31/12/25 Cider Apple DNA

Sarah Swadling finds out about a quest to save our hidden cider orchard heritage using DNA testing.

Work is being carried out in orchards to DNA fingerprint cider apple trees to identify varieties whose names died with the people who created them, or were never named. Keith Edwards, Professor of Crop Genetics at Bristol University, has been working with Devon cider-maker Barny Butterfield on the project. So far they've leaf sampled more than 10,000 trees on the hunt for DNA markers which aren't found in any of the national collections of apple trees, but are repeated in other historic cider orchards (so they're more significant than a lone tree grown from a pip). The aim: to secure the future of forgotten cider apple varieties, with the rediscovered trees being grown on from cuttings to preserve them for the future.

Produced and presented by Sarah Swadling.