Paprika (Alabaster, White Juice, Baltic)

Widely distributed variety of popular selection with early-ripening fruits. The origin of the variety is apparently the Baltic countries.

Paprika is a well-known variety and is included in the State Register of most regions of Russia as a leading early-ripening variety, except for the Ural, Eastern Siberian, and Far Eastern regions. As an early-ripening variety, Paprika is of particular interest primarily for garden plots located near cities and industrial centers, as well as for private gardens and collective gardens.

Medium-sized trees with a broad-pyramidal crown in early age, gradually becoming rounded. Main branches with light-gray bark. Fruit-bearing is concentrated on spurs.

Shoots of medium thickness, brown-olive color, densely hairy. Buds white, sparse, elongated. Vegetative buds flat, small, flattened, grayish. Leaves medium size, egg-shaped or elliptic, gray-green, almost matte, finely reticulate, densely hairy (especially on the underside), not curved, rather strongly folded in the middle of the shoot, with upward-pointing tips like 'spoons'. Leaf petioles medium or long, pale at the base or completely unpigmented. In the nursery, Paprika produces tall one-year-old shoots with a small number of lateral shoots. Bark of shoots in the nursery is weakly glossy, light chestnut.

Flowers large, dish-shaped, buds rose-colored, petals white, slightly rose-colored, elongated, with raised edges, closed or overlapping, stigma level with or slightly above the anthers.

Fruits (fig.) medium size (larger on young trees), slightly flattened, round-conical, usually with well-defined broad ridges. There is variability in fruit shape. Large fruits often appear three-angled. A seam (sharp longitudinal fold of the skin) is noticeable on many fruits. Fruit color without blush, greenish-yellow, covered with a whitish bloom in the eating ripe phase. Numerous, large, greenish or whitish lenticels. Skin thin, tender, smooth, dry. Fruit stalk medium or long. Calyx cup medium width and depth, sometimes slightly rusty. Dish small and narrow. Calyx closed. Seed cavity large, bulb-shaped. Seed chambers large, open or semi-open into the central cavity. Seeds short, irregularly shaped, angular, light-brown. Subcalyx tube short, conical.

Fruit flesh white, loose, tender, coarse-grained, sufficiently juicy in optimal ripeness, sour-sweet flavor with excess acidity, weak aroma. At overripening, flesh becomes mealy. Juices prepared from Paprika fruits have elevated catechin content. Chemical composition of fruits: total sugars — 9.0%, titratable acids — 0.97%, ascorbic acid — 21.8 mg/100g, P-active substances — 209 mg/100g, pectin substances — 10.0%.

Eating ripeness occurs very early — in Central Russia, in the first decade of August. Fruits are ready for consumption immediately after harvest. They keep no more than 2-3 weeks. Due to the lack of covering color on the fruits and the very thin skin, dark spots from pressure and impact are strongly visible on them. Transportability is low.

High fruiting propensity. Commercial yield of trees on seed rootstock begins on the 4th-5th year after planting two-year-old seedlings. Medium yield due to sharp periodicity in fruiting.

Characterized by relatively high winter hardiness. After the winter of 1955-1956, fruit-bearing Paprika trees in the Oryol region showed slight frost damage (1.2 points). Flower buds of this variety also exhibited high winter hardiness. Overall, Paprika is not inferior to Antonovka ordinary and Autumn Striped in terms of winter hardiness. Resistance to fruit and leaf scab is medium.

Advantages of the variety: early fruit ripening, early fruiting.

Disadvantages of the variety: periodic fruiting, lack of covering color on fruits, weak transportability.

The variety has been widely used as a parent form in apple selection. Around 20 new varieties have been created using Paprika, including such well-known varieties from the Krasnoyarsk Experimental Station for Horticulture as Alenushkino, Krasnoyarsk Sweet, Lada, Manna (all from crossing Laletkino x Paprika); July Chernenko (Anis Alay x Paprika) from VNIIGiSPR; Lomonosovskoe (Paprika x Shafran-Chinese) and Narodnoe (Belfler-Chinese x Paprika) from VNIIS named after I. V. Michurin; Dочка Paprika (Anis Alay x Paprika) from Kuybyshev Experimental Station for Horticulture; Ural Juice (Ranetka Red x Paprika) from Southern Ural NIIPOiK and Slava Peremozhets (Paprika x Mekintosh) from Mleevskaya Experimental Station for Horticulture. These varieties are included in the State Register in various regions of Russia.