Apples on the Web: Pomiferous

A GENEROSITY OF APPLES

The encyclopedic website Pomiferous, cleverly organized and with links to related resources, is a labor of love by two "great friends," one an outdoors writer and the other a web designer.

This ambitious, generous site is a work in progress, rough edges, loose ends, and all.

Pomiferous is a massive database with some unique features of potential interest to growers and gardeners, including:

• apples by pollination group (cohorts of apples that bloom at the same time)
• search by no less than 12 uses ("pie" is its own category)
• a "Harvest Period Calculator" that, with some study, tells when an apple is likely to be ripe

The organization of individual entries varies but may include such information as how well an apple keeps in cold storage, its brix (sugar content), hardiness zone, and acidity.

Some listings provide links to further descriptive information in the U.S. National Germplasm System.

Since these data are not available for every variety, it takes a bit of poking around to see what might be included.

Mind the Gaps

In fact, the level of information in the listings varies greatly. For instance, the database includes three apples called "Orange." Only one of them provides information other than links to the other two.

In the loose-ends department are many question marks in the listings, possibly markers for further research by the authors. There is an apple called, as of this writing, literally "Katherine is the the same as." (Possibly Katharine, if I may be so bold.)

A project of this scope lends itself perhaps too easily to such observations. This is a splendid undertaking that belongs in the bookmarks of any apple aficionado. (I am adding it to mine.)

I am grateful that the authors have published the very great mass of information that is at their disposal today, rather than waiting until the perfect ideal is no longer the enemy of the good. 

Just be aware that this is (and may always be) a work in progress. The home page features recent additions and changes.

Oceans of Apples

You will find among its pages descriptions of hundreds of varieties, many with the stamp of authentic personal experience. 

These are deft, if brief, and include such descriptive phrases as "buttery and perfumed," "brisk berry flavor," and "sweet with some sharpness, very nutty."

Many descriptions are perfunctory, but there are lots of them.

With all of that said, is it greedy of me to want to know the sources of these descriptions and this scholarship? It seems scarcely possible that the two great friends could have sampled all 8,000 varieties personally. (If they did, they should boast of it!)

The authors repeat without comment the story of how Wickson is a Newtown x Spitzenberg cross.  Does Pomiferous expressly reject the alternative story, which is supported by the breeder's 1947 plant patent for Wickson? If so, on what basis?

In the face of the two friends' bountiful open-handedness, I feel a little mean raising questions like these. Pomiferous.com is a splendid project that will be a boon to apple lovers generally and growers particularly. 

Its spirit reflects a generosity that I have come to recognize in the world of apples and cider.

Whence comes the claim that Mountain Rose is a sport of Airlie Redflesh? I can well believe it, but who says so? How do we know?