All of the Redlove series are scab free.
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Otterson is very red. Flavor is not great but not terrible terrible. It has a little sweetness and isn’t as thin tasting as a lot of other red fleshed apples.
Devonshire Crimson Queen was a letdown because it didn’t have any red flesh this year. Just a normal apple that tasted like a Mott’s juice box.
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It looks a little darker than Red Moon, which I would describe as Ida Red with a little bit of cranberry flavor.
This is the only one I ever bought and quite good. These were grown in Serbia, and you could buy them in Russia at least up until 2024, but I didn’t find them last year.
Does anyone have Red Moon stateside? It’s certainly among the best redflesh apples with commercial viability.
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i grafted Giant Russian crab on my black oxford. its supposed to have 3in.fruit that bleeds red like a beet. its on the tart side but supposed to be great in juice, sauce and apple butter. only drawback is its very rust prone but thats not a issue as there arent any red cedars here. got it from queener nursery.
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Otterson did not bloom for me in ‘26.
@SMC_zone6 Can you answer Loren’s question as to when Otterson came ripe for you and if it hangs well?
It started ripening late August. There are still apples on the tree now, but overhanging an area with too much poison ivy to make them worth picking.
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Looks like Hidden Rose.
No, Hidden Rose, Mountain Rose, and the like are yellow-green on the outside, just like Pink Pearl.
In this case, the skin is red from the moment the fruit forms. The flesh is consistently red, whereas with Hidden Rose and others, it varies more. This year, my Mountain Rose, Pink Pearl, and yellow Kessabel apples don’t have red flesh. I should get my first fruits for Rose Pearls (Fuji x Pink pearl) next year, so we’ll see if the flesh is truly pink. I plan to try some hybridization next year, crossing Lucy Glo, Lucy Rose, and Black Strawberry with RM1, and—separately—Granny Smith with RS1. RS1 has a green background color; I’d really like to try to retain that green skin while getting red flesh.
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That would be amazing if it works, Granny Smith is a little too hard and stores very well, Red Moon stores well for a red fleshed apple, but that’s not saying much, I wish you luck, you’re doing the Lord’s work!
Two years ago, I reworked a multi-grafted tree; everything is set to produce fruit next year. If I don’t have time to carry out controlled hybridization, we’ll see what nature does on its own. The same tree bears:
Black Strawberry
Appeloosa
Black Diamond
Lucy Glo
Lucy Rose
A red-fleshed variety from the Belgian research station in Gembloux.
RM1, RS1, and even Kessabel trees are within a 25-meter radius. All I’ll have to do is sow the seeds.
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I agree. I have both Punk Pearl and Airlie RedFlesh (which has the commercial name of Hidden Rose or Mountain Rose) and they have a red flush OVER a green/yellow base. They are not red throughout the skin or the flesh. This is pretty typical coloration of Pink Pearl although sometimes one side of the apple has very little color inside, or the band of color is smaller and closer to the skin. Airlie RedFlesh often has less pink.
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My 3 Airlie’s Redflesh on B.118 bloomed and had fruit for the first time this year (not yet ripe as of 9/20/2026). Grafted in 2018 or ‘19, 3 more trees on M.111 have not yet bloomed.
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That’s amazing!
Are these the only apples here? Or are there normal apples that can dilute your red genes again?
Also one recommendation to add to the mix, Apricot Apple, it’s got lots of red features like reddish wood, maroon leaf stems, and maroon fringing around the leaves, I’d almost say it’s a red leafed variety, this would be a new line of red dleshor at least colored flesh genes.
Anyway, I wish you all the best with your future seedlings!
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