RED FLESHED APPLE BREEDING PROJECT

This page is for describing the red fleshed improvement aspect of the apple breeding project. Improvement of red fleshed dessert apples started as my main focus and has continued as such, though I’ve branched out quite a bit. 11 years in to this pursuit, I’ve made some progress.

When I ran across red fleshed apples I quickly realized that there was great potential, but that their development was still in it’s infancy. That’s exactly the kind of thing I like to work on! I started with the reddest fleshed, and strongest flavored one I had, Grenadine. It is a problematic apple, but I imagined that if I could keep it’s intense fruit punch flavor and flesh color, in a seedling apple with good dessert characteristics like, sweetness, sugar/acid balance and good texture, it would be the best apple ever. It was a long and uncertain pursuit requiring resources I didn’t really have to spare, but I suppose that is a matter of values and priorities ;) It was just too compelling though, so I went all in. I’m terrible at some things required to navigate this world well, but one thing I seem to be good at is spotting potential, and I saw the most compelling potential in the improvement of these unique apples.

At the time, I was still collecting apple varieties and many had not fruited yet. So I used the best and most interesting stuff I thought I had at the time and began making cross pollinations of Grenadine with good dessert apples. The first year I used Wickson, Golden Russet, Gold Rush, Lady Williams, King David and Cherry Cox as pollen parents.

I thought maybe I would more likely get red fleshed apples if I used Grenadine as the seed parent instead of the pollen parent. As a result (at least as I half recall), I only grafted out the cross pollinated seed I had made with Grenadine as the seed parent.

I think it took around 6 years for the first apples to bear fruit. In interim years, I made more pollinations, which are also growing in the trial rows and beginning to fruit. It seems that the world began to discover red fleshed apples in a short period of time and began breeding them, Both other amateurs like me, but also a race has been going to be the first to break into the commercial market with them. Since I started breeding them, a few have been introduced to markets. Why this effort took so long to gain traction is a mystery. Albert Etter, saw the potential in the early 20th century and created most of the stock I’m using for breeding. They just never caught on with breeders or nurseries.

As for my results thus far, I have Grenadine offspring that seem to be an improvement on that apple, but many show the same negative traits that it does. It seems there may be a correlation between the depth of red in the flesh and some of these negative characteristics, which include mealiness, scab susceptibility and low sugar. I predicted this from the start and figured it would be some generations before we would see a lot of very red fleshed seedlings showing out with few or none of these negative traits. Many of the seedlings have only just begun fruiting, so they may yet improve. I do have a couple of great seedlings, Cherry Crush and an apple nicknamed Pinker Lady, that have red flesh and none of those negative traits, but they don’t have the deep red flesh and a lot of the strong berry type “red fleshed flavor”.

As soon as I got promising varieties out of my seedlings, I started to use them in breeding. I have used Cherub, Appleoosa, Black Strawberry extensively, and a few others. I even have RF seedlings crossed with other RF seedlings now. I’ve also used two other Etter RF apples extensively, Rubaiyat and Pink Parfait. I do not use Grenadine anymore, as I think it’s seedling babies Black Strawberry, Appleoosa, Cherry Crush and “Pinker Lady” are better apples and a step in the right direction. I have also used May pole, a fairly primitive very red fleshed crab apple, mostly for it’s dwarf, columnar growth habit, which has proven to transfer to the next generation maybe around 50% of the time. I’m just beginning to get fruit from May Pole crosses, but so far it’s mostly disappointing and I expect it will take even more generations to get good dessert apples from that line. I hope I’m wrong ;).

Going forward, I plan to stick with the Etter RF apples and their offspring for the most part. I still use Rubaiyat and Pink Parfait. Pink Parfait is an excellent apple that ripens early to late winter on the tree, but it has only light pink flesh. All of them get scab badly, so I’ve also mixed them with some scab resistant varieties. Apples that have very light red staining in the flesh, the best of which is Williams’ Pride, are also in the mix. Williams’ Pride is showing very high promise as I start to get seedlings from it, and I’ll be using it a whole lot more for it’s excellent quality, size, beauty and disease resistance. I’m hoping that it has enough of RF gene goodness in it to increase chances of throwing RF seedlings when used with other RF parents. I have not yet fruited any of my Williams’ Pride x RF crosses yet however. They are grafted and growing though, and I’m extremely excited and hopeful that some will turn out great.

So the future plan is pretty simply to take the best offspring and cross it to more good dessert and other RF apples. I have collected new RF material that is growing now and if I find any varieties that are very promising, I’ll start to use those to get some more genetic diversity in the gene pool. Most are not very good. I’ve stopped collecting much in the way of new varieties to trial for now, pending a new homestead laboratory to work at. Most of the crosses I’m making now will be sent to others to grow out. And that is the bigger and better part of this project really. In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out ways to grow out more scionwood of seedlings and get them out into the world for people to test, enjoy and breed with.

Below are some seedlings I’ve fruited out that are of interest and either worth growing, or worth breeding with.

