Have you ever strolled through a grocery store and marveled at the diverse array of apples on display? Names like SnapDragon, Pixie Crunch, Cosmic Crisp, Jazz, and Ambrosia sit alongside the more familiar Red Delicious and Granny Smith. These intriguing names represent just a fraction of the over 7,500 apple varieties cultivated worldwide. This remarkable diversity is largely the result of human ingenuity in fruit breeding, a process aimed at meeting the expectations of both farmers and consumers.
Apple breeding is a meticulous process designed to satisfy the needs of farmers and the desires of consumers. Farmers often seek apples that are disease-resistant and have a long shelf life, while consumers are drawn to apples that are visually appealing, tasty, and novel. Breeders must consider a wide range of factors, from how well apples grow in specific climates to their color, taste, and size. Sometimes, achieving the perfect apple requires creating something entirely new.
To develop apples with desirable traits, breeders start by selecting parent apples that exhibit those characteristics. Once the parent apples are chosen, breeders wait for the trees to bloom in the spring. During this time, they manually transfer pollen from one bloom, known as the father, to another bloom, the mother, through a process called cross-pollination. When the mother bloom transforms into an apple, its seeds are collected and planted.
It takes approximately five years for these seeds to grow into trees that bear fruit. Due to the complex nature of genetic inheritance, each seedling will possess a unique set of genes and characteristics. Achieving the desired qualities requires producing a large number of offspring and a great deal of patience from the breeder. When a seedling finally bears fruit with the desired traits, it is selected for further evaluation. Out of the original crossed seedlings, only about one in every 5,000 reaches this prestigious stage.
Selected seedlings are sent to various farms where breeders assess how different climates and soil types affect the plant’s growth. The fruit of the seedling and its clones is collected and sampled to ensure consistency. Breeders examine approximately 45 traits in an apple, including texture, firmness, ripening time, sugar content, and freshness. Over several years, they eliminate the less desirable apples, selecting only those with superior qualities. These exclusive plants officially form the new apple variety, or cultivar.
To ensure an exact replica of the cultivar, all apple trees must be grafted from the original seedling. Branches, known as scion wood, are cut from the original tree and cultivated to produce more scion wood. These segments are then grafted onto rootstock, which is the lower section of another tree chosen for its robust roots and growth potential. This fusion results in a new apple tree with the desired characteristics. Each new plant takes up to four years before it begins producing the fruit we enjoy.
Apple breeding is a challenging yet accessible art, open to universities, companies, and even individuals. However, to fully own an apple variety, the breeder must overcome one final hurdle: naming the fruit. After a cultivar is patented, the breeder selects a name for its trademark. This step grants them long-lasting rights over the apple and its clones. The name must be entirely original, and the catchier, the better. With over 7,500 varieties and counting, this is why we have apples with names like Pink Lady, Sweet Tango, Kiku, and EverCrisp.
As we continue to harness nature’s bounty to create new cultivars, the names of these apples will only become more creative and delectable.
Choose an apple variety mentioned in the article or another one you find interesting. Research its origin, characteristics, and how it was bred. Create a poster or a digital presentation to share your findings with the class.
Using colored paper and markers, simulate the cross-pollination process. Create paper flowers representing different apple varieties and use a small brush to transfer “pollen” (glitter or small paper dots) from one flower to another. Document the steps and explain the process.
Bring in different apple varieties for a taste test. Record observations on taste, texture, and appearance. Create a chart to compare the different traits of each apple. Discuss which traits might be desirable for breeding new apple varieties.
In groups, role-play the different stages of apple breeding. Assign roles such as breeder, farmer, and consumer. Act out the process from selecting parent apples to naming the new cultivar. Reflect on the challenges and decisions faced by each role.
Design your own apple variety by combining traits from existing apples. Draw a picture of your new apple and write a description of its characteristics. Come up with a creative name for your apple and explain why you chose it.
Breeding – The process of mating and producing offspring, often used to improve plants or animals. – Farmers use selective breeding to produce crops that are more resistant to diseases.
Apples – A type of fruit that grows on trees and is often cultivated for food. – In the orchard, we learned how apples are harvested and sorted for sale.
Traits – Characteristics or features of an organism that can be inherited. – The bright red color of the apple is a trait that has been passed down through generations of breeding.
Seeds – The small, hard part of a plant from which a new plant can grow. – After eating the apple, we collected the seeds to plant in our school garden.
Pollination – The transfer of pollen from one flower to another, which is necessary for plants to produce seeds. – Bees play a crucial role in the pollination of many fruit trees, including apple trees.
Cultivar – A plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding. – The Honeycrisp apple is a popular cultivar known for its sweet taste and crisp texture.
Grafting – A method of joining two plants together so they grow as one, often used to propagate fruit trees. – By grafting, farmers can grow apple trees that produce fruit faster than those grown from seeds.
Farmers – People who cultivate land and grow crops or raise animals for food. – Farmers work hard to ensure that their apple orchards produce a good harvest each year.
Consumers – People who buy and use products, such as food from farms. – Consumers often look for apples that are fresh and free from blemishes when shopping at the market.
Diversity – The variety of different species or types within a particular environment or ecosystem. – Planting a diversity of apple cultivars can help protect against diseases and pests.
