Sundance is quite resistant to PM, Jazz is not. Just need to keep that in mind when planning crosses . We have a few selections from OP seeds of Sweetango apples from Michigan, seedlings fruited rather early, many advanced varieties produce seedlings with shortened juvenile period.
All the best apple varieties are chance found wildings or one off plantings - Yarlington Mill or Bramleys seedling for example. I planted my own seeds from an open pollinated unknown parent tree several years ago, I now have 5 new trees and I'm hoping to get my first crop of apples this year.
Yes I think it can be just as successful as hand pollination as you roll the dice and see a very diverse set of offspring from which you can then figure out what crosses may be worth recreating. I've of my best openly pollinated Rajka seedling turned out to be Rajka x Sunrise, I created a very good quality early season variety completely unintentionally! I probably wouldn't have attempted that cross if I was only raising hand pollinating seedlings, but now I know it may be worth doing again.
Good question, I like Rubinola, a modern Czech variety which has great disease resistance and consistently produces great fruit. Most varieties from the recent 50 years will have decent disease resistance, summer very modern apples claim to be even better but I don't test them to their limits.
I have a small plot of seedlings that I planted 4 years ago. I am hoping for one or two to fruit this year, but probably won't as they are on their own roots. It will be very interesting to see what I get, and if I don't like one, I can always graft it over to something I do like, so winner either way. I just wish I could get some of your varieties here in the US. I was going to suggest looking into Skillcult about apple breeding, but you are ahead of me there :)
Do you mean the new seedling varieties or the parent varieties I use? It's a tricky thing sending scions across the Atlantic through the correct channels, perhaps if there is enough interest I will look into sending scions with all the correct paperwork to a national collection and there may be a period of observation before they are available to the general public. Good luck with your seeds, I'm sure it'll be worth the effort
I would definately grow some of you seedling varieties as well as many of the parent varieties you use. I don't have the biggest orchard, but I have been grafting multiple varieties to each tree to get as many varieties as I can. Your new varieties look very interesting and so many of the parent varieties are things I havn't seen before. We have some of the english apples, and I know that some don't grow well in some of the climates over here, but there are so many that look like things I would try if they were available.
I'm sure most of the parents I use or varieties I mention will be available somewhere in the States, you might need to use the website orange pippin to locate people with the varieties and contact them. Good luck.
I love your content man. I know life and running a business require a lot of time, but I really hope to see a more consistent schedule through the years.
I did have some Bramley seeds two years ago but I don't think they grew, not sure it's as easy. Yeah 2030 will be a fruity year! I've got things that will come a few years before that so I'll be sampling seedlings for the next decade until I go mad.
