Experience with Red Fleshed Apples

The only reason there would be a lower rate of red fleshed seedlings if the red flesh tree was used as the pollen parent instead of the seed parent would be because some of those seedlings resulted from pollination from other trees and were not actually from the red flesh parent. When it’s the seed parent it’s easy to ensure it is the actual parent. When it’s the pollen parent it’s harder to know if it’s really the parent or if there was cross contamination with pollen from other trees.

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@JohannsGarden
Awesome, thanks.


Really pretty red leaves on a purple passion apple graft I did this year.

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Depends on what you plan to do with the apples. Redfield is not really an apple that most people would want to eat fresh. It does however make a fabulous rose hard cider!

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Thanks. I will see what I can do with it… But it’s an interesting variety :+1:

Thought I’d follow up on the red fleshed ones you sent 4 or so years ago. Geneva Crab I finally got to sample,but that first little apple probably isn’t representative…it had but little red flesh. Giant Russian did produce a flower cluster, but no fruit so far. The others have not bloomed. (Some on various roots, from B-9 to Antonovka.)

I’ve got one fruit that something hasn’t eaten on Odysso…and it is bagged and looking good. Redfield nor Niedzwetzkyana did not set fruit this year…but last year my Niedzwetzkyana were adequately juicy…and I ate them and showed them off. Not enough to do some jelly.

Anyhooo…the jury is out, but the red fleshed apples have (mostly) all been healthy so far as blight and scab and CAR are concerned. 6B

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i had 1 odysso also on my little 4ft tree and the damned crows got it!

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My one Odysso is about up to tennis ball size and is certainly red skinned. May be another 5 or 6 weeks before it is actually ripe.

My ‘winekist’ has defoliated and seems it could be dying. Don’t know if ‘replant disease’ would do that? It’s planted between a couple mature trees that I’ll eventually remove if young trees come along.

This last spring was extremely cold & wet. When Redfield bloomed - first among the apples in my area - I never saw a solitary or bumble bee, never mind honey bee, foraging. For the first time since I got Redfield it lacked any fruit, both the tree across the street & the one outside town up on the bluff.

The day job left me depleted again this year, so fruit trees were neglected. Winekist set a huge load of apples. Nearly all had worm damage. My wife, bless her, helped me strip the gangly looking tree & we’ve been cutting apples & cooking to sauce when we get a chance. Picked really late, they have mostly achieved 14 Brix.

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Cool here at bloom time too…few fruits (and none for Redfield or any of the other apples that bloom ahead of the crowd). Glad you got some of the winekist…my little tree may be dying…still a whip that I’ve taken the top for grafting material.

One nice (bagged) Odysso remains for me…I’ll try to let it ripen…last year I picked in mid September and there was no sweetness yet.

I have a thought? Anyone ever see a list of ‘bloom times’ for Red Fleshed Apples?

(Or is that something I’ll have to put together after I get 3 or 4 more years of data?)

Redfield, Niedzwetzkyana and Veralma Simontornya are the three for me so far that are so far ahead of most apples as to be in danger of lack of a pollinator.

From what I read, Otterson is also early to bloom. Since it was grafted last year, I hope to verify that someday.

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I have Otterson, but it also hasn’t done anything. It’s 3 years on B-118 since I grafted.

My Redlove Calypso has had several drops so far. They were not ripe. This last one had seeds that was light brown. Not sure lack of water from the drought played a role in it. Most apples are small this year.

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Redlove Odysso

They are big! This was two apples that falled and didn’t ripen untill the end. They didn’t get much sweet but they are good to eat. I hope those that are on the tree turn sweeter.

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Very pretty apple. Hopefully i get to try one next year from my 2 trees of it.

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Thanks! One interesting thing is that they are very variable from one year to the next one, on size and flavor…

What beautiful apples!! I have several successful grafts of this variety that I’m hoping for good things to come.

Still waiting for my first red fleshed apple. :blush:

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@Everett

How is the one your watching closely doing? Im suspicious they all have some red flesh genetics by the looks of that tray of seedlings. My suspicion is they have crabapple genetics. There are some crabapples that are red fleshed. Other apples you would never guess like prarie spy turn red during cooking and have veins of red throughout the apple but they are not redflesh.

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Odysso

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