Backyard apple breeding

Apple: Wychwood Ruby

Shane Gadsby -

A member of the family of red leaf crab apples Malus x Purpurea, with bright pink blossoms and dark purple wood.

  • Vigour: Medium
  • Precociousness: Medium
  • Resistances: Increased disease resistances noted (not specified)
  • Size of fruit: Small crab
  • Flowering: Early
  • Fruiting: Early
  • Cropping: Medium to heavy
  • Ploidy: Diploid (?)
  • Fruit colour: Brown-red
  • Flesh colour: Red
  • Leaf colour: Light red (maturing to light green in late season)
  • Parentage: Malus x Yunanensis (open pollinated)
  • Descendants: Unknown
  • Biennialism: None observed
  • Growth habit: Upright (not columnar)
  • Self-fertile: No

First described in late 1800s Orleans, France, it's vibrant pink flowers and deep red leaves led to it being used as parentage to a wide family of ornamental crab apples.

NOTE: No details are documented of the fruit flavour. As such this entry will be updated when my own tree bears fruit.