In The Garden | Honeycrisp apples a popular choice
The peach season is long over and now we enjoy Ohio apples. Apples are nutritious and there are many varieties from which to choose. Each one has a special quality when it comes to flavor and lecture.
The Ohio apple season begins in late August and is finished by late October. One important quality of an apple is that most of them store well. Some can be stored for months if refrigerated.
Common Ohio tree fruits include apples, cherries, peaches, plums and pears. The small fruits include strawberries, red and black raspberries, blackberries and elderberries. Other fruits include grapes, gooseberries and currants.
An apricot tree can be grown in Ohio but seldom produces fruit because the large white flowers are killed by frost. One tree that I had bloomed the first week of April and usually suffered early frost kill.
The first tree fruit to produce a crop is the sour cherry. Some early peach flowers are prone to frost. Peach trees bear fruit soon after planting. Apple trees take at least three to four years before fruit are produced.
Small fruits produce fruit quickly. Strawberries produce a crop the second years, raspberries take at least two to three years for fruit production.
Apple flower buds develop later and seldom is there a crop loss due to frost. Michigan produces apricots on trees located on the western side of the state, close to Lake Michigan.
The lake offers frost protection and is the reason a northern state can produce apricots.
Honeycrisp
For many years, there has not been an apple like the honeycrisp apple. It originated at the apple breeding program at the University of Minnesota. Today, it is a leading seller among American consumers.
It’s an apple variety that appears to have it all; flavor, the ultimate in crispness and juicy flesh. Often the crispness is termed “explosively crisp.”
A new apple variety, like other tree fruits, does not suddenly appear. It requires the crossing of several different varieties with the goal of ending up with the right combination of genes to create the “dream” new apple.
Today, honeycrisp has become so popular, bursary breeders are using it as one parent among many apple crosses seeking to incorporate some of the honeycrisp traits.
The delay in new apple introduction is due to the time it takes for a new tree to grow over several years and finally bear fruit. Tree breeding is one of the slowest professions to have. The slowest is some of the hickories that take 20 to 30 years to produce the first nut crop. A long wait to see what the results will be.
While a new apple may have several favorable new qualities, there is also the chance it may have some unfavorable qualities. This applies to honeycrisp. The flesh of honeycrisp easily bruises. Careless picking can ruin many apples and profits. A bruised apple is the last one to buy. Honeycrisp has some other unfavorable traits that grower must focus on if it is to be a success in the orchard. Talk with a grower before thinking about planting this tree.
The royal red honeycrisp is another offspring of honeycrisp in the breeding pipeline. Tree orders will be taken soon. It is a totally red apple and said to have fewer problems than the original honeycrisp.
Richard Poffenbaugh is a retired biology teacher and active home gardener since 1960. He is a member of the Mansfield Men's Garden Club and was editor of the club newsletter (The Greenhorn) for 21 years. He resides in Ontario with his wife, Barbara. Reach him at 419-529-2966.
