“Extension’s Successful Gardener”
HEIRLOOM APPLES

By: Kevin Starr
N.C. Cooperative Extension Service

I recently received Tom Brown’s “Apple Search” newsletter. Tom is an avid hunter of heirloom apple varieties from Clemmons, NC. He had a great display of old varieties at the last two Lincoln County Apple Festivals. At the 2008 event, he had about 60 varieties on display. Tom has a website, www.applesearch.org where you can find lots of information about his work. He has posted pictures of apples he has found recently. These old varieties often have interesting names like ‘Snuff, ‘Ten Ounce’, and ‘Stump the World’. He also sells trees of some of the heirlooms.

I generally try to steer homeowners toward planting crops like blueberries and muscadine grapes instead of apple and peach trees because tree fruits have a lot more pest problems. However, if you decide to plant an apple tree or two, why not grow something different that you can’t find locally? While growing such trees is just a hobby for most of us, it’s important that Tom Brown and others are keeping these varieties available because of the genetic diversity they provide as well as the link to our agricultural heritage.

Another gentleman who is passionate about heirloom varieties is Ron Joyner. He and his wife, Suzanne, operate Big Horse Creek Farm in Ashe County. They custom graft and sell a number of heirloom varieties through their website, www.bighorsecreekfarm.com. They have a ton of information and pictures on their site and even include an organic production program for those who may want to attempt that.

If you are a baby boomer, you probably remember some old heirloom trees in the yard of at least one family member—maybe it was ‘Yellow Transparent’, ‘Rustycoat’ or the ‘Horse’ apple. One of my favorite apple memories is of our Sweet Apple tree. This was a small early apple that ripened to a yellow color. It was sweet even before it finished ripening. There was no hint of red on the apple at all. Master Gardener, Ron Ballard, and I arranged to have a few trees of this variety grafted some years ago. I think we had poor quality scion wood to begin with and our luck wasn’t very good. I recall that one of my trees did begin to grow but I believe I accidentally mowed it off. At any rate, if you have a tree that sounds like the Sweet Apple on your property, please let me know. I’d love to come get a few of the fruit and send it to one of the experts above in hopes of positively identifying the variety.

To contact us here at Cooperative Extension in Lincoln County, please call 704-736-8452.

The mention of commercial firms in this column does not imply endorsement by the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service of the firms named nor discrimination against similar ones not mentioned.