APPLEOOSA (Grenadine x Lady William’s): This was kind of a joke name that has stuck, but I may yet change it. It has deep, dark pink flesh and lots of complex berry and fruit punch type flavors. I have only been able to fruit it two years, but determined early that it was very likely an improvement on Grenadine and worth breeding with. As far as it’s overall quality and promise, I can’t say too much yet. I had a late ripening specimen this winter that was pretty promising and I’m hoping it ends up being a late hanger like it’s pollen parent Lady Williams. I think it will be mostly useful as breeding stock, but we’ll see. It has the speckled appearance of Grenadine, but redder skin. I’m sure the juice will be amazing.

CHERUB (Wickson x Rubaiyat:) this small apple is very sweet and hangs well on the tree. It is about the size of wickson or little larger. It can get very red and is quite pretty, with darker red streaking. It has anywhere from mottled pink to solid pink flesh. The flavors are variable and eccentric. It does have a fair amount of berry flavor at times, but also has the savory, umami character of Wickson as well. I’ve also tasted rose, burnt sugar early in the season and a more definite caramel later in the season. I use it extensively in breeding. While I think there are better RF crabs on the way, this is an interesting apple and one of the better crabs I’ve ever tasted. It’s not Wickson or Chestnut Crab, but it’s in that end of the pool along with trailman.

BLACK STRAWBERRY (King David x Grenadine): This apple is exciting for two reasons. One is the super dark red skin. It looks striking on and off the tree. The second is the flavor, which tends toward strawberry, though also complex, with other berry flavors. The bad news is a tendency to go meally like it’s parent Grenadine. It also gets scab pretty bad and the skin is very tannic. But the flavor! I had originally thought that crossing RF apples with very dark red skinned apples such as King David and Black Oxford, might result in a synergy that would increase expression of the RF trait. So far it looks like that might be the case, but I have to fruit more to be reasonably sure. I think crossing improved RF apples with these “black” apples is in order and I have already started to do just that. This is another apple that I think is an improvement on Grenadine, and which I’ve made a lot of new crosses with already.

CHERRY CRUSH (Cherry Cox x Grenadine): This apple inherited Cherry Cox’s cherry flavor, which was the whole purpose of making this cross in the first place. This is a triumph for sure, in that I now know transfer of that trait is possible. It is also just damn good. I have only had a lot of them to eat in 2021, so it needs more seasons fruiting to assess well, but it is certainly a keeper. It has light pink flesh, but only a hint of red flesh flavor. The cherry flavor is it’s distinguishing characteristic and I would guess that in some years it will show very little of the pink flesh. In 2021, it was one of my favorite apples to eat in it’s early fall season, along with another seedling, Amberwine. It has much promise as a dessert apple and also as breeding stock. When I think of the favorite seedlings I’ve fruited here, it is high up on the list and I think it will be much appreciated and hopefully widely grafted. It is not the exemplary dark red fleshed apple, but it’s good for it’s other qualities and promising as a breeder.

RUBAIYAT X PINK LADY 2013 #3 (aka “Pinker Lady”): This is a keeper and it’s getting a name. I have a list of fun and amusing potential names, including Pinker lady, which my ex girlfriend insisted I must call it when I was making the pollinations back in 2013. This is a huge apple that seems to be of good high quality. It is very fun to eat, with pink flesh, and nice texture. I stored some cut ones in the fridge for a long time and expected them to be no good, but they were actually still pretty good and the flesh texture maintained decent quality. And those were cut, partial apples. This may end up being over all the best seedling I’ve fruited so far. Grown on a tiny, crowded tree in the worst drought in living memory, it produced a number of huge apples. Imagine what it might do when well cared for, thinned and producing on an actual tree. It seems to have none of the negative traits of RF apples! Scab susceptibility is unknown, but likely susceptible. It also cracked in our early rains, but we had 10 inches in early fall after a horrible drought. Certainly one to breed with going forward. Welcome to the world and the breeding stable pinker lady.

VANILLA PINK (Grenadine x Gold Rush): A strange but very intriguing apple. It has a neat background of vanilla like candy, with berry flavors as high notes. Usually when I start eating one, I want to finish it. Looking forward to seeing how it develops in the future. The texture is not great, but it’s not bad either.

FLAXEN (Grenadine x Gold Rush): This might get a name change to Pink Lemonade. It has not shown a lot of pink flesh in the past, and wouldn’t have listed it as such until this year, when it did. That flesh color also came with more complex flavors. It can have a hint of citrus at times and can be refreshingly sharp. If the pink flesh turns out to be a reliable trait going forward, I might just change the name. It has shown almost complete resistance to scab so far, a trait which it would have inherited from Gold Rush. It can be quite beautiful, with a splashy russeted top. Even if it does not show a strong tendency to pink flesh, it may still be useful in breeding scab resistant red fleshed apples. Texture is firm, almost hard early in the season. Should be tested by more people to figure out what potential it has, and where, and if the pink flesh will show more in different climates.

I’ll update this list as more good ones come in, and they certainly will.

For now, it is some comfort that many are interested in and pursuing this same goal and that I’ve been able to foster that by inspiring people and providing information and genetic material. As long as I am here and have access to the trees, I’ll likely continue to send out scionwood, seeds and pollen. As I’ve said before many times, the legacy of this project, if there is to be one, is the carrying forward of this work and these genetics by others, and development of a culture around selection and breeding by amateur and small scale breeders. If I stopped now, and sent out all my work so far, the project would be successful enough, but I would prefer to continue it.