In 2011, I set out to breed improved red fleshed apples. While I have had some success already in that endeavor, most have been lacking in some department. This week, I finally got to taste real victory. It appears that I’ve fostered forth from the genetic pool, the red fleshed apple that I want to be eating.
While there are many questions to be answered yet about this apple, it shows no serious quality flaws and has the characteristics that I want in a red fleshed apple. By all appearances, this year anyway, it seems to be a first rate dessert apple. I’ve often found myself anticipating the day I’d have a truly improved red fleshed apple to eat, kaching!
In 2013, I crossed King David and Rubaiyat in both directions. That means that I put King David Pollen onto Rubaiyat flowers and Rubaiyat pollen onto King David flowers. Now it is often asserted that King David is a triploid and therefore sterile or at least weak in the reproduction department. Good thing I don’t believe anything I read lol. I’m more inclined to just try things, especially if you tell me I can’t do it. I mean the risk was low, so why not? I’ve found the same with other alleged triploids, like Ashmead’s Kernel, so don’t let those assertions stop you from trying to use them for breeding. They may be nothing more than internet rumors. Anyway, I have a number of crosses with these two apples that are starting to fruit now. A couple others have been worth keeping an eye on and one seemed promising. This apple however is just great right out of the gate.
While not all of the apples showed this level of red flesh development, it obviously has the potential to be solid through. It is also closer to red than most RF apples that are probably more accurately described as pink fleshed.
The tree was planted on the end of the 2011 row, so those older trees shade it a lot. It is only about 5 feet tall if you straightened it out. But it’s not straight, it is bent over almost touching the ground. It is even bent toward the shade side, not the sunny side! Seriously, this thing barely gets any light. Yet it produced about 5 or 6 apples this year, including several that were pretty good sized. All of which is to say that the impressive results are even more impressive. Once this apple gets grafted out into some good sun, it will probably be darker red on the outside, larger and quite likely sweeter and more flavorful. Then again, it might also get sunburn.
The other night I just could not fall asleep. I kept thinking of getting up and eating a piece of this apple. I only had one and a half left. I figured I’d just eat a quarter of the half. I like to keep new apples kicking around on the counter or in the fridge, cutting off bits to eat now and then. That way I get to taste it repeatedly instead of just a few times. At 3:30 AM, I finally got up and went to the kitchen trailer and got it, as well as another seedling apple, Appleoosa (Grenadine x Lady Williams). Long story short, I ate the half apple all the way down. The only reason I didn’t eat the very last bit of core in the center is that I wanted to save the few seeds left in there. I just didn’t want to stop, it was so good.
The flavor is compelling, with a good helping of berry like flavors that are often associated with red fleshed apples. I always want even more of that flavor, but this apple is quite satisfying in that department, and we can work toward breeding ever more flavor in further generations. I’m pretty sure we are going to have apples from my project eventually that are pretty mind blowingly intense in flavor. That is certainly a goal.
The flesh is medium coarse, but pretty crisp and quite juicy. It is a very satisfying eat. There is a good measure of tartness and plenty of sugar, which is one of King David’s strong points. The appearance is quite lovely, red, with significant russeting around the stem well, a little flattened, with an even outline. Size is probably medium, though likely it will be considerably larger on a healthy tree in the sun. It seems just right off the tree in early December, but could probably picked a little early and ripened. Ripening time may also shift a little in either direction with maturity. I haven’t found it to have any of the negative traits commonly found in red fleshed apples. Fruits often get better if anything as the tree matures.
There is very little scionwood this year. I need to make a bunch of grafts, and maybe send a couple to important apple friends. But I will definitely be on top of getting grafts out toward increasing scion wood production. This apple might be good enough to patent, but if I ever go there, I’ll try to figure out a way to allow for propagation for personal use. I won’t likely go there though and favor social solutions over legal solutions. Most likely it will be released into the public domain with the rest and likely by next scion season.
Appleoosa is quite good this year and proved itself an apple worth growing. It has some of the issues of it’s parent Grenadine, thick skin, higher tannin, texture issues, but all much less so. Overall it appears to be something like an improved Grenadine. The skin is more red, actually being red in color, unlike grenadine where the redness is from the flesh color showing through. I have eaten a lot of them and enjoyed them and I fed some to visitors and they were mindblown by the intense fruit punch flavors. It is more uniform than Grenadine and quite pretty. With a little edge of tannin, pink flesh and the very high flavor, it might be a good candidate for cider making.
Appleoosa is certainly a good candidate for breeding and I suspect that the next generation will produce some outstanding dessert apples when crossed with more refined fruits. Some of those crosses are actually already grown out and awaiting maturity and fruiting. I’ve also made many crosses using it this year. One cross I think will make an insanely high flavored, good quality dessert apple is Appleoosa and Whitwick Pippin.
I tried to grow quite a few Appleoosa scions this year. last year scions auctioned off for over 100.00 each! I think we can bring that down this year lol.
This year Appleoosa showed pretty light red flesh development. I have seen a few this year with almost solid through color, but most look like this. But history shows it is capable of being colored all the way through. Typically greater flesh color development equates to increased flavor. This thing is extremely flavorful, even at this level. Of all my grenadine seedlings, this one probably has the most of grenadines fruit punch flavors, and exactly the grenadine offspring I was hoping for to pursue further breeding.
Special thanks to my patrons for making it possible for me to pursue this and other projects. Expanding patronage will probably be critical to getting the new property, expanding this project and getting other projects off the ground. I have new enthusiasm to continue this project for a number of reasons. I got to taste several other intriguing seedlings this year that will almost certainly be keepers, and I am naming another one, a small desert crab called Tomboy. As important as the apples, is how many people I hear from who are starting their own small plant breeding projects with apples and other fruits, inspired by this project. Future plans with apples are to keep breeding to pursue a variety of categories of apples and hopefully discover new novel traits, as well as providing seeds, pollen and scions. I hope to expand in all of those areas eventually.
Key to expanding and continuing this and starting or expanding other projects will be getting help. I will probably start holding one or two work parties a year to get caught up on stuff and start propagating trees for when I eventually move. Once I move, the faster I can move trees and put in new projects the more I’ll get done in the working time I have left. A very good friend and inspiration to me is very sick right now and may not be with us much longer. Makes you think. From this point forward, it’s a war to get as much done as I can that will send positive ripples out into the world. I know now more than ever that the potential exists to quickly populate orchards with novel and varied apples, some of which may put smiles on literally millions, if not billions of faces. Like they say, when you die, you don’t take your toys with you. I’m inclined to think that when reflecting on my life in the future that I will not be thinking a lot about how much time I spent in self serving pursuits. The crowning achievement of this project will not be the varieties themselves, but their offspring and the way it engages people, in life and breeding apples or anything else, and just because it is a noble undertaking in service to our human family.
