BLACK AND RED

SKILLCULT APPLE BREEDING PROJECT

This page is for housing information on my seedling apple Black and Red

Black and Red is a small apple with very dark skin and very red flesh when well ripened. It is a cross between King David and Rubaiyat. The most immediate noticeable trait of this apple is the dark red skin. It is quite dark in the right conditions, and dark enough to be classified with the “black” apples. It is probably blacker than most of them actually and can be visually very striking. At one point, I thought it was even darker than Black Strawberry, but it is probably about the same. the color will vary a lot and seems to be darker in the shade and lighter in color the more light it gets.

Unlike Black Strawberry, the color of the flesh is much darker closer to a true red. Most RF apples are more in the pink range. RF apples vary from the neon, made-in-a-lab, super girly pink of Hella Kitty to velvety red. I’ve seen this apple be more toward that velvet red effect at times.

The flavor can be quite fruity and delicious. It hasn’t been as punch like and complex as something like Grenadine or Appleoosa, but it is quite fruity and berry-like. As far as red fleshed apples go, it is way above average in quality and as good or possibly better than your average heirloom. It is somewhat similar to rubaiyat, but I think an improvement in some respects. It doesn’t seem to hold particularly well after ripening, so should be considered a short season apple. That is really the norm for apples. Heirlooms that hold well are very much the exception. It is fairly tart leading up to ripeness, which might be useful in cooking. It might especially make a good sauce since it has a good degree of tartness. Maybe this is finally that apple which will make really red apple sauce of very good quality. Apples without sufficient acid make poor sauce. It’s a matter of balance. I’m very excited to eventually have enough of these to try that experiment.

Black and Red is a fun apple. It has the blackness of Black Strawberry, with much, better eating qualities, gorgeous red flesh and fun complex “red fleshed flavor”. It isn’t equal in quality as my best red fleshed apple so far, which is also a Rubaiyat x King David cross. But that apple might take a while to get out into the world, so I thought I would ship this out now. The world needs more improved quality red fleshed apples. That other apple also does not have the same novel, striking dark skin. If you stacked up all my better red fleshed seedlings, this one would be in the conversation for which few are the best of them. It certainly has great potential for breeding. It has this beautiful coloration and good flavor in an eating quality apple, just the direction a lot of us are trying to head.

The season appears to be late November, just into December, though for cooking it could be picked a lot earlier, and also for those that like a good tart bite in their apples. The size is relatively small. I’ll update later on disease, growth habits, etc., as I find out more.