Promising Fruits, Revisiting 3 New Seedling Apple Varieties!

[@abcabc39]

We gotta get this guy $4 million dollar endowment to keep going with this important work! Just putting that out there

[@SkillCult]

Yeah, that would about do it :)

[@KevinsDisobedience]

Agreed! I don’t have any rich friends that could be patrons, but maybe somebody with a bigger platform could get Stephen some serious attention. Anyone have any other ideas?

[@SkillCult]

@@KevinsDisobedience I also have to solve my health/energy problems before I can put funds to good use. That's why I don't push for more money in the past.

[@SkillCult]

@@KevinsDisobedience Not that I won't take it if it happens ;)

[@nineallday000]

@@SkillCult There might be a correlation between the two though? I know a lot of my energy issues stem from a feeling of financial hopelessness in the face of the brutal financial difficulties of running a farm-stead.

[@tomharner83]

You got a Patreon? The work you do on these apples is worthy of getting patrons to support it.

[@SkillCult]

yes, I do. I don't really push it much, but it's the thing that has kept me going this long. I always put a link at the end of videos and in the description.

[@MysticDonBlair]

I would love to try growing these here in Cappadocia, Turkey 🇹🇷

[@darnellbrawner3659]

I've loved your content for yrs I'm planning a 20 deer hide tanning as soon as the season ends. Apple don't do well where i live (hot humid deep south) but i applied the cooking down apple juice to fresh pears that grow here and it turned out amazing. Thank you for propagating all of your knowledge.

[@SkillCult]

Good luck with those hides. that's a project for sure.

[@mihacurk]

Nice apples! Keep it up Steven!

[@TJHutchExotics]

Now I’m craving a really good apple

[@ciarfah]

Maybe something with "sunset" in the name for William's Pride x Vixen 15-10. Amber Sunset? Glad you've gotten something out of your 'cherries and berries' crosses. I was worried maybe the cherry genetics and the berry genetics might conflict, but that they're both there is promising

[@SkillCult]

I already went with Amberwine, which covers two important characteristics of the apple and sounds very edible. I would eat it :) I think the cherry/berry genetics will play great together and we are going to get some amazing results if we keep pursuing that line of breeding. Sweet 16 x this cherry apple is an obvious one. Still hoping to find more cherry flavored apples. I also have sweet 16 crosses coming on now and a lot more that I've made in recent years that will fruit eventually, including RF crosses with swt16. So I'm getting a foundation for everyone to work off of.

[@projectmalus]

My first thought was "Lioness" 'cause of the Pride and colour and female vixen, maybe good name for a more yellow one. Amberwine sounds good tho!

[@kingdavidapple]

Your description of chewiness/residual pulp of Wm's Pride x Vixen 2015 #10 made wonder if you have ever eaten Hunt Russet fresh. I find Hunt grown in Spokane, WA full of substance - a lot to chew. I do it gladly since it ripens here to 18 & 19 Brix without seeming very sweet, has tangerine & rose petal flavors/finish some years & any year is a delight. My tree survived some of my mistakes in husbandry & is still too small to allow a crop. Every sample makes me wonder if I should try breeding with it.

[@SkillCult]

I have something labelled hunt russet, but I'm not sure if it really is. I've never been impressed with it, whatever it is. I think I grafted another scion of it, so I'll see if it's any different or better. I get rose flavor in some of my red fleshed apples. It's in Cherub this year.

[@kingdavidapple]

@@SkillCult Your experience with William's Pride is fascinating. Here is it bland - down there with Connell Red & Wynoochee Early - & shot through with water core; also sunburnt. My Hunt came on P2, which was immediately evident to be a mistake. I have since re-planted it deeply, while nearly destroying the roots & compounded the problem by putting briquet ash around it for mineral content! Nearly poisoned it, it is recovering. A tough tree to put up with my bungling.

[@MountainMistGenetics]

Call the grenadine x Cherry cox one Shirley Temple lol

[@SkillCult]

That was actually one of the runner up names for my apple Cherub! I'm just waiting for another one to use that name lol. But it will be for a small red fleshed crab.

[@ordanjbest]

Love your apple series. Question - For things like colour, size, texture, flavour, levels of sugar/acid/tannins etc., how wide of a variation do you typically find between seedlings crossed from the same parents? Like is it a relatively narrow band for most of those attributes, or can it be very wide? Does the level of possible variation depend on the parents? Thanks!

