What are the names of your Ukrainian varieties?
Do you know if any of the USDA germplasm specimens of m. sieversii have red Fleshed fruit?
Seeing as the USDA/grin has been closed for business, I’ve not been to their site since before
the virus ‘emergency’ hit that too.
But, my guess is probably some do have red flesh.
I was able to get some bud 490 scionwood from there this year. On the subject of Bud rootstocks, I actually had a neglected bud 118 stock flower this spring. Looks like a few fruits are forming. Very curious to see what those are like.
Please no… i can’t do it!
Lol
I just thinned off all fruitlets of Arlie’s Red Flesh, Mott’s Pink, Pink Pearmain and will do Blush Rosette next. They are too young to carry fruit. A tough but right decision, I think.
The 490 does sound interesting…in the M7 size range?
I thought I might have a B118 or a B9 bloom this year but they didn’t.
I’ll be having Odysso plus one fruit on Geneva Crab for the first time. I don’t think Redfield or Niedzwetzkyana have any fruitlets this year. Over fruited last year I guess.
Let’s hope the birds don’t think they’re cherries, as they did one year!
My Oysso are not so round, but more oval. Geneva crab looks about like your picture…first time it’s fruited for me.as a third leaf B-9 graft.
I ended up bagging them, so hopefully that will keep the birds and bugs away. I grafted a Geneva red this year, I wonder if it’s the same a Geneva crab.
It seems to me that the Red Love varieties have red fruit since they are young. I have Red Love Calypso. Its fruitlets are maroon like those of @masterp0606 .
I also have Pink Parfait, Pink Pearl, Blush Rosette and Rubaiyat that have fruit this year. Their fruitlets are as green as any other apples.
Apparently the Albert Etter apples don’t have the coloring in the leaves, cambium, etc.
Most other red flesh cultivars exhibit the coloring in the wood, leaves, blossoms and fruits.
Just one Odysso left, and I bagged it!
Does this have to do with red gene pigment being male pollinator DNA rather than female DNA or dominant versus recessive genes?
Or their chill hours need aka Zinc Finger protein levels?
I think it’s interesting to learn about the two traits.
There are a couple of genes that cause apples to create redness, either in the skin or the flesh. The activity of those genes is, in turn, controlled by other cellular chemicals that occur in two distinct versions. One version, type 1, tells the apple to make pigment (anthocyanins) in all its various parts — leaves, stems, flesh and skin. A second version, type 2, says “Hey, only make pigment in the flesh. Leave the leaves green, the stems green/brown and the skin yellow.” A classic example of a type 1 apple is Malus niedzwetzkyana , introduced to the U.S. in the late 19th century by plant breeder Niels Hansen (1866-1950).
Etter used a type 2 apple for his breeding work, Surprise, which has pale yellow skin and no evidence of any red pigment in its leaves or bark, only in its flesh. It is one of the parents of the apple, Pink Pearl, as well as countless other red-fleshed apples bred by Etter that were never introduced to the public. That Airlie Red Flesh is a type 2 apple like Surprise, and unlike M. niedzwetzkyana , suggests they are related, and there is something a little romantic about the possibility that they could be.