need help identifting this apple tree

[new gardener 1052]

Good Evening all....while i was tidying the garden today a bloke a few doors down stopped and asked if i would come and have a look at a apple tree he had bought he got. he got it reduced because labels had been lost in transit. and the gc wasn't sure on the variety

im not sure all apple trees look the same to me. i told him i would ask on here see if you guys can help out?

thanks in advance ng.

[mothhawk]

Your best chance is with FB when he's around - he's very knowledgeable about apples.

[new gardener 1052]

Thanks hopefully he will see my thread, and let us know what he thinks
Thanks again.

[FB.]

Take pictures all through the season, for the next few seasons, to show the flowers and the fruit development, along with the tree development.

Finding out which varieties the garden centre normally have in stock (some stock a wide range of very rare varieties) will make things much easier because there are thousands of different apple varieties, many of which are related or resemble each other.

At the moment, it looks like a diploid rather than a triploid and it's quite a stocky tree, somewhat upright habit and shows evidence of tip-bearing and red colouration of the fruit which are roundish with some knobbles at the bottom, so it might be something like a Worcester Pearmain - the blossom would nail that one because the flowers of WP are easily distinguishable.

Judging by its size, the rootstock could be something like M26 - some closer pictures of the base of the trunk and the graft might help.

[Guest]

Unfortunately their are 10's of thousands of apple varieties and even experts can struggle. Some can be relatively easy but the fruit should be ripe with a note of when it was ripe and pics of dissected fruit to see the cross sections. Also how long it lasts/stores. Your best bet is finding an apple day near you and seeing if they do apple id's. There are a couple of grapes on here who could give you an idea of possible varieties but it would need to be ripe fruit.

[FB.]

.....Your best bet is finding an apple day near you and seeing if they do apple id's......

Even then, different soil types, climates, rootstocks, training and pruning can change the appearance of the fruit and the way the tree grows.
The real experts at apple days are often the ones who say 'I'm not sure' because they know how hard it is to accurately identify many varieties and would rather say that than offer a name which is incorrect.

Many people, though, would rather have a name - any name, no matter how inaccurate - than be told 'I'm not sure'. But that inaccurate name can lead to trees being grafted from the original tree, propagating the misidentification.

Even the National Fruit collection has been found to contain trees which aren't true to type, or which have been duplicated (i.e. two different-named varieties turn out to be the same!) so even the elite experts in perfect conditions can get it very wrong.

[new gardener 1052]

I'm no expert I know very little about trees. But could it be a discovery?

[FB.]

I'm no expert I know very little about trees. But could it be a discovery?

I could be persuaded that it might be Discovery - which happens to be an offspring from Worcester Pearmain. Normally if Discovery is fruiting on the tips it will have a few spurs too - but this one doesn't appear to have any fruit on spurs. Plus the slight 'knobbles' on the base of the fruits is more likely in Worcester than Discovery.
The fruit appearance when ripe, and the ripening time, should give an answer.

Discovery NFC

Worcester Pearmain NFC

[Kirk]

I would suspect that the best chance of identification is with a manure apple in a few months time.

The other being the blossom, however to me blossom looks similar, and leaves even more so.

May be a bit simplistic but get down to the GC and see what they stock. If they only have 4 varieties then you have a good chance of narrowing it to one of those four. Then the apple characteristics will bring it down even more.

I am assuming they ordered 4, 5, 6 different varieties then as said the label is off of one. But that one would be one of the varieties ordered.

[Speed Gardener]

I would suspect that the best chance of identification is with a manure apple in a few months time.

I've heard of apples having distinct flavours, but I'm not sure I fancy that one!!

[new gardener 1052]

Thank you to everyone that inputted to this thread, guess we will have to wait and see what the ripe apples turn out like. The apples seam to be really big compared to the apples I've seen on trees in the garden centre.

Most garden centres up hear seam to stock mostly discovery,James grieves, laxtons superb,fiesta,Cox's orange pippin,green sleeve, there is a few more but theses seam to be popular variety trees. Although most of the trees are baring fruit. The apples on all of the above are smaller than the apples in the photo I posted.

Why would this be just lack of sunlight/food/or still in pots in the gc?

Thanks again ng.