Experience with Red Fleshed Apples

General Fruit Growing
#1131

Regina’s post #1119 is a good answer–it’s in the genes.
The Budagovsky rootstocks all have this red pigment. (Haven’t eaten any apples from them…yet.)
Robert’s Crab and Veralma Simontornya seem to have the deepest red coloring inside the limbs.

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#1132

Question is which genes?
Male or female?
Important when breeding.
Which is what I’m going to be doing with that DNA.

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#1133

My guess is the Female!!!

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#1134

My understanding is both…but the trait should be more prominent/dominant in seedlings/offspring from the mother … but a seedling from a regular apple that has the pollen donor being red fleshed is also going to give some babies/seedlings having the red pigment trait. I expect some apple varieties to give less or even no red fleshed offspring, but that is speculative on my part.

You can search online same as I can…my growing out of crosses I’ve made personally isn’t far enough along to give you personal results expressed as percentages of seedlings having the red trait in leaves and limbs. Japanese researchers may be farther along in this journey.

Niedzwetzkyana seedlings seem to nearly all retain the red flesh trait to some extent.

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#1135

I tried weeding through multiple technical articles about which parent was contributing the trait. I found one comment where the studies were in apples where the pollen was the red fleshed contributor. This may or may not be the common thread in most studies.

total of 32 families were used to dissect the genetic basis of red flesh and foliage colour in apple. The crosses were made between 1998 and 2004 and resulted from hybridisations between commercial cultivars (mother tree) and red flesh pollinators, except for a ‘Geneva’ × ‘Braeburn’ cross made in 2004 where the mother tree possessed the red phenotype.

Update. This one says the female parent yields more red fleshed. I think @BlueBerry is right.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320469041_Breeding_for_type_1_red-fleshed_apple_varieties_using_the_red-fleshed_apple_variety_as_female_parent_yields_a_higher_percentage_of_red-leafed_seedlings

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#1136

Thanks for digging that article out…hadn’t seen one from Germany.
There is something about the mother tree that gives some dominance and seeds from the white-fleshed mother trees apples are less likely to produce red leaved and red fleshed apples. But, reduced occurrence does not mean it doesn’t happen.

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#1137

Hello everyone! Any one can tell if the redfield apple tree is worth to try i should pass?
Thank’s! :+1:

#1138

Last fall I stopped and grabbed a dozen apples or so from a particularly healthy and heavy bearing roadside apple tree I’d been watching. The apples themselves were plain and uninspiring but I planted the seeds of those apples last fall mostly for future rootstock and wildlife trees around the property. A bunch sprouted this spring and one in particular caught my eye, can you spot it?

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#1139

Redfield apple… anyone?

#1140

If you search “Redfield” and click the box for Search this Topic you’ll get multiple hits within this thread.

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#1141

Yes i already did it, but not convinced… :blush:
I’m afraid it’s too acid and so not much use to them…

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#1142

ROTFLMAO, hehehe hahaha :laughing:

#1143

I just got 1 Black Strawberry, 1 Redfield and one Black Raven red flesh apple trees! :grin:

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#1144

How did you get the black strawberry this late in the year?

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#1145

I live at 2,000 foot elevation, or something like 650 meters altitude. The desert lurks only 40 miles from me at a lower elevation. I have enjoyed Redfield every year for 5 years now: Brix is usually 11 or 12, nice for a fairly tart apple in hand and glorious baked! Early bloom tolerates frost; spreading tree is trouble free (no diseases here, anyway).
Well worth trying.

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#1146

On a UK seller, where i get my rare varieties.

#1147

Thanks. I will get it. :+1:

#1148

could i buy a few of those seedlings from you? i ordered a crabapple to graft to from arbor day. 1st. ones dead and so was the replacement.

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#1149

Sure I can ship you some when they go dormant. PM me and we can work something out.

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#1150

Apple trees do not have separate male and female trees. Because there is no male or female chromosome any tree which is homozygous for the red flesh gene will pass it to all of their offspring regardless of whether they are the pollen or seed parent and any tree which is heterozygous for the red flesh gene will pass it along to about half of their offspring regardless of whether it is the pollen or seed parent.

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