245. Apple identification

To most people (including me until I joined the Northern Fruit Group) apples are mainly quite similar. Different to pears, and very different to bananas. Two types, eaters and cookers.

Then as I became interested, and the hundreds of different varieties began revealing themselves, growing different cultivars grabbed my attention. Grafting, rootstocks and scions etc.

My latest focus is identification. Place an apple in front of me, and I will . . . be very unlikely to be able to identify it.

But I am learning the basics. Shape (flat, round, conical, oblong), and what to look for:- shape and length of the stalk, depth and width of the cavity, whether the eye is closed or open or semi-open, whether there are ribs, bloom, a hairline, hammering, russetting, mottling . . . the list goes on and on.

The more I know (or think I know) the more confused I am. 

To give an example. Our cooker. The tree was here when we arrived and the previous owner said it was a Bramley (Bramley Seedling). Incidentally, in the UK there are more acres under Bramley than all the other cookers (techincally culinary apples) put together. But a knowledgeable visitor told me 'definitely not a Bramley. Bramleys are green.'

(Lto R) Bramley Seedling; Farlands cookers x 2
I looked through half a dozen books and searched in detail several websites (try http://www.fruitid.com/ ) if you want a really good one. I got very excited that it might be Newton Wonder.  Then Crimson Bramley, then Blenheim Orange. Tens of others. There are over 3000 cultivars in the UK alone.

Then I went on the NFG course. There was a Bramley on display and it looked identical.

It was identical.

I had it confirmed by the course leader. Our cooker is a Bramley. Told you it was difficult.

At least I knew it wasn't a banana.

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