Redfleshed apple breeding

Note added in 2018....

...The notes below explain our first attempts at apple breeding, when we were learning how to do it.

I hope you find them of interest. We have expanded a lot since then. Our present work is company-confidential.

N.D. & A.M.D.


We are currently crossing some redfleshed American apples with good-flavoured English varieties in the hope of obtaining some worthwhile redfleshed seedlings.

During a typical season we also end up with a lot of redfleshed apple pips; we grow most of these on, and send some of them to people who ask.

We have a grower friend in Australia and others in Belgium and Germany who are doing similar work and who are using some of our crosses and open pollinated seeds.

At present we are keeping all hand-pollinated seedlings, and all red-leaved seedlings grown from open-pollinated pips.

Most redfleshed apples have a hint of 'crab apple' about them because of their ancestry; they are decended directly or indirectly from the Manchurian crab, also known as Niedweckzyana. Some have a bitter taste. Tasty redfleshed apples, especially those which store well and grow healthily, are very uncommon.

The notation describing a cross is written down like this: if you have Plant A x Plant B, A is the "mother" (ie it goes first), and B supplies the pollen.

I have shown the number of attempts at pollination in brackets ( ). Since I'm using redfleshed pollen only, B is redfleshed in all of these crosses.

The information below refers to my own growing; other growers in England, Australia, Germany and Belgium are involved in growing the seeds and are gradually sending in their observations and photographs.

MY OWN GROWING
The number of half-mature fruits resulting from hand pollination of English apples with redfleshed pollen at the beginning of September is shown below in square brackets [ ].

The number of mature fruit at the end of the season containing seeds is shown inside the pointed brackets< >. The percentage figure indicates % succesful pollination.

SUCCESSFUL (OCTOBER 2010)
Whitwick Pippin x George's Red (43) [3] <3 > 7% - 8 seeds
Croft Late x George's Red (39) [1] <1 > 3% - 5 seeds
Laxton's Fortune x Almata (16) [1] < 1> 6% - 3 seeds
Ribston x Mott's Pink (20) [2] < 2> 10% - 4 seeds
d'Arcy Spice x Mott's Pink (65) [9] < 9> 14% - 45 seeds

UNSUCCESSFUL
Blackjack x Almata (3) [0]
Burford Yellow x Bieinrode (8) [0]
Tom Putt x George's Red (10) [0]
Bramley x George's Red (8) [0]
Wibtoft Pippin x Almata (3) [0]
Wyggeston Pippin x Almata (10) [0]

Total 207 attempted pollinations, 16 fruit, success rate 8%, 65 seeds.

INITIAL CONCLUSIONS