Šampion

History

Šampion was raised at Střížovice, near Turnov, by Otto Louda, who was born there in 1913². Trained as a tinsmith, he gave up his workshop in 1949 to live as a smallholder and fruit grower, helped to set up a research station of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in the village, and worked there until he retired in 1975². In 1966 the first fruits appeared on seedlings from a cross he had made in 1960 between Golden Delicious and Cox’s Orange Pippin, and after further trials he named one of them, marked out by its early and heavy cropping, Šampion². It was the first well-known variety from Střížovice and was entered in Czechoslovakia’s list of approved varieties in 1977². Louda bred it privately, outside his employment at the academy’s institute². It soon found a place in gardens and in large commercial orchards, and it is a parent of later Střížovice apples, among them Melodie and the scab-resistant Vesna². Britain’s National Fruit Trials received it from Prague University in 1974¹.

In Poland, where it is called Szampion, it has been on the national register since 14 December 1990⁴. Its share of the country’s apple-orchard area rose from 4.8 per cent in 1998 to 11.2 per cent in 2017, when it ranked third, after Idared and the Jonagold group⁵. Varieties bearing its name, such as Szampion Reno (2005) and Red Szampion (2023), have since joined the register⁴.

The fruit

The National Fruit Collection describes the fruit as sweet and juicy with a pleasant flavour¹. Its staff characterised a second accession, which the collection no longer holds: large and flat-round, 72 mm wide and 59 mm high, weakly ribbed, yellow with an orange striped flush and little russet¹. The Holovousy institute calls the fruit medium to large, with cream, crisp, juicy flesh and a harmonious taste, sweet with a mild acidity³; a Polish guide gives 180–210 grams and a carmine-red flush⁶.

In Czechia it ripens about two weeks before Golden Delicious: it is picked at the beginning of October, is ready to eat in November and keeps until March³. At Brogdale in Kent it starts to flower around 2 May and is picked in mid-October¹.

Growing

The tree is moderately vigorous and crops early, heavily and regularly³. The Holovousy institute rates its resistance to scab as low and to powdery mildew as medium, and recommends warm or moderate sites, or higher ground only with thorough spraying³. A Polish guide for home orchards rates Šampion and its sports as little susceptible to scab and mildew but highly susceptible to fire blight, and of low frost hardiness⁶.

Where the sources disagree

• Scab. The Holovousy institute rates its resistance to scab as low³; the Polish guide rates its susceptibility as low⁶.
• Juiciness. The National Fruit Collection’s description calls the fruit juicy, but the staff characterisation of its second accession scored the flesh soft and dry¹; the Holovousy institute calls it crisp and juicy³.