Frequin Rouge cider apple trees

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• Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
• Flowering group: 4

Frequin Rouge is a traditional and important French cider variety. It produces a strong bittersharp juice.

It originates from the extreme west of France, in the region of Bretagne, but is used in all the French cider-growing areas. It is a required variety for several "appellations", including Cornouaille in Bretagne and Pays d'Auge in Normandie.

Frequin Rouge organic cider apple trees for sale

Next deliveries: December 2025

• 11 yeartree on M116 rootstock26.95€
  Medium tree (2m-3.5m after 10 years) Bare-root
  

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• 21 yeartree on MM111 rootstock26.25€
  Large tree (3m-5m after 10 years) Bare-root
  

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• 31 yeartree on Bittenfelder rootstock26.25€
  Very large tree (5m-6m+ after 10 years) Bare-root
  

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If you do not hear from us by March you can contact us to pre-order for next autumn.

Growing and Training

Like many French cider varieties Frequin Rouge is not particularly easy to grow. It is can be susceptible to fireblight, canker and scab in temperate climates. It also takes a few years for production to start, and it will readily lapse into biennial bearing - but if carefully managed it will crop heavily.

In traditional French orchards production on mature trees will be in the range 30-35 tonnes per hectare, which is above the average for French cider varieties.

Frequin Rouge characteristics

• Gardening skillAverage
• Self-fertilityNot self-fertile
• Flowering group4
• Disease resistancePoor
• Picking seasonMid
• Season of use2-3 weeks
• Food usesHard cider
• Cold hardiness (USDA)Zone 5 (-29C)
• Summer average maximum temperaturesCool ( 20-24C / 68-75F)
• Country of originFrance
• Fruit colourOrange / Red

Similar varieties

• 
  Amere Nouvelle
  Amere Nouvelle is a traditional French bittersweet cider apple.
• 
  Dabinett
  Dabinett is a traditional English cider apple variety, producing a bittersweet juice.
• 
  Kingston Black
  Kingston Black is one of the premier English cider varieties and produces a bittersharp juice.
• 
  Michelin
  Michelin (or Normandie Blanc) is a traditional French cider apple variety producing a bittersweet juice.

More about cider apple trees

Cider production in Europe is traditionally associated with three main regions - Asturias in north west Spain, Bretagne and Normandie in north west France, and the "west country" area of south-west England. These regions all face the Atlantic ocean and have cool temperate maritime climates.

Cider can of course be made with any variety of apples, but in these three regions apple varieties have evolved which are specifically intended for cider production - they have high levels of tannins which give "body" to the resulting cider, but which make them very unpalatable to eat fresh.

Good quality cider is almost always made with a blend of different apple varieties, using bitter, sweet, and sharp flavour components. It is quite common to mix in regular cooking and dessert apples to lend extra flavours.

If you are in an area with a hotter continental climate (with average summer maximum temperatures routinely over 30C) then you might want to consider using apple varieties that can withstand warmer temperatures, but still have good juice qualities. In this case rather than using European varieties you might want to seek inspiration from the very different "hard cider" traditions of North America, where dessert and crab-apples are widely used.

We have a good range of traditional English and French cider varieties, as well as a number of mainstream apple varieties with good juice qualities that lend themselves to cider production.