Hi,

I'd like to find out the variety of the apples in the picture attached so that I can buy the appropriate varieties for pollination. Thanks!

Compare to honeycrisp apple.

Hard to tell from the photo, but Honey crisp are the only ones I buy, and they are a large, round apple. The proto looks smaller and more pointed to me. There are many with that coloration. Were they not labeled where you got them?

There are hundreds of apple varieties. I think, from just a photo, its impossible to tell what it is. Taste, color, when they ripen....

Daisy is correct. The best way to get an ID is the flower, which I assume you do not have a picture of, based off the fact you bought these apples from the store.

Actually, I got these apples from the apple tree in the backyard of the house we bought in the fall. As the seller was not the originally owner of the house and didn't plant the tree, I came here for help. We are planning to plant a Fuji apple tree (which needs cross pollination) in the backyard, so wanted to make sure the existing one is not Fuji. Thanks for your responses.

If you can wait until the tree blooms, you are much more likely to get an accurate identification. (Some Fuji apples do look like the ones pictured...)

to NGA by the way, Paca!

It doesn't take a particular apple variety to pollinate another apple tree, just a different variety blooming at the same time. If your current apple tree produced just fine, there are other apples close enough to pollinate it so maybe there's one to pollinate the Fuji too. Even a crabapple will work.

Daisy is exactly right. Technically there might be slightly better varieties that match up, but that would only matter for an orchardist, not a homeowner. Also, there are a very few that don't seem to be good pollinators at all, regardless of cultivar. See here from the Purdue University Extension Service, dated 2002:
- Johnagold, Mutsu (crispin), Winesap

Crabapples are an excellent choice as they have a very long flowering period. In bygone (?) days commercial apple growers would plant crabapples at the end of their rows for this purpose.

Thanks all for your inputs! The bigger issue though is that the tree is sick and has been attacked by insects, from what I can tell from the trunk and the apples we got from the tree (see pictures attached). I am really new to fruit trees and gardening, so would really appreciate any additional advice you may have to offer.

The apples have coddling moths - its hard to prevent them. I knew an apple farmer, he sprayed his apples 7 times a season to keep the bugs at bay. My own trees were hardly sprayed so we lived by one rule: Never bite to the core of an apple.

The trunk has its own issues. Do you see any sawdust on the ground at the base of the tree or sticky stuff oozing from the cracks in the bark?

Thanks Daisy. I might need to look into sprays. To your questions, I didn't see any sawdust on the ground at the base of the tree or sticky stuff oozing from the cracks in the bark, but the tree trunk is pretty much empty - seen from the holes on the trunk (second picture above).

The roll of new bark around the hole in photo 2 is the tree healing itself. A tree with hollows isn't necessarily sick or dying.

But photo 6 seems to show a series of holes, usually a sign of bores. But if the holes are dry and there's no sawdust... maybe the tree was treated and the borers are dead. Is the wood punky?

Good to hear that hollows are not necessarily a sign of a dying tree...and the wood is not punky - I guess that's another positive sign?

Yes.

I had one apple in my orchard that took me 25 years to identify. I think yours will be at least a little easier... Take a look at Gravenstein apples to start.. Mine varies from mostly red, to green with stripes, depending on how much sun they get.

I found this site helpful in finding an ID for apples.. (the apple I had for 25 years got ID'd here...)
https://www.fruitid.com/#ident...

As for the Apple coddling moths... The UC site is really helpful for all sorts of garden problems...
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTN...