Gene Study: 'Elite' Cultivars Impoverish Apple Diversity

The genetic heritage of just a handful of apples dominates commercial production, according to an analysis in the science journal Horticultural Research this month.

The top 8 cultivars (really, top 3) dominate the orchard genome

The authors ( Migicovsky et al.) suggest that the lopsided use of these "elite cultivars" by apple breeders "leaves the apple industry vulnerable to evolving pests and pathogens and a changing climate."

The study applies recent advances in gene-sequencing technology to the USDA apple germplasm collection. These new methods make feasible an analysis of this scope.

2021

I write about apples, not current events.

But we are all affected and afflicted by this terrible moment in human history.

To all of us, take care. 

And wassail.

Pecks of Winter Keepers

This week I have augmented my hoard of apples with two pecks of winter fruit. With some gaps, I expect my supply to take me through to April.

The acquisitions are a half peck each of Cripps Pink ("Pink Lady" to you) and Blushing Golden, and a whole peck of GoldRush.

Gnarly Pippins

Gnarly Pippins is both website and nom-de-pomme of site author Matt Kaminsky.

Kaminsky (aka Pippins) was profiled this past fall in the Boston Globe. 

He brings an enthusiasm for wild apples in the spirit of Henry David Thoreau. 

Kaminsky's layered, meditative prose style also reminds me of apple-blogger Chris's Life of Apples (on hiatus, perhaps permanently).

Ortet

There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Gala trees in the world today. 

They are clones, genetically identical to the first Gala bred in New Zealand and grown from seed nearly 100 years ago.

Indeed, they are that tree, in that each is a  link in an unbroken chain of living tissue from the mother tree, grafted and regrafted onto countless sets of roots.

Sweet end

This week marked the last of my Baldwins and Ashmead's Kernels.

The Ashmead's were in top form this year, the Baldwins not so much but still worthwhile.

Last market

In Massachusetts, the day before the American Thanksgiving is the last for shoppers seeking produce and other goods direct from the farm.

Assessing a Slow Year

The 2020 harvest, plagued by pandemic and drought, has not been a total bust.

The selection at farmers market has been limited. The Baldwins were not so great this year. However, Cox, Ashmead, and Stayman have been particularly good.

Alas, barring some last-minute discoveries, this is not going to be a big year for new apple reviews.

Absent Friends One and All

A tasting table at Clarkdale Farm in less fraught times (Cider Days 2016)

The season's traditional gatherings of apple and cider enthusiasts are virtual this year, in Maine, Western Massachusetts, and Colorado.

Some Markets End for the Year

Soggy weather does not deter socially distanced shoppers from the last market of the year in Arlington, Massachusetts, yesterday.

This is the last week of the year for many suburban farmers markets.

Newton's Apple

The fall of an apple, historical records suggests, did set Isaac's Newton's mind to work on the problem of gravity.

There is no evidence, however, that fruit met noggin.

The pomological record on the presumed apple, Flower of Kent, is murkier. Let's take these in order.