Apple Tree (and pear tree!) ID

[richiel_7]

Hi all,

Have just registered in the hope that some expert may be able to help identify both an Apple and Pear tree I have inherited in the garden of my new home!

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not green fingered but am trying to change that!

I have attached pictures of the tree, fruit and leaves of the apple but couldn't upload the pear as the loader is quite basic. I'll try to do that in a post underneath!

Last summer when I moved in the pear tree had hundreds and the apple tree none, this year is the reverse! - Apples and pears have both had ripe fruit since the start of August, end July

If more info is needed please ask!

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Richie

[richiel_7]

Pear



....and the pear tree!

[richiel_7]

If it helps, the pear blossom was white and had an awful fishy smell...

[nickdub]

The pear looks like Conference - if you have a lot it's probably best to start picking them now and bringing them inside to ripen fully, leaving more on the tree for later - they can be cooked at any time.

I don't recognise the apple - most likely a modern desert variety. Perhaps take some to a local fruit show where there will be some experts on hand to have a look at the fruit for you.

Care mainly involves feeding the trees with compost/manure and thinning off small fruit in June to try to stop them over-cropping. If you decide to winter prune the apple, I'd aim to keep the centre open as extra light and air makes for a healthier tree.

[burnie]

Welcome richiel, it often helps if we know where abouts you are, regional variations/climate can dictate what will or won't thrive.

[richiel_7]

Hi,

Thanks for responses!

Would I be right in my assumption that all apples are edible raw? I did try one and it was sweet and tasted almost like a braeburn but am told it may be too early for a braeburn?

I'm in Wellingborough, Northants, UK

[veggiechicken]

Hi Richie and welcome. So-called Cooking apples will be a bit tart raw, although they sweeten in storage.
Similarly, you can cook any apple, dessert or cooking, but some apples stay whole, others turn to fluff.

[richiel_7]

This tasted and looked like any apple I would buy at my supermarket (non cooking variety type) It wasn'r sour and tasted sweet from the tree... - any idea what type are favoured for growing here in the UK or what I need to look for to identify it?

Thanks

[veggiechicken]

Too many varieties to choose from! Seems you have an early ripening dessert apple. The apples in your photos look different - one is red and the other green with red bits (technical term) Maybe the red one is in full sun, the others shaded by leaves?

Here are a few possibles https://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/search.aspx?ps=12

[richiel_7]

Some are green, some are red, some are half and half?

The tree does look irregular, as though it's been spliced, so I can't discount the apples are different? Eek.

I'm not helping am I? lol

[Hereford fruit grower]

The pear is easy ... I'm 99.9% sure that it's Conference, based on the single pic.

If the apple is ripe and soft by August, that probably narrows it down to only 10-20 varieties.

Based on that section of the Orange Pippin website, I'd say it's probably George Cave, Katy or Redsleeves. So you're down to three and someone can probably narrow it down to one, LOL.

It's certainly not Beauty of Bath, White Transparent or Gladstone which I've seen or grown in the past. It's not Worcester or Tydeman's Early Worcester either - Worcester isn't really edible until second half of September.


BTW, a well-known retail nursery mislabelled at least 3-4 of the apples I bought from them for my mini-orchard (all on M9) and among my trees I've identified an unwanted Tydeman's Early Worcester.

This is not anonymous trees at £5 from Lidl or Aldi; it's trees bought in the way (and at the price) that we're all recommended to buy them. I'm very disappointed.

[nickdub]

Just to say anyone, such as yourself, with fruit varieties which are not what you wanted, can reasonably easily and cheaply change them by grafting on different varieties to your current trees. I find cleft grafting works 90% of the time for me and is a fairly simple task. Scions can normally be had for the asking, if you know someone with a variety you want.

[Hereford fruit grower]

Thanks

However, finding people with the varieties I want and don't have takes a while, although one of them is the common Laxton's Fortune.

The supplier initially said that they couldn't possible have made a mistake. Now I say that I may get an expert to identify the four wrong varieties, they're becoming more accommodating and say if I prove there was an error they'll replace the trees. M9 crops so quickly that may be the best policy.

So ... I'll have a Tydeman's Early Worc. apple spare and three others, if anyone wants them this winter or next.

Also I'm planning to replace four pear trees on Pyro-dwarf (dwarf? ha ha!!!) by trees on quince C, double-worked because the four varieties aren't compatible with quince. So four pear trees will be available this coming winter or next ... nick, you're in Herefordshire also, so are you interested?

[veggiechicken]

You're not the first to say that fruit trees have been mislabelled by a "reputable" company. I'll see if I can find the post - I may be gone some time

[veggiechicken]

Here's one http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ons_93121.html
and another http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1523184