JANUARY RUSSET

SKILLCULT APPLE BREEDING PROJECT

This page is for housing information about my new apple variety January Russet.

January Russet is a Grenadine Seedling. The other parent is likely either Lady Williams, Gold Rush or Golden Russet. I’m leaning toward Golden Russet. This is not an apple for the milktoast crowd, who need the crust cut off their white bread and bologne sandwiches. January Russet is a rough and rustic apple. It is hard as a rock, astringent, sour and totally useless until it ripens in January. It is rough in appearance, rough in texture and not particularly polite in flavor. It has a somewhat odd resinous flavor at times and pineapple like bite. The flavor is fairly complex and rich. It seems particularly sweet for a deep winter apple, possibly because the water content is low. While it is not polite, I think it can be quite delicious and I now look forward to eating them each year.

My notes say it does not get apple scab very badly. If that is true, it might point toward Gold Rush as the second parent, as that apple is very scab resistant, while the other two possible parents are not.

There are two main reasons that I released this apple into the public domain. One reason is that in its season, I just like eating it. It is a similar season to Lady Williams, Pomo Sanel and Pink Parfait. While Pink Parfait is another animal altogether, I’d probably eat more of these than either Lady Williams or Pomo Sanel. That point alone is enough for me to grow it and eat it. One of the criteria for a late hanging apple is that it maintains its integrity, not cracking or rotting. January Russet places medium in that trait. It is not the most durable, but not the least either. By the time it is very ripe, the fruit will often crack, but leading up to that, most of them seem to survive.

The Second reason is that it is the closest thing I’ve seen to a bonified russet that hangs deep into the winter. I’m definitely interested in using it to breed toward high quality winter hanging russets and have already made crosses with apples like Sam Young, Allen’s Everlasting, Golden Russet and Ashmead’s Kernel.

This is probably an apple for the adventurous palette. It also will not perform in very cold regions. I would probably try it in areas that rarely go too much below 15 degrees f. I don’t know that it will not survive hanging in colder temps, but it seems like a good chance above 15 degrees. As far as picking it early and ripening off the tree, one could try, but I doubt that experiment will pay off. For those reasons, this is an apple that should be of limited interest to most. In my area of Northern California, north into parts of Oregon and Washington, south along the coast and east to parts of the southern states, it might be worth a try.

A short video snippet on January Russet