#Isaac newton apple tree how to#

'It's not quite unlike a McIntosh but don't hold me to that,' he said with a laugh. Poutissou said he's tasted the apples, but that was a long time ago and he doesn't remember their exact flavour. Now nearly 50 years old, the trees are covered in buds that will fatten over the winter before bursting into fruit. It took a campaign to convince the president of the University of British Columbia, where TRIUMF is located, to intervene and save the roundabout where the trees are planted, he said. 'Nobody (involved in the development) cared too much about Newton apple trees,' he said. Poutissou, a researcher emeritus at TRIUMF, said the trees 'were happily growing' until the mid-1990s when condo developers wanted a straight road from the campus to the homes.

The trees are scions of the same tree that Sir Isaac Newton is said to have sat under as he pondered gravity. Poutissou came to Vancouver in October 1972 when the trees on the campus of the physics laboratory TRIUMF were mere saplings. Historyįlower of Kent is an old English culinary apple variety, dating back to the early 17th century.VANCOUVER - On a cold, sunny day in December, Jean-Michel Poutissou paused to admire the six apple trees that he once fought to save.

#Isaac newton apple tree how to#

How to growįlower of Kent is unusually late-flowering, so is a useful variety in areas subject to late spring frosts, but make sure you have another late-blooming variety to pollinate it.Īdvice on fruit tree pollination. An article on the National Institute of Standards and Technology website gives more insight into the history of attempts to propagate the original Isaac Newton tree in the USA.

It is likely this tree was in turn propagated from cuttings sent from the RHS at Wisley in England. The trees we supply are propagated from a nursery tree which was raised from a cutting of a Flower of Kent apple tree originally obtained by the USDA Geneva research station. Many cuttings have since been taken from the famous scientist's tree, and it is a popular variety in the grounds of university physics departments around the world. The tree appears to have blown over several times in its life, but each time has re-grown from the roots. As might be expected of a variety from this period, Flower of Kent is a large sharp-tasting cooking apple with juicy crisp flesh, but not particularly flavorsome by modern standards.Įven more remarkably, this apple tree, which must surely be the most important in the history of science, is still alive. It was subsequently identified as a very old English variety (not surprisingly) called Flower of Kent. The incident is known to have taken place in his garden at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, England - and fortunately there was only one apple tree in the garden. What is perhaps less well-known is that the variety of apple which the famous scientist saw falling from the tree has been positively identified. This lovely story, which was related by Newton himself to several correspondents, occurred in the summer of 1666 - about 350 years ago. Every school student knows Sir Isaac Newton had the inspiration for his theory of gravity when sitting under an apple tree and pondering why apples fall.