Home scale apple breeding project: 2022 cross pollinations, and 2021 seedlings
Welcome back to my home-scale apple breeding project!
First up I'll talk about the crosses I made this year, why I chose those parents, and later below I'll give an update to the 2021 crosses seedlings!
Braeburn x Anna
Anna has become one of my favourites for low chill, as it has large apples, has had not noticeable issues with scab, went dormant last winter without issues, and flowered early and continued to flower for nearly a month, and my personal measurement puts it at around 300 chill units, which is also great!
The downfall of Anna is that it is rather boring in taste, being a balanced apple with little other notable flavours than "apple".
Braeburn is a classic balanced apple from New Zealand, crisp, vinous, reminiscent of a good Gala.
Ideally I'm hoping to just improve Anna's flavours, but keep it's low chill.
Calwells Keeper x Huonville Crab
Calwells Keeper is a red striped semi-russet that has been described as an excellent storage apple, but great fresh as well.
So far I've not tasted this apple firsthand, but it's reputation is interesting enough to make me want to use it to improve the Huonville Crab.
Hoping to get a semi-russet redflesh that keeps.
Cox's Orange Pippin x Golden Dorsett
Cox's Orange Pippin needs no introduction, it's sweet, it's flavours are varied and complex (orange, lemon, liquorice/fennel, cloves, cinnamon, cherry, and more!), but it's also known for being hard to grow well- as such many famous apples have COP in their heritage, with other parents added to help fix the growth and disease issues.
My entry into this family is with crosses with Golden Dorsett, both to lower the chill hours, and to impart some of the very easy growing behaviours that Golden Dorsett is known for.
Harmony x Huonville Crab
This is a cross I've been waiting to make for a while!
Harmony is a strongly columnar yellow apple, with a crisp texture created as part of the Czech apple disease resistance breeding program.
I'd love to get a columnar red fleshed apple with strong disease resistance from this cross!
Herald x Anna
Similar to it's sibling (Harmony) Herald was created in the Czech disease resistance breeding program. It's fantastic columnar apple, with red fruit and near scab immunity!
My hope here is by crossing with Anna I can get a low chill, sweet, red skinned columnar apple.
Huonville Crab x Dorsett Golden Apple
This is be the second year making this cross, as last years crosses did not have and red leaves I wanted to have another go at this cross.
As with last year, my hope is a red fleshed apple, with good growth habits and super low chill.
Prinzen Apfel x Redlove
There's precious little info about Prinzen Apfel, it's said to have very low acid, and has nearly tropical flavours, it's also got a fantastic flat shape that I'd love to propagate forward.
Meanwhile Redlove is an one of the most famous red fleshed apples to date, with very high disease resistance, and a slightly-sour to balanced flavour profile.
My hope is a good disease resistance red fleshed apple with a squished flat shape.
Redlove x Anna
Hoping to get a good balanced apple, with high disease resistance, and super low chill.
Xavier de Bavay x Herald
Xavier de Bavay has very little information provided about it, it's said to be sweet, yellow, and lightly russeted.
I'm hoping for a nice yellow columnar apple, with good disease resistance.
So that's my 2022 crosses.
On to the seedlings from 2021's crosses!
Anna x Magnus Summer Surprise
I only got 2 seeds from this cross, both of these seedlings grew reasonably well in their pots, and continue tom do well in the group pot.
Neither has shown and red leaves, although one has the same leaf shape as Magnus.
Dorsett Golden Apple x Huonville Crab
I managed to get three seeds from this cross, they're all growing well so far.
Only the one on the front left has show any hint of red leaves, and it only shows them very lightly just as the leaves emerge before quickly going fully green.
Magnus Summer Surprise x Golden Delicious (or Baldwin)
Of the three seeds I got, two had absolutely blood red seed leaves, and dark bronze leaves, unfortunately one of the red one died, leaving me with a green leaf, and a red leaf seedling.
Adding to my issues, both got powdery mildew, and not knowing better at the time I sprayed with sulfur based fungicide which burned the leaves (as you can see in above). Both are putting out new leaves now, so hopefully that means they're on the mend!
From here are the seedlings from seeds I received from Steven Edholm over at Skillcult.
Pink Parfait x Sam Young
Pink Parfait is one the Albert Etters red fleshed apples, described as having pink creamy flesh, and great flavour, with noticeable cherry notes.
Sam Young is and Irish apple with a fair bit of russet, and strong pear drop flavour, and is also notable for having strong scab, canker and powdery mildew resistance.
This is the only other red leafed seedling I have this year, and it too had some issues: it grew fast, and healthy, until the grow light I had trained for it was knocked down onto it, both squishing it and burning it...
I planted it into the group pot where it then got powdery mildew (seedlings don't show powdery mildew resistance until second and third years, so I'm still unsure if it has the resistance or not), and as with the the red magnus seedling, I used a sulfur based fungicide that burned it.
It's growing new leaves and is looking to start growing properly again.
Skillcult Red Flesh x Unknown
Two of these grew, no red leaves, but we'll see what they grow up into!
Sweet Sixteen x My Jewel
Sweet Sixteen is a cross between Frostbite and Northern Spy, that is known for having intense candy flavours and the occasional red stained flesh.
My Jewel is an Californian apple with strong banana candy flavours, and a crisp texture.
I have several of this cross that grew this year, and am very much looking forwards to seeing it grow up!
Sweet Sixteen x Red Flesh Blend
None of these have red leaves, but given their parentage it's likely that they'd carry at least some of the red flesh genes, and possibly the berry and candy flavours!
Several of these grew, but are slower growing than many of the other seedlings so far.
Yello! x Unknown
Yello! is a very good yellow apple that has good tropical and banana flavours. Yello! has been the most vigorous of all the seedling so far, so hopefully really takes off as it finishes establishing.
Wickson x Unknown
Wickson (or Wickson Crab) is another of Albert Etter's lines, and is described as "spiced" and "malty". It is also the parent of Steven Edholm's "BITE ME!".
Becca's Crab x Cherub
Other than the Pink Parfait x Sam Young above, this is the one I'm most interested in.
Becca's Crab is a smallish crab apple about the size of cherries, with good flavour, and high sweetness, with the "drawback" of high tannins.
Cherub one of Steven Edholm's new apples, and is a cross between Wickson and Rubaiyat. It is a smallish apple with quite a bit of red flesh, and has been described as equal measures of flavour from each parent, but less strong.