register your discovered fruit tree
Your New Discovery
Have you ever been driving, cycling or walking through the countryside in summer or autumn and seen a wild apple, plum or other tree laden with fruit? Possibly you've stopped to taste the fruit and found it full of flavour. Well, you're in luck - you could be the discoverer of a new and valuable fruit cultivar. You are now the person with naming rights!
Saving Your Fruit Tree
But how do you go about saving your tree and its important information?
Bring a good handful of scion wood to one of our grafting days and offer to share it around. You can also get your new tree grafted onto a rootstock, so that you can grow it in your own back yard!
If the main grafting season is over for the year, don't worry - bud-grafting and green-grafting can be carried on all year round. (Watch chip-budding on YouTube.)
If you don't have any grafting or budding skills yet, you can always ask one of our experts on Facebook.
Registering your Fruit Tree
Our team on Facebook has come up with a standardized method for registering new scions so that we can perpetuate them for future generations. You can register your new discoveries right here, in the section below.
Note: You can. of course, name your newly discovered fruit tree anything you want; however it is preferable/traditional to include some reference to where the tree was found and/or some quality of the fruit such as its ripening time, colour, size, flavour etc. Examples include 'Tydeman's Early Worcester', 'Boisdale Footy Ground' and 'Maffra Early'.
Information Required for Registration
* Your name.
* Your email address (we won't spam you, we promise!)
* The name of your tree.
* Variety of fruit, e.g. apple, plum, quince etc.
* The date you picked the fruit from the tree.
* The address/location of the tree. If at all possible, please include geographical coordinates such as a Melways or other street directory reference, GPS coordinates, a hand-drawn map or a screen cap of a Google map with an arrow pointing to the tree.
* The story of how you discovered the tree, and any other information about the tree.
Never underestimate the power of The Story! As Heritage & Rare Fruit member Ty Stryk says;
"I've also found that the discovery story becomes such an important part of a variety's (historical) story and, I believe, seems to make heritage apples more relatable and therefore desirable to the general public. From the old 'Blenheim Orange' to the newer 'Silcocks' and 'Traf Prince', these stories are important for us to record."
* If possible, a photograph of the fruit and/or the tree. These can easily be posted to our Facebook page.
* A description of the fruit including (if possible)
You can then rest easy in the knowledge that -
* You've discovered and named your very own unique seedling fruit tree.
* You've started a process of perpetuating the genetic material for future generations.
* You've helped preserve the genetic diversity of a valuable food crop.
* You've added a useful new fruit to the range of foods available to us.
Thanks in advance for being another Indiana Jones of the Fruit World and good luck with finding a potential 'most popular' fruit!
Have you ever been driving, cycling or walking through the countryside in summer or autumn and seen a wild apple, plum or other tree laden with fruit? Possibly you've stopped to taste the fruit and found it full of flavour. Well, you're in luck - you could be the discoverer of a new and valuable fruit cultivar. You are now the person with naming rights!
Saving Your Fruit Tree
But how do you go about saving your tree and its important information?
Bring a good handful of scion wood to one of our grafting days and offer to share it around. You can also get your new tree grafted onto a rootstock, so that you can grow it in your own back yard!
If the main grafting season is over for the year, don't worry - bud-grafting and green-grafting can be carried on all year round. (Watch chip-budding on YouTube.)
If you don't have any grafting or budding skills yet, you can always ask one of our experts on Facebook.
Registering your Fruit Tree
Our team on Facebook has come up with a standardized method for registering new scions so that we can perpetuate them for future generations. You can register your new discoveries right here, in the section below.
Note: You can. of course, name your newly discovered fruit tree anything you want; however it is preferable/traditional to include some reference to where the tree was found and/or some quality of the fruit such as its ripening time, colour, size, flavour etc. Examples include 'Tydeman's Early Worcester', 'Boisdale Footy Ground' and 'Maffra Early'.
Information Required for Registration
* Your name.
* Your email address (we won't spam you, we promise!)
* The name of your tree.
* Variety of fruit, e.g. apple, plum, quince etc.
* The date you picked the fruit from the tree.
* The address/location of the tree. If at all possible, please include geographical coordinates such as a Melways or other street directory reference, GPS coordinates, a hand-drawn map or a screen cap of a Google map with an arrow pointing to the tree.
* The story of how you discovered the tree, and any other information about the tree.
Never underestimate the power of The Story! As Heritage & Rare Fruit member Ty Stryk says;
"I've also found that the discovery story becomes such an important part of a variety's (historical) story and, I believe, seems to make heritage apples more relatable and therefore desirable to the general public. From the old 'Blenheim Orange' to the newer 'Silcocks' and 'Traf Prince', these stories are important for us to record."
* If possible, a photograph of the fruit and/or the tree. These can easily be posted to our Facebook page.
* A description of the fruit including (if possible)
- size
- shape
- colour
- markings
- flavour (e.g.tart, sweet, fragrant, rich, mild)
- texture (e.g. floury, waxy, juicy, dry, tender, crisp)
- how quickly the flesh turns brown after being cut, if applicable
- how long it keeps in storage after being picked, if you know that
You can then rest easy in the knowledge that -
* You've discovered and named your very own unique seedling fruit tree.
* You've started a process of perpetuating the genetic material for future generations.
* You've helped preserve the genetic diversity of a valuable food crop.
* You've added a useful new fruit to the range of foods available to us.
Thanks in advance for being another Indiana Jones of the Fruit World and good luck with finding a potential 'most popular' fruit!