I just grafted Tomboy this year, so can’t comment on eating quality. I live in a low humidity environment, and the only disease I ever see is CAR. Even that is pretty light and just on a couple varieties like frostbite and Queen Cox. But I have never seen any CAR on Tomboy, or any of Steven Edholm’s varieties.
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The following is a piece of information I, who lack the fancy biological terminology to label the active ingredients, can share.
Regarding color inside the fruit and elsewhere in wood or foliage, somewhere I read - years ago - that the factors controlling it are located in at least two places in the DNA chain. I got the impression that there are several to many possible bits of genetic code influencing color with differing levels of dominance among themselves, So the short answer to your question, “Has anyone noted tree/leaf characteristics that may denote flesh color?” is No or Not Yet.
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Color showing in wood/foliage/fruit flesh:
I have Otterson and Budagovsky118 growing out back. Both are red-fleshed apples. Neither has fruited here for me, so I am guessing Bud118 has color in part of its fruit, like Redfield. Otterson is supposed to have deep color in its fruit and next year I hope to get some examples of how well it can do that here. Bud118 is a root stock from Russia with darker foliage than Otterson - in my back yard.
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So far i havent fruited any with a flesh color that wasn’t white. But my pink parfait crosses all seem to have bit more red than average somewhere and then there’s Butterball/fat man who is showing great fall color on the tiny immature graft. Color alone isnt what im going for but it is novel enough to catch peoples attention so I’m all for it.
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I’ll be interested in hearing your review of Butterball once it fruits for you. I considered ordering a scion for next spring, but ended up getting a Cara Cara Orange Crab from Hocking Hills instead. (No idea how similar they are other than color and size).
in other news I emaileld tyler brandt the owner of brandt farms and he said hed get me an official description of Lucy Gem/ Howell TC7 and compare it to the other lucy trees since an official descriptor does not seem to exist.
Nice guy
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I can’t keep track, I thought it was Odysso with the most sugar and least acid. I have all three, and only really like to eat one of them as a dessert apple. I kept the gifted stand-alone tree of the one.
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That may be the way it worked out for you. When i first started getting crops off them, about 7 years ago, i didnt like any of them. Too small, too tart, kinda on the dry side.
After growing them a few years and thinning the heck out of them they have grown on me a bit. For me at my site the Calypso is the lower acid one but is also the least red fleshed. This year has been a very red year for all the red fleshed varieties.
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Which has had the most acid?
That’s my type of apple
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Well, the Era and Odysso would be more on the tart side of sweet/tart than the Calypso but keep in mind that we do let our red fleshed get really ripe before harvesting. We dont attempt to store them more than a few weeks before sales so we go for maximum flavor and color at the expense of storage.
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my odysso added a nice touch of color to my apple sauce. looking forward to more of them next year. got a branch of redfield grafted on ot and it gave me 6 apples. not as red as odysso but sweeter. i ate 2 and threw the rest in the applesauce which was primarily a large yellow late heritage breed apple i harvest from a very old famers tree. its good fresh too but the acid ratio makes it a great cooking and baking apple. mixed some empire and them half and half making apple butter. its awesome and the empire skins turned it into a deep pink brown color. some half pints are going out as gifts for x mas. great slightly warmed over vanilla ice cream with a dollop of whipped cream. mine is fairly well spiced.
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I just had a store bought Lucy glo and i have to say the regular apples I’ve gotten from Dennis tastes better than all the red fleshed apples I’ve had
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I would definitely reserve judgement until you have had a chance to try some you have grown yourself.
Several of the red fleshed varieties out there just aren’t good for commercial sales, that is longer storage. The delicate berry tones disappear after a while in storage. If picked too early, they never do get the flavor. Its my opinion that much of this comes from the breeding. Many are bred from summer type apples or even the main red cross being “Surprise”, which all of Etters varieties came from, is a summer apple. While summer apples can be great they dont last off the tree worth a hoot.
Arlies, which is one of our latest, is yet to be determined as to parentage although I think it can be surmised. For us it does keep fairly well. We picked it for storage this year on Oct 5 then put it up for the u pickers. After 2 weeks of u pick we went out and scoured the trees for stragglers and found that the remaining apples were VERY red and VERY flavorful. So much red showing through the skin that the apple itself looked red, didnt get a pic though 
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Nice pic of Baya marisa. I didnt get my cutting board shot of it this year. I like the apple. Its one of two sweet red fleshed that we grow, the other being Kissabel Jaune.
Also weve been selling it as Tickled Pink.
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Airlie was my favorite red flesh until Lucy Glo.
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Hi. You tried Code Pink? Its really good! I post it above… it was more than Brix 20!
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Code Pink does sound interesting. I Googled it and almost no info on it yet. The breeder says it owes its intense sweetness to one of its parents, Grenadine, which at face value doesn’t make a lot of sense considering how tart Grenadine is. Would be interesting to know the full parentage, if he knows it.
I would like to get some scions and give it a try but alas, your over there.
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Well i already try my first Code Pink apple, the first and only apple produced on first grafting year! So she will improve for sure, but already was great and beautifull!
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My Airlies have been slow to bear fruit. I had no idea they were so conical!
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