Growing fruit, does it matter what varieties/cultivars growers keep?

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I have various fruit varieties and have absolutely no idea what idea they are.
All my plants have been obtained for free, either dug up or cuttings etc and as such, I do not know what the cultivar is and it's not really been an interest to me, until now.
How easy is it to identify what I have?
I know my gooseberry is a gooseberry and my blackcurrants are blackcurrants are blackcurrants and the same goes for all my other fruit bushes.
How much does it matter to the people here what they're growing exactly, or does nobody care as long as it tastes good?
Do different varieties have any significant taste differences? Or is it more of a case of extending the growing season of any particular likeable fruit, i.e early, mid and late season producers?
I'm very interested to know what people think

[veggiechicken]

I don't worry about names as long as it bears fruit and tastes good. Even if I knew what they were when I bought them, their names are consigned to history now.
Clearly, if you want to extend the season of, say, blackcurrants, you'd buy a few varieties that crops over different periods.
With gooseberries, you might like red, green and yellow ones, or you might choose thorny and thornfree.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

This is how I feel about them, if they produce well and taste good, they stay.
I read so much about all the different varieties that I'm beginning to think some may taste better than others, or better croppers than others or great croppers but taste bland.
It's not been an issue till recently, I've begun to think about what i have and is it giving me the best pay back for the space that it's taking, as well as taste.

[nickdub]

Lots of different varieties and they all have some different qualities, which include taste - so if taste is important to you, yes the variety matters - other variables included ripening time, size etc.

If you want to post a few photos of the fruit when its ripe, we can have a shpt at putting names to your unknown types :-)

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I thought about that too, can people spot one green gooseberry from another green gooseberry? Or is it a little more complicated, ie month of flowering/cropping, leaf shape/size, bush shape/size and of course taste, which i suppose is difficult on a forum.
The same goes for my apples, I have 5 apples trees and no idea what they are, one tastes like a braeburn

[veggiechicken]

Taste is very personal - we see that with tomatoes on here. Some people love Sungold because its sweet - but its too sweet for me.
All sorts of things affect taste and cropping like weather where you are, amount of water, time of picking/ripeness.
Think of apples - some like crisp or soft, sweet or slightly tart, colour, firmness after cooking.
I feel its the same with most fruit and veg - you have to eat your way through a lot of varieties before you decide what is best for you.

No help, am I?

[MyWifesBrassicas]

It's all helpful, thanks

[nickdub]

I thought about that too, can people spot one green gooseberry from another green gooseberry? Or is it a little more complicated, ie month of flowering/cropping, leaf shape/size, bush shape/size and of course taste, which i suppose is difficult on a forum.
The same goes for my apples, I have 5 apples trees and no idea what they are, one tastes like a braeburn

Gooseberries aren't easy, but they do go different colours and sizes when they get ripe - as for apples I'd be disappointed if I couldn't give a good shot at getting 4 out of 5 varieties from a photo and when it was taken - apples in particular ripen over a long period, from say August through to November in my garden.

[veggiechicken]

With apples, I was told that you should note the dates of flowering to help with the identification - and now is a good time to do that!

[MyWifesBrassicas]

Gooseberries aren't easy, but they do go different colours and sizes when they get ripe - as for apples I'd be disappointed if I couldn't give a good shot at getting 4 out of 5 varieties from a photo and when it was taken - apples in particular ripen over a long period, from say August through to November in my garden.

If you fancy the challenge, may we do that?
they're all flowering right now.
If I post pics, say around aug/Sep?

[chrisdb]

Once you've got it, and you like it, the name of the variety doesn't really matter. But if I didn't have a fruit, and the plant was going to take up a lot of space, I wouldn't go for unnamed and free if I could choose the variety. Take apples: a free standing apple may take years to become productive and occupy a space 4+ metres wide and tall. If you're going to devote that much time and space to a single plant, you probably want something:

- Delicious
- Productive
- That stores well
- That grows well without the need to spray the entire tree regularly
- That pollinates and is pollinated by whatever other apples are nearby

Of course, no variety will tick all these boxes, but some will tick many of them if you do your research. On the other hand, the chance of a random unnamed tree meeting your tastes and your ranking of the above criteria is much lower, especially because the cheapest trees tend to be popular supermarket varieties that are disease-prone and somewhat bland.

[Brack]

Additionally, although currants are fairly bomb proof, some cultivars are known to be resistant to certain diseases, and some prone to others.

Larger fruit trees, I think it is more important, as they take up more space and you might have to wait years before they fruit. More importantly, and in addition to flavour and time to cropping, flowering, use of the fruit (cooking or eating) is that whilst many apple varieties do fine, there are some that wouldn't ripen if I grew them where I live (a few bred for southern France or northern New Zealand), and there are pears and plums that might not bother to fruit up here, they'd grow ok, but not fruit in the conditions I have. Or I could pick a cultivar that is known to suit my taste, space, conditions and climate and get a good harvest.

[nickdub]

If you fancy the challenge, may we do that?
they're all flowering right now.
If I post pics, say around aug/Sep?

Yes of course - I'll look forward to it :-)

As VC mentioned, if its not too much trouble take some photos of the flowers on the trees around now please, as the blossoming time will also help with identification.

[Guest]

It is not so much the name as information. If you have a name in theory it means less trial and error.

Is it dessert or cooker?
Early or late?
Good cropper?
Immediate eater or storage?

IDing is possible but never a guarantee and a bit of a faff.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

Yes of course - I'll look forward to it :-)

As VC mentioned, if its not too much trouble take some photos of the flowers on the trees around now please, as the blossoming time will also help with identification.

Will do.
Thanks