Roadside Apples

[swaine]

really started getting an interest in apples this year, often noticing apple trees growing roadside, I have been intrigued if any would be worthwhile tasting wise, I have for the last few week been planning a expedition to some trees I had seen growing roadside, but every week something has popped up to stop me, I had noticed a tree growing out of a hedgerow close to where I work so on the way back today I stopped popped out and grabbed a few an was pleasantly surprised to see they were russet like, im not sure if its a actual known variety or a wildling or threwn apple cure seedling ,

im not a apple expert but would the say the tree was upright growing? (no drooping branches, )

the apples themselves are very russeted , some have patches of normal skin, never more in percentage than the russeted area

the apple when cut browns in less than a minute,

flavour of flesh is mildly sweet, but bland (poor pear like flavour)

flesh seemed a bit wooly? dry almost poor pear type flesh,

russets are my favourite apples so was great that my first finding should be a russet type, encouraged to go out looking and photographing more I know of some more apple trees parts of old orchards, hedgerow grown, or roadside grown maybe come across something really interesting in the next few weeks,

best wishes stew

[Paulieb]

Looks an awful lot like an Egremont Russet.

I bought some today (as a taster for my own mini orchard) and the one I cut tonight started going brown in a similar amount of time.

The colouring and shape are the same, the stalk in similar in that it is short and sunken so it doesn't show much above the apple.

Mine are rather nice tasting. Crunchy, sweet and a little bit nutty, not very acid, I'd say not a strong flavour (like my usual Granny Smith).

My book also says that Egremont Russet is an upright tree.

[boundtothesoil]

Could argue that Railway trackside apple trees are inherently more likely to be the result of discarded apple cores than roadside ones. I sometimes collect cuttings for grafting from interesting looking ones growing along disused railway tracks.

Last month I noticed a family had pulled their car up by a roadside apple tree on the Kings Lynn bypass and were stripping the tree!

[FB.]

Egremont Russet doesn't have knobbles on the base. So it's probably a seedling. There are many other russet varieties which might have been one of its parents.
I suppose it could even be a Cox seedling from a commercial Cox apple that just happened to be pollinated by an Egremont (or some other) russet.

Interestingly though, seedling apples along roadsides don't tend to be anywhere near as large or vigorous as we're told they should be by the books (seedling being the "wild" and most vigorous state). The only ones which get really big tend to be really old - and any plant can get quite big if it's not been pruned for a century!

[yummersetter]

Thirty years of driving from Somerset to London and back with bags of home-grown fruit for snacks means I claim any seedling fruit tree on the A303 as mine.
From the point of view of plant evolution, I've selected for resistance to fruit invaders - if you're going to eat them in the winter evening rush hour holdups at Stonehenge, you check very carefully for maggot holes before putting the fruit in the car!

[Speed Gardener]

There's a large apple tree growing just inside the wall of my local churchyard that this year has a huge crop of very nice pinky red apples, unfortunately they don't taste as good as they look, a bit too unsofisticated and quite sharp in flavour. Might make a interesting juice though, tangy enough to blow out the cobwebs!

[vikkib]

Having recently been stuck in traffic a few too many times whilst on the A12 too and from work I've been amazed to see just how many apple trees there are on the embankments. They all seem to be heavily laden with fruit this year and it really is an amazing sight to see!

Not keen on picking them, mind you... the exhaust fumes don't make it a tantalising opportunity and nor does the traffic roaring past the hard shoulder!

[TrialAndError]

"the exhaust fumes don't make it a tantalising opportunity"

Do apples take up the exhaust stuff (lead etc) when grown by a busy road? It has always put me off but maybe it doesn't matter - does anyone know?

[boundtothesoil]

Do apples take up the exhaust stuff (lead etc) when grown by a busy road? It has always put me off but maybe it doesn't matter - does anyone know?

Paragraph 3 of the Introduction to the research paper in the link below is quite interesting in this context (it's not just exhaust). It's not specifically about apples, or the UK, but all plants have the ability to absorb heavy metals into the roots and particulates can land on all foliage/fruit etc.

Relationship between Heavy Metal Concentrations in Soils and Grasses of Roadside Farmland in Nepal

[StephenH]

Egremont Russet doesn't have knobbles on the base. So it's probably a seedling. There are many other russet varieties which might have been one of its parents.
I suppose it could even be a Cox seedling from a commercial Cox apple that just happened to be pollinated by an Egremont (or some other) russet.

Interestingly though, seedling apples along roadsides don't tend to be anywhere near as large or vigorous as we're told they should be by the books (seedling being the "wild" and most vigorous state). The only ones which get really big tend to be really old - and any plant can get quite big if it's not been pruned for a century!

I'm anything but an expert, but it looks rather like my Brownlees' Russet, which is also somewhat ribbed. B.R. is quite big for an eater (on my tree at least).

[stakenet]

hi I also found an apple tree growing in a hedgerow.
The apples also have some russeting .
The flavour is sort of bittersweet . I have used them in
cooking and also made cider from them.
I am so impressed with the results I have decided
to buy a few M26 rootstocks and graft some scions
in the spring.