So You Want To Know if Your Apple has a name
It’s amazing how many apple trees there are in Maine. You can find them arranged in rows in old fields, scattered throughout the thickest woodlots, standing like forgotten sentinels in parking lot islands or adjacent to industrial buildings, waving their branches at you from the side of the highway as you speed past, or spreading their leafy branches across the manicured lawn of a suburban backyard. And just as surprising as the varied places they grow is the number of people who are curious about the names of these apples. So much so that starting about mid-August our mailbox starts overflowing with boxes of apples sent by curious apple lovers from around the country in hopes that John can identify them. Local enthusiasts wait in line at the Common Ground Fair and at John’s talks just to hand him apples and share their stories. While many of the apples turn out to be seedlings (which means they have no official name), others are old favorites from more than 100 years ago. And every once in awhile, an apple turns up that is just the one John and his merry band of fruit explorers have been searching for - they love the mystery of it all.
If you have an apple you are curious about, before you mail it or bring it to John or someone else to identify, please take a few minutes to follow the steps below. Each step will provide some clues to the identity of your apple and help unravel its mysteries and history.
Step One: Determining Whether You Should Submit Your Apple for ID
Is the tree a wild seedling or grafted? Apples grown from seeds randomly planted by wildlife or an apple core tossed from the window of a car do not have names. The only named varieties are those found on grafted trees that were propagated by nurseries, old timers on their farm or perhaps by your neighbor who took a MOFGA grafting class. For help understanding the difference, read Do You Have A Seedling Or A Grafted Tree? If you believe you have a seedling, there is no need to send us your apple because it won’t have a name. If your tree was grafted, then it may be of interest to us.
Is your tree old? Apple trees can live well over 100 years. Old trees can be massive or broken, hollow, turned inside out or growing in waves across the ground where a branch has fallen down and resurrected itself like a phoenix from the ashes. It is the apples from these ancient trees that are our highest priority to preserve and propagate. If your tree is grafted and old, then consider sending or bringing us your apples. We receive lots of apples each fall and we don’t have time to identify apples from trees that were recently planted.
Step 2: Preparing Your Apples for ID
Collect 6-8 apples per variety/tree. Apples from the same tree can differ in size, shape and color so several specimens are needed to tease out the commonality between them and get an accurate picture of the apple.
Take three to four photos of your tree from different angles, including at least one photo of the tree in its entirety, and one close up of the trunk. It may be possible to see an old graft line on the tree or to tell if the tree was once pruned and cared for in an orchard. Seeing photos of the tree will be helpful in identifying your apples.
Place apples in a paper bag, not plastic. Apples in plastic bags sweat and begin to rot almost immediately. Apples in paper bags keep surprisingly well.
Label each bag with your name and address.
Step 3: Submitting Your Apples in Person
You can hand your bags of apples to us in person at the Common Ground Country Fair, The Great Maine Apple Day or at any of John’s or Todd Little-Siebold’s talks. We need a paper bag of each apple variety from each tree labeled with your name and address. We will give you an Apple ID form to complete for each bag of apples.
Bring along your phone with the digital pictures of each tree. Make sure you know which pictures correspond with which bag of apples.You can transfer the pictures to us right there so we can link them to your apples.
Step 4: Submitting Your Apples By Mail
Print out and complete a copy of our “Apple ID Form”. The form will walk you through how to create a Unique Apple ID Number for each of the samples you are submitting. Complete one form for every apple variety from each tree that you submit to us.
Securely attach the completed forms to their corresponding bag of apples. Label the bags with your name, address and Unique ID#. If you are submitting multiple samples, make sure it is clear which bag of fruit corresponds to which submission form and which tree.
Mail your samples to Apple IDs, P.O. Box 12, Palermo, ME 04354.
Once your apples are in the mail, send the photos of your trees to idapples@mofga.org. Send a different email for each bag of apples and be sure to include the Unique ID# in the subject line.
Step 4: Further correspondence
You can get in touch with us at idapples@mofga.org. This is the email we will use to reach out to you regarding updates on your samples. Each of your apple samples will have a Unique ID#. When contacting us, please indicate which apple(s) are yours by using your assigned identification number(s).
If you wish to conduct an apple identification investigation yourself, books like Dan Bussey’s six volume The Illustrated History of Apples of North America and Canada, Sean Turley’s Practical Pomology, John Bunker’s Apples and the Art of Detection and Out on a Limb’s Apple Varieties page may be useful in this process.
If you are interested in having your fruit genotypically profiled by DNA analysis, visit MyFruitTree Project or be in touch with us to learn more about this side of the apple identification work.
Be patient. It can take time to identify apples, especially if you have something unusual. We don’t charge for this service, but we appreciate your donations to support the Maine Heritage Orchard at MOFGA in Unity. Our goal is to track down and preserve all the ancient apples of Maine, including the one in your back yard or just down the road.