Gala and Braeburn apples breeding like rabbits

[boundtothesoil]

There seems no end in sight to the supermarket dominance of Gala, Braeburn and their descendants, from what I've read in the recent weekly journal entries on 'The English Apple Man's' website:-

The English Apple Man, informing consumers about how the apples they buy*are grown, harvested and marketed

(well worth reading if you're interested in what's going on in the UK's commercial fruit growing sector, plus research developments.)

He mentions two new apple varieties hitting the UK supermarkets, both bred in New Zealand:-

'Envy' (parents: Gala x Braeburn)
'Smitten' (parentage: Gala, Braeburn, Falstaff, Fiesta)

The parentage of many of the other current/modern supermarket varieties is similar:-
Jazz (parents: Gala x Braeburn)
Kanzi (parents: Gala x Braeburn)
Rubens (parents: Gala x Elstar)
Sonya (parents: Gala x Red Delicious)
Cameo (possible Red Delicious seedling)
Zari (parentage involves Elstar and Delbardestivale)
(thanks to orange pippin's site for info on parents of some of the above)

Whilst I appreciate these varieties 'provide the taste demanded by today's consumer ' , the problem for the amateur/garden/allotment grower is that you aren't allowed to grow some of them yourself, because they are commercially-protected. It seems like a bit of a 'Monsanto moment.' I imagine that some of the new varieties will eventually be released to the public and, in their time, will become tomorrow's heritage varieties - but maybe not.

I've just bought a Braeburn tree from Morrison's for £5 - it will be potted up and locked away, kept purely for breeding purposes.

[orangepippin]

An interesting post. However there are good reasons for the dominance of Gala. It has an unusually wide climate range - it will grow well in both hot and cool climates (and by cool I mean southern England). Also, if you step back a generation or two you find the *real* suspects that have cornered the apple world - Cox, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious (no relation). Braeburn is interesting precisely because it is not related to those big 3.

Personally I have no problem with developers being allowed to restrict sales of these trees. It costs a lot of money to develop and market a new apple variety and it is not unreasonable to allow the developer to earn some revenue from it. The copyright period is usually 20 years or so, hardly excessive. One of the major branded apple varieties, Honeycrisp, recently came out of copyright so now anyone can grow it.

Also, I don't think there is much issue with these protected varieties for the UK gardener, since with the exception of Gala, most of them will not ripen in the UK. I also have a Braeburn tree, it ripens in November ... if at all.

There's nothing to stop you planting some of the seeds of these apples and trying to grow your own varieties, and it is also fairly easy to start your own crosses by specifically pollinating one variety from another. I wouldn't necessarily start with Braeburn though if your objective is something that will grow in the UK. Cox is a better starting point ...

[BUFFS]

i find the taste of lots of todays apples very wishy washy,i love the russet apples,so much more flavour and you never see them in the supermarkets,alas....

[orangepippin]

I know old varieties are supposed to taste better than modern ones, but I have to say in my opinion a good Jazz apple can leave many of the old-timers struggling. Some of the less well-known modern varieties like Falstaff, Saturn, Honeycrisp, Meridian are also extremely good - crisp and with fresh balanced flavours.

However it is true there are not many russets around these days, and sometimes nothing else will do! I think Herefordshire Russet is probably the best modern russet ... and Cox is one its parents ...

[boundtothesoil]

Personally I have no problem with developers being allowed to restrict sales of these trees. It costs a lot of money to develop and market a new apple variety and it is not unreasonable to allow the developer to earn some revenue from it. The copyright period is usually 20 years or so, hardly excessive. One of the major branded apple varieties, Honeycrisp, recently came out of copyright so now anyone can grow it.

Yes, thinking about it a little more, I'd agree with you on this.

I'm still quite surprised that Braeburn and Gala are so dominant as parents these days, and so successful. It contrasts a little with the decades of breeding at East Malling focussed (obsessively?) on using Cox's Orange as a parent, which, I imagine, really didn't yield all that much in comparison with the Gala/Braeburn programmes.

[FB.]

