Here are two videos of tasting some new seedling apples that have fruited for the first time in 2021. The first video is tasting late August apples and the second is tasting some of the apples that were not ripe in the first video. Below are some written thoughts and notes.
It is an interesting year so far for new apple seedlings. All of new ones for 2021 that I’ve tasted are somewhat promising. They consist of three William’s Pride x Vixen crosses 15/5, 15/10 and 15/2 One Maypole x Chestnut Crab 15/1 and an unlabelled apple that is clearly a cherry cox offspring and almost certainly Grenadine x Cherry Cox. I also re-tasted another Williams’ Pride x Vixen cross that fruited last year,Twang. All of these are probably better than Twang, and I think I will eventually be culling it out in favor of one or more of the others.
As usual, there are some obvious parent traits coming through in most of the apples. It is the exception to not be able to spot at least some traits of one or more parents in seedlings, even though the apple may be pretty different than either.
The Cherry Cox seedling is the most obviously like it’s parent. It has similar markings and the cherry flavor was passed down, which I’m very happy about as I have been wondering if it would be. Cherry Cox is a sport, and may be genetically identical to Cox’s Orange Pippin. But one bud off of a Cox’s Orange Pippin decided to grow different fruit with cherry flavor and the named variety cherry cox came from grafts of that one unique branch. This is probably akin to hitting a genetic switch in the tree that makes the existing cherry flavor genes already in the genetic code actually just switch on. As such, I was not sure the flavor trait would be passed down. It also has anise flavor, which I’m hoping will be less than the cherry flavor as it ripens. The apple unfortunately is still not really ripe yet. But given what I’ve eaten so far, it will probably be quite good. Stay tuned. It will have to compete head to head with Cherry Cox and may ripen at a similar time as well. It seems to be large, juicy and like Cherry Cox, somewhat tart. It has a hint of pink flesh, so it may have good potential as breeding stock to move the red flesh and cherry flavor traits forward in coming generations.
Of the three new Williams’ Pride x Vixen crosses, all show some promise, but I doubt I have had any at their best yet.
WP x Vix 15/2 ripened in August and was very enjoyable eating. I ate the whole thing, right up to the holes a bird pecked in it and added the seeds to the early apple seed blend I’ll have in the store this winter. I’m very encouraged by that one.
WP x Vix 15/5 is a neat conical shape is ripening about now and probably through September. It has some of the malty/umami flavor of the Wickson crab apple derived lineage and so far appears to be a lot like an early version of my much loved seedling apple, BITE ME! That would be great, because I can eat a lot of BITE ME! and it would be most excellent to extend the season. The essential character of both is mild flavors and lots of rich, malty, umami character. There is not a lot of aromatic flavors and fruitiness to them. Vixen is also like that, but stronger flavored. This new cone shaped apple has a very scab resistant parent in William’s Pride. With some luck, we may get an early, scab resistant BITE ME! substitute, which would be great, as that apple is very scab prone. This year there is very little scab, so I can’t say until it is grown in a bad scab year.
The final William’s Pride x Vixen seedling WP x Vix 15/10 is really just ripening now, but it may be in between the other two in character, with more fruitiness and still some umami. If I wasn’t in the beginning of a long fast right now, I’d go taste one right now! Again, stay tuned.
The opposite of those umami apples is the Maypole x Chestnut cross. This one, like it’s parent Maypole, is a columnar tree. It grows short jointed with few side branches. It is essentially a genetic dwarf. When I bit into that one, I was pretty floored by the intensity of the flavor. It is very much in one of my favorite apple flavor categories, fruit candy. I think there is definitely some watermelon flavor in there, but it is more complex than that. The strongest ones are almost like someone added a drop of artificial fruit candy flavor. While the malty/umami apples are all base flavor and character, rounded, full and rich, this little apple is all intense high fruit notes with no base at all. I think the downside of this apple will be the texture, which so far is not awesome. It is along the lines of coarse and tender. It is ripe well before it looks ripe, so I may just have missed the boat on the ripening window, but I can tell it is not going to be durable or have a very fun texture. Not that I won’t grow it just for the flavor, but if that one thing were different, I think we’d have a pretty solid apple, and a columnar dwarf to boot. I hope the flavor will translate in other climates. I can’t imagine anyone biting into it and it not really getting their attention. I feed a lot of apples to people, whenever I can, and some apples are eaten eaten without much comment, but others demand your attention. This is one of those.
The apples are small crabs, about the size of Maypole. Given that is has red fleshed genes, it should be a good breeder to pursue columnar and red fleshed apples. I can especially see crossing it with my pink fleshed seedling crab, Cherub, which could use some of this apples refreshing tartness.
I don’t know if I will make any of these new seedlings available this year or not. I have a lot of apple seedling crosses that I made this year and some very interesting ones. Most of those seeds will be sold this year as I’m having to halt the apple breeding project in anticipation of moving off of this property. Property is too expensive here for me to get anything right now and my cashable equity in this property is probably going to be only enough for half a down payment on a lesser piece of land. I spent what seemed like weeks this year grafting seedlings onto foundation trees and grafting new modern and heritage apple varieties for trial and I can’t afford to do that again and have to move it all somewhere later. It’s too bad, because I’m just getting into using my own seedlings in breeding, which is where it gets really interesting. I can keep trees here for as long as I want and move stuff slowly, but if I’m not here, I can’t take care of borers, voles and bears as needed and the trees are certainly in jeopardy. I don’t have to move out right away, thankfully, so I have time to figure something out and move everything over years to come.
What I will not do, is move it all to someone else’s property. I’ve already played that game and watched other talented orchardists and breeders lose or move their work over and over again because they can’t afford land. Many of the most interesting people in terms of producing new varieties or doing conservation work, are landless and it’s a continual issue. That is because it is hard to do that work well and make money at the same time. They are different jobs. It ends up being that the people that care the most about the altruistic side of that kind of work, have the least resources to pursue our interests. And by our interests I mean all of our interests. The most interesting people I know in this field are landless and trying to figure out how to get land to pay for the research and development stuff they should be doing.
Circumstances being as they are, I may never make it back into to this project given my age. Just re-establishing trial plot or foundation trees, which I’m 15 years into here, is a big long term project. I sunk in deep roots here and now I have to tear those out and try to plant them somewhere else. My energy has been very low lately. I’ve spent about two weeks out of the last 20 days almost completely out of commission. I just finished season 8 of inkmasters and I am not even interested in tattooing! So, I really don’t have the energy right now to even move to a new place and get it set up, let alone increase my income at the same time to pay for it and transplant my projects to the extent that I can. I may just take off for a year or two and try to get my health together outside of any other distractions. If I don’t get my energy and health up to par, the apple breeding project and any other projects, just aren’t going to happen well, if at all.
In the mean time, I will keep tasting and assessing the new apples that fruit from stuff I’ve already planted and grafted for as long as I’m here. And I don’t think I’ll lose too much of the genetics I’ve already created and collected. So, the best stuff should still end up getting out there to other growers and breeders. But as far as me growing seeds out, that would be a big mistake. I may stop selling seeds and pollen as well, but we’ll see. I don’t really want to go through those motions while not being able to engage in breeding anymore myself. I don’t need to keep rubbing that reality in my own face. I should have scions seeds and pollen this winter and spring at least.
I hope ya’ll are staying healthy and safe in these increasingly trying times.
