Fruit Identification at Apple Day 2020

Fruit Identification at Apple Day 2020

One of our favourite parts of Apple Day each year is meeting with visitors who bring apples and other fruits to be identified. Unfortunately due to COVID, the specialist team from the Suffolk Traditional Orchards Group are unable to join us, however, they have come up with a way to enable fruits to still be identified.

If you have would like to bring your fruit (apples, pears, quince, medlar, japonica, etc) to us and take advantage of this special opportunity, this is what you need to do:

1. Select 3-4 samples of your particular fruit, all from one tree. Select examples typical of the fruit as a whole and not distorted or different in shape from the rest of the crop.
2. Avoid selecting unripe apples that are well before the date they would naturally fall. Apples can change considerably in size and colour in the last weeks before being ready to pick.  We will not make decisions about fruit that are very unripe, as they can be incorrect!
3. Select fruit that are unbruised or have no recent damage or patches of rot. Also, try to select apples that have no black entry holes where codlin moth larvae have penetrated (sometimes this will be difficult to see in the ‘eye’ – the fruit apex where the sepals remain). Codlin moth alter or destroy the fruit core which can be important for identification of variety.
4. Place apples and similar fruits in paper bags and fold the top over. Place pears in polythene bags and seal or tie.  If they are close to being ripe, pears may quickly turn into mush and affect other samples. Apples generally do not decay so completely and benefit from contact with air, so these types of packaging are preferable.
5. In each bag of samples place a paper label indicating the tree number as shown on the record sheet, 1,2 etc.
6. When dropping off samples during your visit to the museum’s Apple Day event, place the bag in a heavy-duty paper bag, or a bag-for-life, and not a plastic bag if at all possible (bags can’t be returned).
7. Complete the Fruit ID Sample Sheet, see attached, and place it in the main bag.
8. Deliver it to the Farm Barn at the museum between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 24^th October 2020. Additional Fruit ID Sample Sheets will be available on the day.

Download Fruit ID Sample Sheet