I really Like the sweetness, crunchiness, fragrant of the KiKu club apple aka. a red sport of a Fuji apple.
" KIKU® is a red sport of Fuji. Sports are natural mutations which occasionally arise when a new shoot starts to grow from the main stem or branch of a tree. This happens in many types of plants, and can affect the blossom, leaves or fruit, which may look somewhat different on that branch from the rest of the tree. Apple growers favour sports which cause the fruit to be better coloured than the original variety, and the most famous sport is probably Red Delicious, a redder-colored mutation of the original Delicious apple. Sports usually differ only in visual appearance, and the flavour and growing characteristics are generally the same or very similar to the original variety.
Kiku was discovered in 1990 by Luis Braun, an Italian fruit grower who was touring an orchard of Fuji apples in Japan, and noticed a branch on one tree had different-looking apples. He went on to propagate examples in Italy and eventually created the KIKU® trademark."
I have heard many of the club apples growers used crab apples to pollinated their apple trees so no ones can copy the tree. I decided to test it out for fun. I planted a KIKU seed about 6 years ago and now I do have a nice pretty pink flowers crab apple tree. So it will be a nice root stock next Spring for more Red Fuji apple. LOL.
@TonyOmahaz5, I’ve long read your posts with interest, and you have had an effect on my gardening choices. Nothing wrong with growing some seeds from an apple you liked!
One thing I’ve read some places, is that many orchards use crabapples to pollinate because their blooming season is long, and because they make a lot of pollen. So crabapples can be a good choice in an orchard, for pollination. I grafted a Dolgo onto one of my trees for that reason.
By selecting sports for color, or productivity, other mutations that degrade flavor can accumulate.
that’s what happened to Red Delicious. It got redder and redder, and more elongated, but no effort was made to preserve or improve flavor. So a good apple cultivar became a mediocre one. I am curious how it would do in a home orchard, anyway.
How did Kiku compare to Fuji? similar flavor and texture?
Thanks Tony for the cool report! Even if it did not turn out as you wished, it was an interesting experiment and informative to anyone who wants to grow fruit from seeds.
p.s. ai did the same thing with a purple pluot I bought at a farmers market. Beautiful purple leaves, lots of pink flowers, and no fruits. I keep it as a pollinator, and maybe some day it will bear fruits after all.
I am not Tony but I don’t really see a difference in the different clones of Fuji (I am growing early Fujis like September Wonder and Beni Shogun and then classic Fuji and Kiku Fubrax).
They differ only year by year eg. last year my Beni Shogun was mediocre, this year I had only few apples but those were one of the best apples I tasted, each more than 300grams.
Fuji Beni Shogun
I ate a Kiku today. It was very large, excellant texture and juicy. Flavor was typical fuji but I didn’t have a fuji available for a A B comparison. I thought of planting a seed until I read your message. Thanks for the information.
