Going over in my mind what I really liked eating last season. While I still like all of the above I would add White Limbertwig, Abbondanza, Ruby Sipper (red flesh), Carter’s Blue, Opalescent (pretty common but really nice apples), Blood Delicious (red flesh), Golden Knob, Glockenapfel as some of the notes I made notes on.
7 Likes
Derek,
I missed out on your red fleshed scions this year. I was not expecting such a robust list & one that needed careful review to educate myself.
Your list, along with Skillcults Youtube videos, ended up being Pandora’s box & somehow Ive changed the scope of our own orchard to include apple breeding.
You are an inspiration & I very much appreciate your hard work & efforts to share your investigations & thoughts.
How wonderful to have a full list of your own red flesh crossings.
I will be ready for your list next scion season. 
(I did get to graft some apples.)
3 Likes
I laughed out loud at the Pandora’s box comment! That is so true! I told my wife that I would slow down on how many trees I graft or seedlings I plant from my crosses last year. And for this year I was going to limit myself to 100 new grafts only plus whatever promising seedlings I decide to keep and trial out but already this past week I have surpassed that and have more scions waiting. Heirloom stuff from Alabama and Maine to name a few. Plus last year I went overboard with the crosses I made and have all of those seeds to grow out. So yes it can be like opening Pandora’s box!
4 Likes
I believe Derek doesn’t sell/ship scion yet. I think he said he told me in a private chat that he is not sending cuttings out yet of his crosses. But lets people pick the fruit on their U-Pick days. Think maybe he is working with a university to grow some of them out (maybe go through a trademark process).
@derekamills can you confirm that info i posted above for @QuirkyKimbo ?
PS ill know soon if i have any extras of red-fleshed scionwood if anyone wants any.
3 Likes
that is true for my crosses and for both reasons you mentioned. but most of the 270 or so other red, orange or pink fleshed named varieties I do send out.
5 Likes
Amazing!
Apple bloom runs full steam ahead. These are Winekist & Redfield today. Although planting Redfield deeply so it would grow bigger, it remains quite small & growing slowly. Some varieties don’t push roots to supersede the root stock for years. Yes, they are in neighbor yards, which is why Winekist shows above a fence.
Otterson is very young & camera shy. Maybe next year it will look like a baby tree.
6 Likes
You’re doing a marvelous job by experimenting with them crosses. It’s a type of hard work that only a few will appreciate, because majority doesn’t even suspect the effort put into it.
What are your best RF’s that really stand out?
2 Likes
Has anyone here grown Freddy Menge’s Ruby Tuesday? It sounds intriguing, although I’m not in CA and am not aware of scions being available anywhere else.
I’m in Iowa and grafted Skillcult’s black strawberry, cherry crush, and pink vanilla this spring. I’m doubtful my climate will allow for full ripening of black strawberry or pink vanilla, but I plan to put them in my goethermal greenhouse to trial if they can’t hang with the frost dates here in the first few years of fruiting.
4 Likes
Skillcult has done a lot of work on breeding new red fleshed apples, check out his videos
1 Like
@PomGranny: In answer to your question some months later, I have tasted only these red-fleshed apples so far: Winekist, Redfield, Pink Pearl, Dolgo Crab, Redvein Crab, Lucy Glo. That is a small sample.
Of these, Redfield and Pink Pearl are tied for crispness, flavor & a modicum of tartness. Pink Pearl holds its shape when baked, while Redfield goes soft but retains some shape.
Growing red-fleshed in your hot nights might not make for much color inside. Daily temperature swings contribute to that.
All of these need be used in a couple weeks.
2 Likes
There’s a guy on North American Scion Exchange (Facebook Group) that sells scions and bare root trees for many of Freddy’s varieties including Ruby Tuesday, VIP and Code Pink (send me a messege if you want his name). I have Ruby Tuesday, but I’m not sure yet if I’ll have enough growth this year for scions.
4 Likes
I heard that Pink Pearl stores and ships well, is that not true? 3 months or until the end of January is what I heard.
Red Moon - Grown in Serbia, exported.
Pink Naliv or Rosoviy Naliv, not very pink inside, but apparently related to Pink Pearl.
An unknown variety off a tree growing in the old center of Chester, England, close to Market Bridge if I remember correctly.
And an unknown variety growing outside of Moscow, incredibly enough, the apples getting direct exposure to the sun developed a significant amount of pink flesh in Growing Zone 4 by the end of August!
3 Likes
You may be right about Pink Pearl keeping for longer than most red-fleshed apples I know of. Lucy Glo might, too. I was favorably impressed with Pink Pearl, not so with Lucy Glo. It may LG was picked too early.
2 Likes
Lucy glo are pretty great as long as they’re picked ripe like you said. I got a whole mess of them from Trader Joe’s last year and they were mostly great. I think the kissabel rouge is just a better apple for storage though. Great red fleshed apple in my experience.
2 Likes
My experience with the Pink Pearl / Mott Pink apples is that they dont harvest, ship or store well. Of course this is really all relative and probably should be scored on a scale of 1-10.
Most commercial growers like me would tell you that this apple is best suited for the fresh market scene where it can be harvested as close to tree ripe as possible. This will give you the most color in the flesh and most intense flavor.
Biggest downside to the variety is its thin skin. As the apple matures on the tree the skin becomes transparent and at the same time the flesh is changing to red.
What this means is that ANY imperfection on the skin looks like a dark red spot. These can’t be picked with picking bags, they end up looking like they have the measles. Extra materials are required for shipping.
Better varieties are ones with “normal” skin like Kissabel Rouge or Tickled Pink. These both have far redder flesh but also red skin that doesn’t show imperfections.
6 Likes
Commercial vs hand picking is something that I didn’t think about, actually I heard that Pink Pearl is related to Pink Naliv, a seedling or sport of White Nalive a “paper” apple or transparent skin white apple.
And you’re saying that Pink Pearl and Mott’s Pink are similar, not that they are the same like Cripp’s Pink and Pink Lady, right?
1 Like
While they have some similarities, I wouldn’t treat them as interchangeable. In my orchard, MP is slightly earlier, smaller, lighter-skinned, redder-fleshed, much tarter, and has a less complex flavor. I like them both, but PP is a superior apple here. The story could be different in @jcf 's environment, of course.
3 Likes
Is there a chance that I can buy excess seeds of your more promising red and orange flesh crosses?
I’m very interested in trying to get new red and orange fleshed apples!
Especially Crosses that have some promise to be sweet enough for fresh eating and have decent storing properties are very interesting.
2 Likes