Let’s apply apply for a license?
Mike 
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Sounds like a plan! Mrsgti will help too!
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I believe Pink Pearl, like a lot of other varieties have different characteristics grown in different parts of the country. For me here in SE Ohio they require more spraying than I typically like to do to keep them decent looking. And we tell people right from the start, we grow apples for taste not looks so don’t expect fake looking apples like you get in Krogers. I use a dormant oil and then use wettable sulfur after petal fall on whatever schedule I have time for and that is it for spraying.
But here Pink Pearl gets a great taste and you can always tell when it is ripe because the skin turns pinkish and that is the red hue of the red flesh coming through not sun blush.
My kids are range in age from 25 to 30 and I used to always take Pink Pearls to their schools along with other unusual apples and the kids all got a kick out of eating them.
Now it can have off years and not have any red flesh color and I have notes that indicate when it is wetter and cooler than normal Pink Pearl will be more likely a White Pearl .
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My goal is always to try and get a red fleshed seedling but that is such a guessing game. I read somewhere once where the main apple guy for developing new apples (like HoneyCrisp) at the Univ of Minn who I think is named David said they use 1 out of a 1,000 seeds and then reduce that to 1 out of 1,000 of those before they put a trial number on them and then a name. After I posted that someone told me it was not true so I do not how many seedlings big places try. I just know for me I will put 50 to 200 seeds out and see what happens.
As soon as they sprout if the leaves stay small I pull them out because odds are it will be crab apple size fruit. If I see reddish tinged leaves or or extra large leaves or out of the ordinary growth then they are kept around
If you have grown apples from seed you know it can take forever to set fruit the first time, maybe 7 years on average. I try to speed that up a little on what I think might be promising by grafting them onto B9 which will force fruit a little sooner so I can see if it is worth keeping around. Nothing in my orchard is on B9 thought because we have way too many deer, I grow my production trees on M111 or M7 or G30.
The photo I posted is probably the darkest red fleshed seedling I have grown and is still known as RF2009#3 which tells me that it sprouted in 2009 and when I look in my notes it was the third seed I planted from a Rubaiyat x Golden Russet cross. I have a couple of friends who have given me some great suggestions on a name for it though.
The one I grew from the Pink Pearl x Golden Russet cross and named is the that people rave over and we sell out of it. It is sweeter by far than #3 above but #3 is so juicy that when you cut it the juice flows like a blood orange. This year we are going to make hard cider out of #3 just to see how it is.
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Hello,
I grow Scarlet Surprise as Bill’s Red Flesh the name it was originally under by the guy who found, Bill Shultz. It is a great variety for us and bears reliably every year. Not that sweet but not terribly tart either so I enjoy eating them fresh and they have their customers who seek them out.
Mott PInk is another good one, extremely similar to PInk Pearl in size, shape and coloring just a little later in season.
I have not heard of Arborose? What can you tell me about it?
Golden Russet was the first russet apple I grafted so I am partial to it as well but there are so many different russets that it is unbelievable.
I do different crosses, red flesh x aweet, red flesh x russet, red flesh x extremely large, red flesh x red flesh
So in my mad scientist nursery I have crosses of:
Pink Pearl x Black Gilliflower
Pink Pearl x Golden Russet
Rubaiyat x Golden Russet
Red Devil x Ashmead’s Kernel
Pink Pearl x Geneva
Red Devil x Pink Pearl
Geneva x Antonovka 1.5 Pound
and others but that gives you an impression of the possibilities which is part of the fun, sitting around thinking of what you can try and come up.
But selecting who you are breeding together guarantees you absolutely nothing. Everyone could wind up being a hard green crabapple. .
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Grenadine is another one I have used in crosses, great apple with very dark red flesh. I would have to look at see but I think the Grenadine crosses I did were with Pitmaston Pine Apple. and no fruit yet.
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I hope the demand for the fruit of Baker’s Delicious is as high as the demand for the scion wood!
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Grenadine was an obvious choice to me and all my early crosses used it crossed to lady williams, golden russet, gold rush, Wickson, off the top of my head. Then I got ahold of Rubaiyat and it seemed as red or redder, but more refined and closer to a dessert apple, so I’ve used it a lot too. Here it drops early and goes mealy, but it has lower astringency than grenadine and at it’s best is just seems a little closer to a good out of hand fruit. Lately I’ve added maypole to the stable. I’ve very interested in it and in crossing red fleshed apple offspring, or maybe crossing mixes with a shared parent like grenadine x golden russet with maypole x golden russet. At least I’m starting to think in that direction in order to maybe reinforce the traits I want. I’m also very interested in using pink parfait, because it is such an outstanding desert apple. It has everything going for it, but the flesh is not even solid pink. I’m hoping that it may reinforce the red fleshed trait in other apples or offspring, while bringing some of it’s other virtues along with it. It is also a fine looking apple. I don’t know how it does for you, but here ripened on the tree into december, it is a standout apple.
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I purchased ‘Arborose’ from Arboreum the first year they released it, I believe. It might be an old red-fleshed apple from Fioli, I will ask them. This is only its third year in the ground. The first year we had tons of snow and rabbits ate down to ten inches above the graft union. It is slowly coming back. It looks like a whip with two tiny branches. Too bad, but I’ll wait and see what happens.
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Why do you say that Fluffy…are you saying that raising the branch and therefore raising the vigor increases the chance of viral infection?
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Ok…I didn’t completely follow at first, but the “casual sex” analogy got me totally on point. Thanks.
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Along the lines of this thread…
I just finished my first batch of bench grafting, using B118 and Antonovka rootstock.
I had a few red fleshed scions and noted how their wood was reddish. Well I also noticed that the B118 wood had that same reddish color to it when cut for a graft.
Not that this means that much, other than perhaps B118 would produce a red fleshed apple if allowed to fruit.
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Ida Red is pink sometimes. I think the color is great for applesauce and want to try my hand at growing some one day.
For anyone who’s interested, the blogger Biodiverseed has a tag for red-fleshed apples at her blog. She’s currently in Denmark, I believe.
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B118 is budagovsky 54-118 and it does produce nice red fleshed fruit.
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Thanks Derek for the B118 fruit info.
Have you tried the B118 fruit? I’m guessing it’s nothing that great, otherwise it would be sold as a fruiting tree as well.
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