Here’s an apple from the Midwest Apple Improvement Association that is now showing up in PYO orchards this year. It’s a cross between Honeycrisp x Winecrisp. Ripens 7 to 12 days ahead of standard Gala. Noted for candy like sweetness with a crispness usually not found in summer apples.
I got a few pre-picked ones to try yesterday. The one I ate so far was fully ripe and slightly bruised when I cut it open. It’s sweet for sure but one dimensional in flavor and still crunchy even that ripe. I think kids will love them for sure.
Here’s a fluff piece from the MAIA president a few weeks ago. I disagree with his comment about letting old varieties fade away. I like flavor choices.
“Part of the solution might be to simply let some of the older apple varieties fade away, he said.”
https://www.thepacker.com/news/produce-crops/midwest-apple-improvement-association-launches-sweet-maia
4 Likes
Strange group. Their links to sellers of their trees is not working well.
Wasn’t MAIA one of the groups that wouldn’t just sell one tree and wanted you to fill out paperwork and pay tree taxes every year plus pay $1000 to join? I like Evercrisp, but am not doing Office 365 for Trees.
1 Like
$100 annual fee plus royalties on trees or grafting material purchased. Plus trademark fees on each tree for 20 years.
They have a yet unnamed, soon to be released golden apple and a few other reds coming soon.
Some orchards are now selling Summerset now which is HC x Fuji that is marketed as a tangier version of Honeycrisp.
Planted but not yet producing is the redder version of Evercrisp named Mitchell but will be marketed as Evercrisp at retail. How that works out with all the regular Evercrisp fruit to be marketed is beyond me.
There’s redder versions of most of the grocery store apples. I’ve always liked the bicolor red-green Macintosh look and yellow apples, but lots of people think more redder more better. So I guess they don’t want to hurt consumer recognition/sales calling it something different if it tastes more or less the same. Patent protection starts over on the redder version, so they can get money from growers who want the more marketable version.
Produce stand had Wildfire RKD Gala. Solid red, almost glowing. I could see that selling because of color compared to the pale orginal Gala.
Eating second Sweet Maia I bought. Still disappointing flavor wise.Yellow fleshed with a large core. Not a naw down apple to the last bite for me.
1 Like
The “new” apple wars are well underway as areas outside of Washington State need competition for the onslaught of Cosmic Crisp. That is still exclusive to Washington growers. Then you have New York’s Snapdragon exclusive to that state. The newest Minnesota releases are exclusive to MN growers with a 50 tree minimum to get the license.
Guess timely for all as Honeycrisp are getting ripped out due to low production and issues with growing them. Hard to invest $50 to 60k per acre for a high density orchard not knowing what will take off in the market.
At one time in Washington, one third of all new plantings were Ginger Gold. But consumers did not buy a yellow summer apple like they hoped. An expensive marketing mistake as fall is really when the average consumer thinks apples. Especially as convenient snacks for school lunches.
Sweetango was suppose to be next “it” apple but never made it big time. On the Minnesota license web site it says the Sweetango patent runs out in 2026 and the public will be able to buy trees. I will buy one as it’s my favorite Club apple.
2 Likes
I looked through all of MAIA’s apples and only “Scruffy” interested me.
Frankly though of the new apples only those of Romania interest me much. They are breeding apples like “Liberty” that are highly resistant, easy to grow and developed with local to country apples of long known qualities.
