so along branches to encourage larger fruit development.
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“Shizuka represents a deliberate cross between Golden Delicious and Indo apples, developed in Japan to combine the beloved sweetness and keeping quality of Golden Delicious with desirable traits from Indo. This hybrid brings together two significant apple lineages to create a variety tailored for gardeners who want exceptional flavor and storage longevity without the acidity that limits many other sweet apples.”