By Bev Johnson

Master Gardner

Horace Greely wrote “go west” but don’t go to Minnesota because you can’t grow apples there. The University of Minnesota’s apple experts reply is “we’ll see about that!” They introduced their first cold hardy apple, the Minnehaha, in 1920 and since then have had a long list of cold-hardy apple successes. You will recognize many of these names. 

In 1922 they introduced the Harolson, in ‘27 the Centennial Crab, in ‘36 the Beacon, in ‘40 the Prairie Spy, in ‘43 the Connel Red and the Fireside. In ‘49 the Chestnut crab, one of the best tasting crab apples around. In ‘64 there was the Regent, Honeygold and in ‘70 – the Baron. Sweet Sixteen and State Fair in ‘77. ‘78 brought us Keepsake. In ‘91 a real standout – Honeycrisp. Since then, Snow Sweet and Zestar have been introduced. Zestar is a cross between State Fair and Minnesota 1691. Apparently that apple wasn’t good enough to get a real name. 

Even now, in the age of biotechnology, breeding plants by dusting the pollen of one flower onto another by hand is still the best way to develop new apple varieties. Genetic engineering is great and can allow scientists to change one trait at a time. It’s good for developing a disease resistant plant, but apple scientists still don’t know which gene produces crunchiness or which is responsible for tartness, so they still do it the old-fashioned way – pollinating by hand. To do this, they cover the flower with a wax paper bag for a few days before the flower opens – pollinating it before an insect can do it, thus ruining the cross. 

The seeds are collected from the resulting apples when they get ripe. They are then cooled for 3 to 4 months to stimulate winter.  A breeder may make as many as 10,000 crosses to get one good saleable apple. For instance, Zestar popped up in 1986. It took until 1999 to get enough Zestar trees to make them available to the growers. It may take up to seven years for an apple to produce large quantities of apples. 

A tasting panel in the 90’s described Zestar as tangy, tart, sweet and better tasting than Honeycrisp. The University doesn’t develop apple trees just to give us a good apple; they get a royalty for every tree sold. For instance, Honeycrisp earned the U over 4 million in the 90’s, making it the highest revenue producer at that time. They did, however, make a vital mistake with that apple. They didn’t patent it. As a result, any apple can call itself Honeycrisp. This is why, when you buy one, you never know how it will taste. 

The tree itself has proven to be rather short lived; you may get 30 years if you are lucky. Plant one anyway. At least you will have good apples for 25 years. It takes 2 to 5 years for a new tree to start to produce. Most U of M varieties of apple trees are very long-lived if properly pruned and cared for. Since this is a life-long investment, buy your trees from a local nursery. That way you know it has been grown here, is hardy here and will be replaced if it doesn’t live the first year. 

You know what they say about an apple a day.