Apple sex -
...hello all - it's been awhile - I thought some of you might be interested in some of the work I've done this past week - controlled breeding of apples -
as part of a grower organized program of developing varieties more suited to our midwestern climate there have been selected certain parents that possess traits identified as desirable - of course these same varieties also possess 'fatal flaws' of one sort or another - crossing parents with complementary characteristics has been the strategy of apple breeding for the last 120 years -
this spring I have the task of making the crosses HRC13T139 X HoneyCrisp and Ralls Genet X HRC13T139 -
Many of you may be familiar with HoneyCrisp, being the latest, greatest thing - the once a generation 'winner' - developed in Minnesota, it's not well adapted to warmer climes, and not friendly to growers anywhere - its special texture, that it maintains for months, is remarkable -
13T139 is a variety out of the Purdue, Rutgers, and Illinois breeding program - it is a smooth yellow apple, a full sister of 'GoldRush', an apple of remarkable flavor and texture - 13T139 lacks the flavor of its sibling, but has the Vf gene for apple scab resistance and is very productive -and most important to us, it is markedly superior in cropping dependability, coming thru spring freezing temperatures better than all but a handful of varieties -
Ralls Genet is an old variety out of Virginia - one of its synonyms is 'Neverfail' - 'Ralls' crossed with Red Delicious begat 'Fuji', of which everyone is familiar - Ralls is of mediocre quality, but has a definite characteristic that allows it to be a very dependable cropper - in this picture, the tree in the foreground is Ralls - looking behind it, you notice trees in full bloom - developmentally, Ralls is some days behind, with the bloom in 'tight cluster' to 'early pink' stage -
in this picture you notice that the bloom is not only late compared to most, but also it is not evenly developed, some clusters are showing pink and have separated, while other clusters are just emerging from from the spur leaves - this uneven development is unusual - those clusters hanging tight together would be a full 10 degrees hardier than the open blossoms -
"there's enough for everyone"
"there's enough for everyone"
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(post #12723, reply #1 of 7)
so - first step is collect and prepare pollen - I'm fortunate that the blooming characteristics of my varieties of interest are such that I can do it on farm - often we'll have to ship pollen from south to north to hit the pollination windows -
I collect blossom clusters at the 'early king bloom' stage -
I bring a bucket full of blossom clusters into the house, and use a razor knife to cut thru the blossom at the strategic point to collect the anthers -
using a screen, I separate the anthers from most of the rest of the parts -
the cleaned anthers are placed under a light bulb to ripen the pollen -
(post #12723, reply #7 of 7)
Very interesting; thanks for posting the photos and the explanations.
(post #12723, reply #2 of 7)
it takes at least 48 hours to ripen the pollen - I was able to leave this pollen go for 96 hours this season - it cooled off outside and took a bit of the pressure off -
today I went to the field and selected a 13T139 tree and prepared it for crossing by cutting off all the open blossoms, leaving just the bloom that was in the 'pink' stage - unopened -
after preparing a section of the tree, I emasculate a blossom - it takes a thumbnail and a gentle touch - break the blossom right below the sepals, twirl 90 degrees or so and continue the break...
... then grasp the top of the petals and pull the whole assembly of petals and sepals off, leaving the styles exposed - this is the most finicky operation - some varieties are easier than others - 13T139 wasn't bad, I got about 90% to successfully emasculate - 'Ralls' is more difficult - this operations keeps the bees from finding the flower and spreading unwanted pollen -
then I use an artist's brush to apply pollen - I carry the pollen to the field in a small jar, swab the brush into the anther/pollen fuzz, shake off the large debris, and paint the stigmas with the brush - it's easy to see the pollen change the color of the stigmatic surface -
you see in the background of this last picture a cluster with one bloom in 'full pink' and three more in 'tight pink' - I'll do the more developed blossom and return to the tree in a day or two and do the others then, when they have developed further -
(post #12723, reply #3 of 7)
absolutely fascinating! thanks for sharing.
(post #12723, reply #4 of 7)
David, thanks for this very detailed account. Would this work for peaches as well? We can't grow apples successfully here (cedar apple rust), but we have good peaches and quite a few root stock sort from seeds thrown out when peaches were eaten. The blossoms are done now but I'm wondering if this would work on them for next year?
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
(post #12723, reply #5 of 7)
the idea is similar for peaches - the species is not so heterozygous as apples, and of course you're talking one seed per fruit -
I'm speaking from the book here, because I've never crossed peaches - I have a couple hundred trees, wonderful when we have them, but not dependable in our climate - none this year, didn't see the first live bloom -
naturally peaches tend to come true from seed, as they are usually self pollinated - 'Lovell' and 'Halford' root stocks are just pits from commercial operations -
I'll do a bit of research when I get a chance and maybe get back here -
(post #12723, reply #6 of 7)
Hey Doud, absolutely delightful to have you visit again. In his book "The Botany Of Desire" Michael Pollan describes the genetic diversity of apples. I had supposed that apples were so diverse that it was a crap shoot to develop new cultivars. I hope you great success on your crosses.
BJ