The Volco Park Cultivar Preservation Orchard on Mt Cargill held an open day last month that resulted in an 80% increase in membership.
After the Otago Daily Times published an article on the upcoming open day, more than 200 people visited the orchard, including University of Otago academics.
Students and staff attended a working bee at the orchard on Saturday.
Biochemistry Associate Prof Lynette Brownfield said the apple orchard was a valuable teaching resource.
She was excited about how it could be used to reinforce concepts to students.
"As we are trying to improve agricultural sustainability, the genetics within the plant are really important.
"We need to be able to replant in anticipation of climate change and being able to introduce new genetic material is key.
"It’s very important to keep plants that have these different genes alive."
She saw potential to integrate the orchard into the plant biotechnology and agricultural innovation programmes in the future.
It would pose a unique opportunity for PhD students to classify the apples by phenotype and genome.
This would reveal which species had a higher disease resistance in certain seasons.
"Most of us are driven to be academics because we want to do the science and the research but at the same time we’re also passing it on to the next generation."
NZ Tree Crops Association Coastal Otago branch co-secretary and treasurer Peter Rodwell was delighted by the flourishing of new membership.
"Was it a successful day? Absolutely, and we’re still growing."
A majority were young people who had not only taken an interest in home orchards but also in preserving the orchard itself.
"What’s important with membership is that we didn’t just get someone who wanted to plant a backyard tree, but highly motivated young people who can take over from the committee," Mr Rodwell said.
The academic involvement was a big step towards preserving the future of the orchard.
"We’re hoping that over the next few years we’ll get two of three PhD students doing various interesting work on this orchard to really bring it up to a world-class standard."
