Midwest Apple Improvement Association Eyes Next Steps

evercrisp-apple-logoEvercrisp is the first release from the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA). This new variety was profiled in American Fruit Grower’s February 2013 issue and is a controlled cross of Honeycrisp and Fuji. The success of this cultivar has surpassed MAIA’s expectations.

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“I thought we were going to spend five years begging people to take a look at this EverCrisp thing and instead it’s just taken off beyond anybody’s expectations,” says MAIA board member, David Doud. The first EverCrisp seedling was planted on Doud’s Countyline Orchard in Wabash, IN.

Wafler Nursery in Wolcott, NY, works directly with MAIA to distribute EverCrisp and create elite and test seedlings. Trees at Wafler Nursery for 2015 are sold out. The nursery is also sold out of dwarfing rootstock for 2016, and therefore out of EverCrisp as well.

“There’s been a big interest and we’ve even taken quite a few orders for 2017 already for EverCrisp,” says Bill Pitts, nursery manager for Wafler Nursery.

Pitts recommends MAIA members interested in planting EverCrisp should get orders in for 2017 soon. There is a great demand for dwarfing rootstocks like Geneva and Bud 9 to use in high-density orchard systems and this complicates the availability of trees, he says.

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“I probably could have sold a lot more EverCrisp. The problem is, I’m running out of rootstocks that people want. They like the combination of these new Geneva rootstocks or B.9, more on a dwarf to go in these tall spindle systems. We are out of rootstock for that. I still have some left for the bigger sizes,” Pitts says. “A good chunk of our nursery is EverCrisp. We have other varieties, because everybody is planting EverCrisp and they need something else with it for pollination. They might order 5,000 EverCrisp but they’ll order 5,000 Galas to go with it.”

For more information about becoming a member of MAIA and planting EverCrisp apples, visit EverCrispapple.com/evercrisp-apples-membership.htm.

“Membership in MAIA is open and anyone may join — it’s not to late to support apple breeding and avail yourself to this material,” says Doud.

Natural Orchard
MAIA has a large planting of seedlings at Dawes Arboretum in Newark, OH, which is virtually a natural orchard. Doud estimates approximately 10,000 to 15,000 controlled crosses are housed at the arboretum. They are maintained, but since there are no apple growers on staff at the arboretum, the spray program and care given was less than that on an orchard.

“We try to keep it mowed. We have not been able to maintain a good spray program in there. For better or for worse, we’re selecting for stuff that is easy to grow. That planting didn’t end up in an apple orchard where somebody can take a sprayer to it. It ended up at an arboretum,” says Doud. “We have been unable to give it a full cultural application of fungicides and insecticides. It looks pretty raggedy, but they still managed to pull a number of advanced selections out of there for propagation last year.”

On The Horizon
MAIA is currently working on several advanced plantings for future releases, although the organization is taking their time to ensure the proper steps are being made before announcing the cultivars in greater detail.

Out of the organization’s first 50,000 seedlings, Doud says there are 150 advanced selections. MAIA uses the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland, OH, as a litmus test for these 150 selections. Each competes head-to-head against apple standards — Honeycrisp, SweeTango, Red and Golden Delicious, Jonathan — to gauge consumers’ preference and interest.

“We’ve been gathering data for several years on what they like and what they’re looking for,” says Doud of MAIA. “That’s been a big part of this — trying to figure out what people want and what we might have that supplies that need.”

Out of those 150 advanced selections, MAIA has targeted five varieties to move forward with based on positive results at the Fabulous Food Show.

“Right now there are five varieties that are being talked about as a group. We are making increases in scion wood (and) have second-generation plantings made. We will not guarantee that all five of those will move forward,” says Doud. “We should have plenty on second-generation fruit of those this coming season, assuming we come through the spring with a crop.”

This year, MAIA will conduct second-generation testing to gather more data and replicated trials. Doud says the advanced selections vary in their retail window and information about these advanced selections will be available to the MAIA membership within the year.

“Some of them will be niche varieties. Some of them have possibilities of being a big deal,” says Doud. “We have some selections that have peak moments that pass relatively quickly — we’re calling them gourmet varieties, more of a niche-type variety,” says Doud. “Hopefully we’ll get good field trials going in people’s orchards on some of them. We’re looking for a grower-member to say ‘My retail is lacking in the third week in September and here’s a variety that fits in that time period, I’d like to take a look at that and order some trees.’”

Aside from the plantings at Dawes Arboretum, Doud says several other orchards have test plots, and breeding continues. MAIA members conducted some evaluations of these plantings, looking for exceptional qualities, with more evaluations to come this season.

“We made crosses last spring. We have seeds we’re growing this year and we have a couple of pretty good-sized seedling plantings,” says Doud. “We’re not just living on crosses that were made 15 years ago. Breeding and evaluation continue and we’re continuing to try to advance the fruit.”

Then, There Was One
Doud says one of those five advanced selections is an apple variety that looks very promising.

“We’ve made the decision that we’re going to gather patent data this coming season,” says Doud.

The patenting process is a very big undertaking, and because of intellectual property rights, he is unable to speak in greater detail about the variety.

“We don’t have a staff horticulturist on the payroll to tend to these details,” says Doud of MAIA. “If we want data on the thing next in line, then I’ve got to go do it or Diane Miller’s [apple geneticist and researcher at Ohio State University] got to go do it. Before we release the next one we are going to have replicated trials and hard data and a lot of second-generation test data.”

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