English Apples - Apple Breeding:
2011 pollinations
Grower: 'Suttonelms' (England). New information is posted at the TOP of the page.
NEW GRAFTS, 10 Apr 2014
Interesting colours of foliage on new grafts: L to R: 1711(Weirouge OP), 0411(Allen's Everlasting x Bieinrode), 0311(Allen's Everlasting x Bieinrode).
EVALUATING NEW VARIETIES, 7 Apr 2014
Nine new seedlings being tested.
NEW GRAFTS, 6 Apr 2014
2011 crosses: a number of the new grafts are now beginning to show their foliage. Here's the first one, a vigorous Weirouge seedling with deep red leaves and red scion wood:
UPDATE, 24 Feb 2014
2011 crosses: The most suitable of these have now been grafted: two trees of each, and nine of them have also been added to an existing tree to facilitate their early fruiting. Picture below. The seedlings grafted include our best three Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode, the largest Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode, and open-pollinated seedlings of Weirouge, Burford's Redflesh, Blackflesh and Almata. These will be photographed when they come into leaf.
Update, 24 Nov 2013: :
Five of the 2011 seedlings, showing the wide range of foliage colours.
Photograph: twilight, 24 Nov 2013.
Left to right: open pollinated Burford's Redflesh seedling, Almata seedling, Purple Radish seedling, Breunsdorfer seedling, and a hand pollinated Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode seedling.
Update, 28 Aug 2013:
(To be grafted Feb 2014 or when large enough):
Allens x Bieinrode; best three seedlings:
Wyken x Bieinrode; four seedlings from further down the page; all from the same apple:
Spenser Seedless x Almata; an oddity:
Spenser Seedless is an apple which forms fruit without needing to be pollinated, but occasionally, an apple with a few seeds is produced when the flower is fertilized. One of these seeds has produced the plant above.
The blossom on Spenser has no petals and attracts no bees, but occasionally a random pollination occurs. This is what we have here: a cross with the adjacent tree, Almata, indicated by the seedling's red leaves.
It will be interesting to see what happens - will it inherit the odd behaviour and appearance of its parent? Will it, perhaps, be the first red-fleshed seedless apple?
UPDATE, 12 July 2013
ALLENS EVERLASTING x BIEINRODE
These are starting to look interesting. The bad seedlings have been discarded and these are the ones which remain: two with red tinted leaves and one with green. The first is susceptible to mildew but is still young and may grow out of it. ....
WYKEN PIPPIN x BIEINRODE
As with the Allens seedlings, the bad plants have been discarded; the four which remain are shown below. There is one very vigorous seedling and three others (two redleaved and one green), but less susceptibility to mildew than the Allens seedlings above.
OTHER SEEDLINGS
1. Almata, op seedling with curious growth habit; bush shape.
2. Bieinrode, slender op seedling with very red leaves.
3. Reinhard's Blackflesh; has Malus Geneva as grandparent.
4. Spenser Seedless x Almata; very unusual cross.
5. Weirouge, op seedling, red leaved. No mildew! Unusual for Weirouge seedlings.
Note that 'op' denotes open-pollinated. More pictures soon.
DISPOSALS, 2011 CROSSES, 11 Jul 13
More culling of bad seedlings:
...
...
The first two pictures are open pollinated Weirouge seedlings, green leaved, showing the usual defects: 1)stunted growth, 2)excessive powdery mildew. The third picture is Croft Late x George's Red and is completely overpowered by fungal disease; probably scab.
FIVE BEST SEEDLINGS, 18 Jun 13
:
1. Allens x Bieinrode
2. Allens x Bieinrode, 2
3. Wyken x Bieinrode
4. Open pollinated Weirouge seedling
5. Open pollinated Reinhard's Blackflesh seedling
ORNAMENTALS, 10 Jun 13
A number of the seedlings which I have raised have interesting foliage and have potential as ornamentals, especially if the blossom or fruit are worthwhile. Here is an open-pollinated 'Purple Radish' seedling (Purple Radish is itself a seedling of Malus Geneva, a red-fleshed variety). Notice the leaf shape; nothing like apple. Purple Radish has red stained wood but the fruit is red-skinned, yellow fleshed, sweet and rather bitter.
DISPOSALS, 2011 CROSSES, 9 Jun 13
It's time now to start culling the bad seedlings. These are some of the disposals. The defects are interesting.
L to R: Picture 1 above is Procrastinator x Mott's Pink; plants completely overpowered by mildew. Seedlings using Mott's Pink as a parent are prone to this.
Picture 2 shows the same defect; this time the plant is a green-leaved seedling from open-pollinated Weirouge. Red-leaved seedlings from Weirouge generally have healthy foliage.
Picture 3 is Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode; this cross also produces weak greenleaved seedlings showing bad foliage, scab, and stunted growth. Red leaved seedlings from this cross are more healthy.
2011 CROSSES
UPDATE, 29 May 2013
..
Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode.
..
Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode.
Procrastinator x Mott's Pink.
The trees above have fruiting potential.
The problem with all red-fleshed apples is that although many of them are quite pleasant to eat and have a spectacular appearance, few are in the first division with regard to flavour. A small number are almost inedible as dessert apples, e.g. Burford's Redflesh or Webster Pinkmeat, because of their harsh or astringent tastes.