Yes, thinking about it a little more, I'd agree with you on this.

I'm still quite surprised that Braeburn and Gala are so dominant as parents these days, and so successful. It contrasts a little with the decades of breeding at East Malling focussed (obsessively?) on using Cox's Orange as a parent, which, I imagine, really didn't yield all that much in comparison with the Gala/Braeburn programmes.

Cox is a grandparent of Gala.
Red Delicious is a grandparent of Gala.
Golden Delicious is a parent of Gala.

Cox x Red Delicious = Kidd's Orange Red

Kidd's Orange Red x Golden Delicious = Gala

Modern apples are becoming terribly inbred. In my experience, they have some disease resistance initially, but it is quickly overrun because there are only so many ways any reisistance genes of the same old tired "ancestor" varieties can be recombined before the diseases have mastered the art of defeating them in whatever combination.

But since growers currently use copious quantities of spray and careful micro-management of the trees, any lack of resilient disease resistance is not a problem.
But one day, should the use of chemicals become more difficult (or the apple diseases evolve resistance - like the MRSA's, VRE's or ESBL's or the fruit world) then the growers of common varieties and their relatives will have a serious problem on their hands.

Rarer types and triploids - especially rare triploids - are far less prone to disease problems, and their resistance is rarely defeated, unlike modern varieties whose resistance often doesn't last more than several years.
Unfortunately triploids do not produce much viable pollen and they don't produce many viable seeds.

[orangepippin]

I don't think triploid varieties would be considered desirable to modern growers. The disease resistance is obviously useful, but the fruit size could be too large (possibly) and the growth habit too vigorous (more likely) to manage.

In fact I can't think off the top of my head of a triploid variety that has been used in the pedigree of a modern apple, although there must surely be some. Of course it is a different issue for the gardener or community orchard, where triploids come into their own.

[boundtothesoil]

In fact I can't think off the top of my head of a triploid variety that has been used in the pedigree of a modern apple, although there must surely be some.

I'd think that somebody must have tried to improve on Bramley's Seedling at some stage, and used it as a parent. But, presumably, they haven't succeeded!

That said, I wonder if there is anyone in the world breeding 'cooking apples' these days. I suppose it's a tiny, UK specific market, but I haven't ever heard of a new cooking variety.

[FB.]

In fact I can't think off the top of my head of a triploid variety that has been used in the pedigree of a modern apple

With 51 chromosomes, a triploid cannot divide them normally.

A normal diploid has 34 chromosomes, which divide into two sets of 17 for pollen and ova. Each parent contributes 17 chromosomes to a seed (occasionally one parent fails to divide its chromosomes, so the seed receives 34+17 = 51 and is triploid).

However, a triploid can split the 51 in a variety of ways, but which mostly won't come close to being the 17 compatible with life - and hence why most of the pollen grains (about 90-95%) from a triploid do not germinate normally, so do not fertilise the flower they land on.

So triploid parents will not produce many viable seeds, which means a breeding programme will take much longer to get enough seedlings for evaluation and trials.
Diploids produce far more viable seeds, which speeds-up the process of breeding.

[FB.]

It is worth noting that many of the old hand-me-downs which were grown spray-free by our ancestors are triploid, while many modern varieties are diploid.

It has been estimated that from diploid parents, about one seed per thousand is triploid. Yet far more than one-in-a-thousand known apple varieties are triploid, so clearly something is selecting them favourably over diploids.
I'd guess that one in ten currently-known varieties is triploid - yet we should only expect one per thousand from random seeds.

[FB.]

It is also worth noting that many varieties known for having an abnormally long lifespan are triploid. Trees don't live long unless they are vigorous and disease resistant.

The original Bramley tree is two hundred years old. Hambledon Deux Ans also had a reputation for living a very long time. As do Gravensteins. The original Ashmead's Kernel tree was cut down for housebuilding, aged 150 years.
Many triploid pears are also considered to be long-lived and tolerant of horrible conditions. Like apples, a surprising proportion of currently-known varieties of pears are triploid.