Comparing apples to apples: how new varieties of apples are developed
Kirsten Wisniewski
Local

Comparing apples to apples: how new varieties of apples are developed

Apples lead as the most consumed fruit in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They report that, on average, Americans consume over 26 pounds of apples and apple products each year. It’s hard to imagine, however, that anyone is eating quite as many apples as Senior Research Fellow for the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center David Bedford. He told WTIP, “In a busy part of the season, I have to taste 500 to 600 apples a day.”

Bedford has been working on developing new varieties of apples for the U of M for the past 45 years. He has worked on some of the most popular varieties created in the Horticulture Research Center, like Honeycrisp, Zestar, and the more recently released SweeTango. He will be giving a presentation on Saturday, Oct. 19 as part of the Apple Festival taking place in Grand Marais. The presentation will start at 7 p.m. and take place at the North House Folk School. Ahead of that event he spoke with WTIP about how he got into apple breeding, and what it takes to create a new variety of the fruit.

The hundreds of apples that Bedford and his team are tasting every day during apple season are the result of testing that involves about 4,000 trees each year. Bedford explained that when apple varieties are crossed in an effort to create a new apple, most of the seeds produced will not result in a top tier apple. He compared it to winning the lottery, but added that starting with 4,000 tickets increases the odds of a win.

Because apple trees need cross pollination from another genetically distinct apple tree in order to produce fruit, all apple seeds produce a unique tree. To propagate more trees of a specific variety, growers use grafting to create more trees. As a result, all of the trees of a single variety of apple are genetically identical. When researchers cross two varieties of apples, they don’t know what the fruit from the resulting trees will be like. Bedford said, “We don’t have all the control that you would with genetically engineering, for example. So we’re making a cross based on having a set of good genes in one parent and a set of good genes in the other, but we really can’t control how those genes fall together, any more than we can control what genes our children get.”

Bedford said that after judging the initial 4,000 new apple trees, the usually chose about 10 to test further, but that even those top 10 might not make the final cut. He said, “We have to throw, on average, about 10,000 trees away to find the one good one. So it’s really the cream of the crop.” The process from initial cross pollination to selection for production can take up to 20 years, and Bedford said that even after that, the public launch can take decade before the variety has caught on. Creating a new apple variety is not a fast process.

Despite ultimately spending a career in apple research, Bedford said that he did not grow up liking apples. He blames the Red Delicious variety for his initial aversion. “I always say, if there was truth in advertising, they really couldn’t use that name, because, well, it is red, I’ll give you that. But it’s not delicious. And so it almost derailed me for a lifetime.” Bedford credits a box of fresh apples from Michigan for changing his mind about the fruit, and when the opportunity to work on apple development at the U of M came up, he took it.

Over four decades later, Bedford is still at it. His team has several new varieties of apple in the works, and his Apple Festival presentation will include a tasting.

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with David Bedford about his work with the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center developing new apple varieties. Audio of the complete interview can be found below.

(note: a shortened version of this interview aired on WTIP’s Daybreak program)

 

A Kudos apple shared with the WTIP staff by David Bedford. He estimates that this variety will be available in grocery stores in about 5 years.