Why Save Old Heirloom Apple Varieties?

Try Mirai corn it’s my favorite, although there are many great corns out there.

Which one? Ton’s of Mirai hybrids.

Yes, I have grown a few and it seems they all are pretty good! I have grown On Deck, Silver Choice, and Illini Xtra Sweet. All were fantastic!

I wouldnt grow something just because it REPORTEDLY has super health benefits. However preserving heirlooms is an important part of both science and history. Personally many of the latest hybrids dont appal to me taste wise, but developing disease resistance is a plus.

2 Likes

Appleseed: Burnt Ridge is selling the clone Monty’s Surprise. The seedlings are a separate effort in NZ to see what happens but you can get on waiting list to buy a 100% M.S.

2 Likes

Yellow 148y and white 421 I’ve grown a bi color one, but don’t know which one. Seems like Park seeds are offering a couple more yellow and white. Can’t really see much difference. Maybe a couple of days difference in ripening or stalk height. Must be something else to it. I saw a small corn being offered with Mirai name on it.

One of the best hybrids that even the tomato snobs like is Brandy Boy. I stopped growing any Brandywine tomatoes because of Brandy Boy.

Yeah but they have to have Brandywine to produce the hybrid. I heard too it’s a good one. The F1 seeds have to be produced each year using brandywine and another plant. usually they don’t tell you what is used to make the hybrid. AFAIK all hybrids use heirloom tomato plants to produce seeds.
So if brandywine goes away, so does this hybrid. I myself grow a strain of brandywine called Cowlicks, works well for me. Anyway so the importance of keeping heirlooms goes well beyond the strain itself.

Thanks for the info on the corn!

1 Like

The older people didn’t even have sweet corn they ate field corn which is bland. Then a few kinds of sweet corn came along and were better than field corn so people went to them. They are constantly breeding better varieties of sweet corn. A 53 Corvette was a fine car in Grandpa’s day but a new ZO6 Corvette would blow it off the road. Even the model A was better than a horse and a buggy.

Ambrosia is very good variety it has became the most popular variety here.

1 Like

Rumor is that the Calville Blanc D’hiver apple contains more Vitamin C than an orange. But I have never seen reference to a scientific analysis to that effect.

All the same I would take the 53 corvette hands downs over the junk they put out today. Some people like heirlooms, some don’t. I myself think the 53 is a better car than the ZO6. In many ways it is as far as I’m I’m concerned. Although I would take the 67 Mustang over any Corvette.

1 Like

I’d love to see how they get the same identical seed. Would be interesting.

They must be good at it! I don’t know how they do it either? Sungold is an amazing cherry tomato and many have speculated how they do it. The varieties used are unknown. A Japanese firm grows them along with the other Sun series, about 7 others.
And I have heard once the seed was bad with one, i forget the cultivar? But none of the sold seed came out as it was supposed to. It was a well known hybrid? I just cannot remember the name? I guess also some are 3 way crosses, how they do that???
No doubt some make their own OP types for the crosses. So not heirlooms, but OP.
Some breeder are trying to make OP types that have the resistance of hybrids. Some success has been had. Some are breeding to make future heirlooms, like Wild Boar Farms. Some really great tomatoes from them. Then their is the Dwarf Tomato Project to bring heirloom taste to a dwarf plant. I think they have released 37 varieties so far. I could have participated in that, but was too busy to grow so many of one kind. The work was done at Tomatoville. I’m a member there. Victory seeds and other places offer the dwarf seed for sale. The project is on hold as the founder of the project released a book. I’m sure it will resume though.

1 Like

A Tomato similar to Campari would be nice. I grew mountain magic it was good, but not campari to me. My family loves the Sungold so I grow it. So many cherry to grow out there.

Yeah Sungold is awesome, i grow it too. it is the only hybrid I grow.

Oh no a Ford man lol. Well would take a 67 Mustang over a model T?

Yes, my dad retired from Ford. Ford has been excellent to my family. I am in the Detroit area. One of my friends grandfather was Henry Ford’s lawyer. I also know the Bud family who worked closely with Ford. Well the Model T is still running. Hundreds of them One of the best engine’s around. It get’s about 40 miles per gallon. Is easy to work on too. A great car.

1 Like

Me either. I went online and read up on this “research”. It’s hokey at best. Even their own reported research DID NOT suggest seedlings were superior from a health standpoint, nor did Monty’s Surprise beat all comers in this testing.
They claim “it’s the healthiest apple in the world…we think…from the data we have available”. They tested it against NZ apples, and a bunch of seedlings to boot.
Cornell also published research about the cancer fighting properties of apples long ago. They used Red Delicious I think.
Old data repackaged around a good old apple that probably isn’t a seedling anyway.
I DO completely agree with the value of preserving old heirlooms for their genetics, and even for historical reasons. I disagree with the notion that they are automatically better for you, or have cancer properties unlike their modern rivals. Even their own published research does not suggest that, and it was clearly selected to put it in the best light possible.

1 Like

this from Cloudforest (about Calville Blanc D’hiver):

This apple is loaded with vitamin C, featuring 35mg of vitamin C per 100g of fruit flesh.

this from the USDA:

Florida Navel Orange 53.2 mg Vitamin C per 100g.

Still surprising that apples are somewhat close to oranges in terms of Vit. C content. I thought oranges would have way more.
There is this however:
Another researcher, Riu Hai Liu of Cornell University, has found that eating 100 grams of apple provides the same amount of antioxidant activity as taking 1,500 milligrams of vitamin C, but that vitamin is present in apples in only small amounts.

2 Likes

Applesed- I think you’re right- does not look like MS was compared against US and international varieties. I asked my library to get me a copy of a 2003 USDA study of 321 apple varieities and species, including American heirlooms, to find ones with the most total phenolics and antioxidants. The abstract of that study, below, cites Cox Orange and Prairie Fire crab as top rated.

http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=623_34

1 Like