Often very large, fun to eat, pink fleshed Pinker Lady.
After some years of assessment, I’ve decided to release a seedling apple into the public domain named Pinker Lady. Pinker Lady is a cross between Rubaiyat and Cripps Pink, commonly known as ™Pink Lady. Credit for the name goes to my ex-girlfriend tonia chi who insisted when I was making this cross for the first time that it just had to be called that. It is a pretty great name. It is really good because it is fitting. Visually, it is more beautiful and pinker of skin than Cripps Pink, with a more uniform glowing pinkish color and generally beautiful smooth complexion. It has pretty much the same color as Cripps, but more uniform and solid. The size of the fruit varies, but can be unusually large with thinning, noticeably larger than Cripps Pink. I suspect that with heavy thinning on a full sized healthy tree, you’d see some pretty enormous fruits. They are really gorgeous and take a great polish.
This thing is gorgeous, with a pinkish red skin of excellent complexion. It surpasses either of its parents in good looks
Inside they are pink as well, so she is just pinker all around. Flesh color is typically light pink and often more mottled pink than solid. Flesh coloration will likely vary season to season and place to place. Some of the type of flavors associated with red flesh are present, but subtle. I seem to pick up subtle generic berry and a tiny bit of strawberry. While the flavor is not strong, it certainly contributes interest and elevates the apple above what it would be if you took away those specific flavor notes. Flavor is also likely to vary season to season and in different climates, along with the red flesh. The flavor of any variety of red fleshed apple tends to be stronger and more complex when color development is higher.
These specimens are off a tree that was overbearing for its size, so they are not that large. Still, they are not bad considering. With thinning, expect some real whoppers.
The texture is good. It does not hold up in storage or after ripening like modern store apples, but it is quite good in its prime. The texture if fine grained. Overall response has been good from tasters. If I could add anything to it, it would definitely be more acidity. It is a polite, low acid apple. Some like that, so different strokes as they say. I find that it can fall a little flat as I’m always looking for balance between sweetness and tartness, or if anything I would prefer fruits leaning toward the acid side rather than the low acid side of balanced. Eating one when I’m hungry and haven’t eaten anything for a while is quite different than eating one after meandering through the orchard tasting a bunch of strong flavored and acidic apples. I think kids will like this apple, especially given the size. There is hardly anything more adorable than a small child using both tiny hands to enthusiastically eat an oversized apple that is almost too big to even bite. The beauty, size and pink flesh are likely to go far in endearing this apple to both kids and grown ups. If a good eating experience begins with the eyes, we’re off to a good start.
HERE IS A VIDEO LINK TO A SEGMENT WHERE I AM TASTING PINKER LADY. TIMESTAMP 40:58 There are many others, too many to track down and link.
As far as growth characteristics and disease resistance, I don’t know a lot and my notes don’t say anything at all. That is probably good news, maybe it is not too prone to apple scab. If it were, you’d think I would have noticed. I honestly have too many apples to sample and assess to remember though. As usual, we will just have to see how it does for everyone else when it is grown out in various locations. The season is relatively early as I recall, at least relative to many of my apples which ripen closer to, or during nov. My only notes indicating timing were taken in mid October. It tends to drop apples, both early drops and as soon as the apples are ripe. Some will hang on, but drops are certainly a thing. In years that it produces, it seems very productive and will almost certainly require thinning to prevent broken branches.
Pros: big, gorgeous grocery store worthy appearance, fun pink flesh, good texture, fun if mild flavors, low acid if you like that.
Cons: texture may not hold up as well as we’d like, could be more flesh color, could be more flavorful, low acid if you aren’t into that, early drops.
Pinker Lady is a clear candidate as a parent for breeding toward the goal of improving red fleshed dessert apples. It has literally none of the flaws of what has been the typical red fleshed apple, though we are quickly leaving that era. Granted, the redness and red-fleshed-flavor are weak, but it carries the genes and it is one step closer to the perfect RF dessert apple. Since it has a slight strawberry flavor, I’ve crossed it with Black Strawberry, which could benefit from Pinker Lady’s refinement. The problem with that cross is that they are both low acid. I’ve also crossed it with higher acid RF apples and will continue to lean in that direction. I have a very tart seedling (grenadine x goldrush 11/9) that is also very large with a fantastic texture and light pink flesh. Those two will definitely be having a fling this spring. I have used Pinker Lady quite a bit in breeding efforts already and will continue to use it for the time being, until perhaps it is surpassed by other RF seedlings in some significant way.
Because I foresaw the likelihood of releasing this apple, I’ve propagated quite a bit of it and have a lot of scion wood. It will be released in my webstore this year instead of on auction and prices will be better than most of the auctions are. It will still be offered at somewhat of a premium this first year but will decline quickly over next couple of years.
Auctions and scion sales are coming soon. Stay tuned.