I also have some open-pollinated seedlings from 2011 with red leaves. These are unlikely to produce wonderful fruit, but they may be interesting as foliage plants. Pictures of these are shown below:
Picture 1: Hidden Rose red-leaved and green-leaved seedlings from the same apple; will be taken through to fruiting if they keep healthy. Picture 2 is similar, but using Weirouge. It will be interesting to compare the fruit from equivalent green and red-leaved seedlings, to decide strategy later on when carrying out crosses. It may be that choosing red-leaved seedlings limits the quality of the fruit. In general the red-leaved seedlings are healthier than the others but there are exceptions.
Two more seedlings ... the first has Malus Geneva as a grandparent. A large number of Malus Geneva pips were germinated, and the seedling which produced the most heavily pigmented apples (which were golfball-sized) was selected (by Reinhard) and named 'blackflesh'. Pips were planted, of which this is the healthiest and most vigorous. The second plant appeared unexpectedly in the orchard; it is probably an Almata seedling. It has a curious growth habit and has been retained for that reason.
UPDATE, 21 May 2013
2011 crosses:
...
...
First picture: Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode; two vigorous redleaved seedlings; two greenleaved seedlings, one of them very small; second picture: Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode; one vigorous redleaved seedling; three other much smaller plants; third picture: Procrastinator x Mott's Pink. All of these are crosses of very late-keeping English apples with redfleshed pollen. Powdery mildew in the third picture, often seen in young seedlings under damp conditions.
UPDATE, 5 Apr 2013
2011 crosses: best 20 seedlings, selected for vigour, health and interesting features ... another dozen or so will be thrown away during the next 12 months and the most promising (the remainder) will be grafted next year and grown until they fruit.
UPDATE, 25 Nov 2012: Autumn Pictures
Two 2011 crosses: Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode and Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode. The red colouration in the leaves becomes more pronounced in the autumn.
....
2011 crosses:
MM106 x Bieinrode seeds from 2011 did not germinate. Possibly an incompatible cross.
Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode: two green leaved seedlings of low vigour discarded. Three seedlings remain; two vigorous red leaved plants and one green leaved with less growth.
Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode: 4 seedlings remain; one is very vigorous and red leaved. Of the other three, one is small and red leaved; the others small and green leaved:
Procrastinator x Mott's Pink: 2 seedlings, both green leaved; fairly vigorous but leaves showing sign of attack by scab.
Croft Late x George's Red: 2 seedlings, low vigour; both with no pigmentation and the leaves showing attack by scab.
2011 crosses, open pollinated, retained: (those with red leaves, unusual vigour or other feature worthy of note)
One very vigorous dark red leaved seedling of unknown parentage, one Hidden Rose seedling, red leaved, very vigorous, one Spenser Seedless with red leaves which somehow seems to have been pollinated by a red fleshed plant (odd since Spenser Seedless does not attract pollinating insects - the flowers have no petals), and two red leaved Weirouge seedlings which appear healthy. Also one Pink Pearl seedling, very small but healthy and with tiny red leaves.
Other seedlings (about a hundred) were discarded.
Other observations from 2012
1.Scarlet Surprise produced no seedlings at all when used as a pollinator. Open pollinated seeds from Scarlet Surprise showed a poor germination rate and the seedlings were very weak and unhealthy. This suggests Scarlet Surprise may be triploid and probably best avoided in future work.
2.Purple radish seeds, open pollinated, produced mainly green leaved seedlings but a few red leaved. The seedlings were mainly healthy.
3.Bieinrode open pollinated produced about 40% red leaved seedlings, mainly healthy.
4.Pink Pearmain seedlings, open pollinated, produced green leaved seedlings only. They were susceptible to scab / brown patches on leaves; most were of low vigour.
5.All Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode seedlings were healthy; roughly 50:50 red leaved : green leaved.
6.Burford Redflesh is a viable pollinator but it is poor.
7.George's Red was again found to be a good pollinator but the seedlings show little sign of pigmentation.
8.Bieinrode is a good pollinator and will be worth using in future work. However it is small so it is likely to reduce fruit size in the resulting trees.
UPDATE, 15 Jun 2012
2011 crosses; Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode growing rapidly (below):
...
2011 crosses; about a dozen seedlings growing. All green leaved so far. Photos:
Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode (below):
...
...
2011 open-pollinated: Weirouge germinates very easily and about a third of the seedlings are red leaved. Hidden Rose pips so far have produced mainly green leaved seedlings with an occasional red leaved variant (below).
...
...
Breunsdorfer also germinates very easily and so far has given green leaved seedlings only (left, below). Bieinrode has given about 50% red leaved seedlings (right, below).
...
..
UPDATE, 14 May 2012
2011 crosses: More seeds are starting to germinate: Allens Everlasting x Bieinrode and Wyken Pippin x Bieinrode.
UPDATE, 20 Apr 2012
More 2011 crosses: Burford Red (aka Procrastinator) x Mott's Pink - seeds from last year are germinating.
UPDATE, 1 Apr 2012
NEWS ON SEEDLINGS
Hand Pollinated:
2011 crosses: Croft Late x George's Red has produced two seedlings; green leaved; no sign of any pigmentation. (below)
2011 Open-pollinated redfleshed pips have given, so far:
WEIROUGE - mainly green leaved seedlings but one red leaved (pic below).
HIDDEN ROSE -nearly all are green leaved seedlings but one red leaved. (below)
PINK PEARMAIN -all green leaved.
SCARLET SURPRISE - one seedling, red leaved; does not look very healthy.
ND / Diversity website
