How can I identify an apple variety?

Question

We put in four young apple trees a few years ago, two cookers and two eaters, four different varieties. Now that those puny trees have grown up and started to produce a substantial crop, we're wondering which varieties they are. The labels have been lost.

Supposedly there are 1200 apple varieties native to England. How can we go about identifying our apple varieties? Is it even possible?

Some photos of one of our cookers, in case anyone can identify this variety from photos alone. That would might start us off.

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Answer 1

Take a visit to the garden centre where you bought the trees and see what varieties they stock. Most places only carry a handful of varieties and stock the same ones each year.

Answer 2

Seeing as there are so many apple varieties it can prove almost impossible (even to expertly trained eyes) to correctly identify a specific variety.

The below couple of articles explain why it's so difficult and offers suggestions on how you can narrow down your search:

• Identifying English Apples

• How to Identify Unknown Apples

The below online apple variety search tool may prove somewhat useful in helping to narrow down your search for a particular variety, or it could be used to eliminate (certain) varieties:

• Search for apple varieties

Note, when using the above online tool, if you drill down to a specific apple a lot more information is presented about that particular apple eg The below variety may or may not be the correct variety, but a lot of information about that apple is available via the tabs under the apples name "Annie Elizabeth apple":

• Annie Elizabeth