[@SkillCult]

it can be a very big difference, but there are often trends. You an usually see obvious traits from both parents. A lot of my apples are grenadine seedlings, like this cherry apple and you will often see one or more of red flesh, large speckles on the skin or a blocky, roman nose kind of outline. This has two of those things. It also has the cherry and anise flavors of Cherry Cox and some of the same red striping. But I could also get a tiny yellow apple with none of those traits. But it's not normally as wide as common mythology about apples from seed would claim. I'm not sure about some parents providing more variability, but I think it's likely. There are apples that are claimed to grow true to seed.

[@ordanjbest]

@@SkillCult Interesting. Very useful. Curious about ripening timeline (early vs late season etc). Does that generally follow the timeline of the parents or also pretty variable across seedlings?

[@SkillCult]

@@ordanjbest Parents have a strong effect on ripening season. It's not set in stone, but the general correlation is obvious. That's why I've done a lot of crosses between multiple late hanging apples.

[@stantheman5163]

Too bad you can't take that awesome slate roof with you. That was a lot of time and energy spent. My wife's aunt and uncle just sold their homestead in your area due to old age and the fire issue. Ended up in a lakefront home in Wisconsin near their daughter who married a rich doctor. Must be nice as a fallback position. Now they have to endure the winter there though.

[@SkillCult]

I was looking at Kentucky, but it gets below zero and I'd have to ditch a lot of projects. it's very expensive here. There are deals that happen, but I would really like some quality land, better than this if possible, with real soil and lots of water.

[@stantheman5163]

@@SkillCult Check out East Texas. Real soil (though amendments are recommended) and lots of rain, but the summers can get brutal. Long growing season though. My kids live in Texas so I have been through there a few times. I also follow PeteB who has a homestead there and he has a few videos on his fruit orchard and greenhouse. His crops got rained out this year due to the weird storm they had at Summer's end so there's that.

[@ethicalaxe]

@@SkillCult I was very sad to hear about your move but this makes me excited. Skillcult in hardwoods would be amazing. You could do so much.

[@SkillCult]

@@stantheman5163 There are problems everywhere. Here it's earthquakes, taxes and fires. but I have projects that require a mild climate that I'd rather not give up. plus a lifetime of learning and bonding with these ecologies and species. That can't be replaced and I'd be homesick for sure.

[@dougatfuto5]

@@SkillCult I've often wondered why you don't have a few nursery beds full of trees for sale, you have the right audience. Would seem to go along well apple breeding. Your channel inspired me to start a nursery.

[@michaelallison2836]

Do you sell your trees? Where could I buy some?

[@SkillCult]

I'll have some trees for sale this year for the first time. Most of them are very rare and will go on auction along with cuttings for grafting. They are very new, so I have limited wood to propagate. If you follow my blog, instagram, facebook, or watch here, I'll announce them in the late winter.

[@johnlord8337]

When you talk of the grainy texture of the apple - is this like my dislike of eating pears - as they have that grainy texture near the core - is this the same style of texture you mention ?

[@SkillCult]

No, it's more like large cells. they can still be juicy, even crunchy or crisp sometimes, but the overall presentation is of large cells vs, a very small fine grain. the pear thing is some kind of hard stuff in there if that is what you are talking about. I've never seen that in an apple.

[@loganosmolinski4446]

Look into trying other pear types. Bartlett pear is the mealy ones. I like bosc pears.

[@dallinbagley4486]

Pears are full of Sclereids which is a denser, harder form of fiber that will form the grains that result in the texture you dislike in pears. Too bad because it’s a great source of fiber!!

[@saltriverorchards4190]

I don’t understand most people’s obsession with apples that are hard enough to damage your teeth. I’ve always preferred apple varieties that are easier to eat. I enjoy apple textures such as Golden delicious and McIntosh. Pink lady is quite tasty so I put up with the texture but I don’t like it really.

[@HASHHASSIN]

*FUCKIN SLAYERRR*

[@666Necropsy]

[@loganosmolinski4446]

Booop

[@christopherskipp1525]

So it doesn't have a name yet? I suppose you cannot buy these as trees?

[@SkillCult]

I will probably have scions of both of these for grafting this year, I have quite a few of the cherry apple, but less of the Amberwine apple. I'm not sure about trees, probably not for a few years if at all. but other people might propagate them and have trees. I'll be getting scions to some nursery people and scionwood producers.

[@Mer-fm5yv]

@@SkillCult Great to hear! Hope you've reached out to Fruitwood, I saw they're propagating BITE ME! and have scions for sale.

[@SkillCult]

@@Mer-fm5yv Yeah, I know them actually. I'll try to get Mark everything to test and distribute.