Good Fruit Grower

January 2013

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/100223

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 21 of 39

Photo courtesy of diane doud miller Hello EverCrisp, goodbye Fuji? Mitch Lynd thinks EverCrisp will fill the niche better than Fuji ever did. by Richard Lehnert Midwest Apple Improvement Association founders Ed Fackler (left) and Mitch Lynd (right) met in Jim Eckert���s MAIA planting to help with apple evaluation, a process that has members tasting thousands of fruit each fall. F or Mitch Lynd, the introduction of EverCrisp apples into Midwestern growers��� orchards will probably mean they won���t plant Fuji in the future. The new apple looks a lot like a Fuji, is sweet like a Fuji, matures late like a Fuji, and keeps like roducers wanting to grow EverCrisp must sign a Fuji. But it does not crop like a Fuji, and that���s good news. an agreement with the following stipulations: ���In our region, Fuji is all tree and no apples,��� Lynd said in a conversation with Good Fruit Grower. ��� They must join or be members in good ���Here, 350 bushels per acre is the maximum we can get with Fuji if we are to get return bloom. EverCrisp standing of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association and pay will make growers more money than Fuji ever did. There���ll be no reason to grow Fuji ever again.��� annual dues, currently $100 per year; Lynd, now 70 and retired both from the Lynd family���s fruit farm at Pataskala, Ohio, and from the ��� They must use only the name EverCrisp and its trademark and logo Midwest Apple Improvement Association that he is credited with cofounding 15 years ago, sounds pretty and not use any other names or trademarks in selling this variety. negative on Fuji���considering he was one who chose it as a parent for EverCrisp, mating it with ��� They must not register or otherwise seek to develop any EverCrisp Honeycrisp. sports or mutations, which become the property of MAIA. ���The cross made sense to us,��� he said. The agreement is in effect for 20 years after date of tree delivery. Fuji is a wonderful apple that ���keeps like rocks,��� he said, but it is unproductive. Fuji, as a parent, also Annual fees are due January 1 for years 4 through 20. Fees begin in offered the potential for late blooming, a trait that was foremost in the minds of lower Midwest growers 2019 and are 20 cents per tree per year through 2025 and 30 cents per when they organized MAIA. One of Fuji���s parents is Ralls Janet, a late-blooming apple that is called Never tree in 2026 through 2035. ���R. Lehnert Fails where it���s grown in Virginia, Lynd said. ���We grow in an area with zero maritime influence,��� Lynd said. ���Our family here has enjoyed a wonderful income from apple growing since the 1860s, but we���ve had to live with crop failures because of late spring freezes. What Michigan and New York experienced this year, we can expect one year in five. ���Rome Beauty has been one of our anchor varieties, not because it���s a great apple, but because it���s late-blooming and therefore a reliable cropper.��� Of course, the choice of Honeycrisp as the other EverCrisp parent was easy to make because of its great texture and crunch. ���Fuji can be chewy, and that���s hugely different A Growing Legacy Since 1816 than crispy,��� Lynd said. Honeycrisp also blooms somewhat later, and it is somewhat disease resistant, Lynd said. While it does not carry the Vf apple scab resistance gene that was bred into apples in the PRI breeding program, there are other ���complicated��� sources of disease resistance, and Honeycrisp has some of that, Lynd said. While the new variety has not been observed for very long and was only selected for elite treatment in 2008, indications so far are that it���s an annual cropper, Lynd said. Despite being grown on its own root, the mother tree is naturally precocious, he said. Growers will have to manage young trees so they don���t overcrop early and runt out. ���I should also mention that I spoke with David Doud yesterday and, much to my surprise, he told me he never thinned the original EverCrisp tree,��� Lynd said. ���It had four heavy crops in a row, and the apples were always perfectly spaced. I was shocked. The crop load always looked so perfect, I just assumed it was hand thinned. MAIA is also evaluating other Honeycrisp-Fuji crosses. ���The one I like best has a maturity date that is the same as Honeycrisp,��� he said. ���That is not the apple to introduce right now, with Honeycrisp having momentum like no other apple ever. We don���t need a competing apple in that season.��� Lynd believes the Midwest Apple Improvement Association will establish its reputation based on EverCrisp���but will go on to find lots of other good apples. He gives two reasons. First, the members who participate in the breeding and evaluation are farm marketers who meet the public face to face. U-pick customers at Lynd Fruit Farm are invited to taste any of the apples that are ripe that week and then fill their baskets with those they like. Given that opportunity, they choose taste. ���We are driven by taste, not appearance,��� he said. Second, formal taste tests reveal that not all people like the same things. Apples that rate a 10 by one person may rate 0 with another. Supermarkets tend to settle for an apple that rates a 5 with everybody, but that���s no reason to deprive apple lovers of those 10s they���d like to have. But these apples have been thrown away in conventional breeding programs. There is a lot of room at farm markets for niche apples. now is the time to order. Breeders like Dr. Susan Brown at Cornell University, Dr. David Bedford at University of Minnesota, Dr. Jules Janick at Purdue University, Dr. Joseph Goffreda at Rutgers University, and Dr. Diane Miller at Ohio State University have shown great willingness to teach To guarantee best selection from our crop, call 800-435-8733 today! and help the MAIA grower/breeders understand apple genetics and breeding. Ed Fackler, the person who worked with Lynd in cofounding the Midwest Apple Stark Bro���s Nurseries & Orchards Co. Improvement Association, is still a member. A former nurseryman and apple grower, he is now associated with a mail order nursery company, Gardens Alive, in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. EVERCRISP agreement P ��� 22 JANUARY 1, 2013 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Good Fruit Grower - January 2013