The only thing that comes to mind, as I have no knowledge of tropical apple production, is how useful would be a research station to test varieties in that climate. Who are you hooked up with on this project?

If varieties with shelf life could be found it would greatly increase the value of the apples. Also, I don't see how apples with resistance to our diseases would likely be resistant to what they'd be up against in the tropics. Not that I'm an expert on this either. Anyway, clearly a research station in the tropics would be more than useful.

I actually have a great deal of data from testing in Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya as well as southeast Asia from about 5 years ago from the IV International Symposium on Growing Temperate Zone Fruits in the Tropics and in the Subtropics published by the International Society for Horticultural Science. I also have sporadic contact with researchers in Uganda, but emails are few and far between (funny to think that Uganda is considered the most stable country in the region).

The study in Nigeria spans from the cool, temperate highlands to the hot tropic lowlands, and foliar bacterial and fungal diseases like sooty mold and fireblight are their main problems. Anna was the top producer but they were just starting to grow Dorsett Golden, and were excited about it for a pollinator for Anna and also in it's own right.

In Nigeria they tested about 100 varieties from the Netherlands, none of which really excited them as they didn't color up well in the heat. They did find however that they were able to match the production of the cooler highlands in the tropic lowlands as long as they could deal with the foliar disease in the more humid climate. The patent on Williams' Pride expired allowing its export, which was prevented in the past. It colors up well despite the heat and stores reasonably well.

I guess you will call the orchards we're starting research stations. Email is amazingly available in even the remote places, and they are able to watch YouTube videos I make showing grafting and other culture methods. I'll be acting as a clearing house for data and information between the growers. The people involved know that this is entirely speculative and 100% loss is not uncommon, but they are willing to take the chance because success could bring great rewards (like staying alive).

Arkansas Black and Black Oxford are keeper candidates, as well as Dixie Red Delight, Mattamuskeet, Terry Winter, Joseph Apple, and any other hard winter keepers that don't need as much refrigeration I can find. Liberty is one I also have high hopes for. Most patented varieties cannot be exported, including Pink Lady and so that limits the disease-resistant varieties for now.

Thanks for your input.

The shipping time on budwood worries me, and I wonder about the survivability of such a trip in the tropic heat. Dormant scionwood for chip budding might make the trip better.
{{gwi:124104}}

Applenut

Applenut,

I'm not an expert on anything, but here are a few things that come to mind. You mention shipping budwood to Africa, will it stay viable, in hot weather, during the 11 day transit time you've outlined? I'm sure you've considered this, but it seems a lot to expect of budwood to me.

With regard to Liberty, some have reservations about it's fruit quality in hotter climates. Also it supposedly has a norrow pick window and is a poor storer, which will be exacerbated without refrigeration. I wonder if an apple that must be harvested and eaten within a tight window would be a good choice for a culture in which food is so scarce.

Way to go applenut. This is great. Using what you have learned to help get something like this started. I have a question for you. What about pears? In particular the hard types like kieffer or even garber may be really usefull if they get any chill hours at all. I know university of Florida released some pears for a more tropical climate also. It seems that some of these may store really well even without refrigeration. Just a thought.

Thanks,
Scape

I am indeed worried about the budwood; I've easily kept it that long in the refrigerator, and transit through Europe will probably be cool, but the last leg is where I worry. Dormant scionwood would have no problem for chip budding. Once planted there the rootstocks never go dormant, and so either way I don't have to worry about green budwood and dormant rootstocks. I'll do some testing of budwood here in our heat to see if it stays viable.

Liberty does well for us here in the heat of Southern California, but we don't have the humidity. It ripens hard, dense, and very sweet, but not a whole lot of color. The disease resistance would be valuable, and it could be used for processing such as drying, vinegar and cider. With no grapes or apples vinegar is hard to come by there.

We've thought about several other tree crops such as almonds, pecans, and persimmons. But for now my expertise is in apples and that's where the demand is; once someone there tries an apple they want more (which I fully understand).

Applenut

Have you contacted the patent holders of Pink Lady? Seems like such a worthy cause you might get a break. Not like they'd be losing a big piece of their market. I'm probably just wasting your time with my input as you seem to have a pretty good handle on what your doing but my wife has taught me that if you go to the top and ask you can often make unexpected things happen.

I'm also sure you've thought of Granny Smith as a possible candidate. Goldrush is another that comes to my mind- is its patent still on?

When people started growing apples in America they didn't find the European varieties nearly adequate and that's why there was such an explosion of new varieties here from colonial times through the 19th century.

I realize that you are seeking rapid results because of the desperataion of the people you're trying to help, but as they grow varieties from elsewhere shouldn't they also be experimenting with seedlings as well, to try to come up with new varieties more suitable for such a different climate?

Applenut, IMHO I would not use seedling rootstocks. They are unpredictable and don't have the drought tolerance and climate adaptability that MM-111 provides. In Santa Cruz county, MM111 is the preferred rootstock because under dry conditions, growth won't shut down. With other rootstocks, adverse weather conditions can shut down growth and it's much harder to get the tree going again.

I have had very poor luck with seedling rootstocks in my poor soil and southwest facing hillside that cooks up to 100F in the Summertime. MM111 will generally overtake a seedling in no time. Antonovka seedlings have been especially terrible for me, they don't take well to dry sandy soil.

Also, a number of local growers have noticed that MM111 seems to lower overall chill requirements for many cultivars. I don't know how this works, and why it does, suffice to say MM111 has proven itself in our milder climate.

If you really need a low chill vigorous rootstock, then you might want to root Northern Spy, this is one of the parents of MM111, and it's quite vigorous, and cuttings will actually root. It should have some similar traits to MM111 except be much more vigorous.

Variety wise, I think Anna and Dorsett Golden are good choices, but I've always been curious about the "truly tropical" apples, e.g. those that require a super long growing season to ripen, and will not ripen well in shorter season climates. The varieties that come to mind are all from the Southern hemisphere, and include Granny Smith, Lady Williams, Sundowner, and perhaps even pink lady, one of the only apples in my backyard that doesn't get sunburned. These varieties seem to not be very sensitive to lack of chill accumulation. I believe Granny Smith even came from Sydney surroundings, where the climate is as mild as coastal Southern California, but with humid Summers. Around here, Granny Smith ripens as yellow table apples in mid January along with Pink lady, followed by Lady Williams in early Febuary, and then Sundowner a bit later. The trees defoliate here just as the apples ripen.

The only drawback of the longer season varieties when grown in the tropics is that you have to get them through the rainy season with fruits on them, not a good prospect when it comes to disease, but maybe some of them are disease resistant. The trouble with Anna and Dorsett golden is that they are disease prone in humid climates, so one would need to breed in resistance into low chill cultivars.

You may want to post to the Cloudforest at www.cloudforest.com/cafe/, there are a bunch of tropical fruit growers there that also grow apples in some of the mildest parts of California, Australia and New Zealand. There are lots of discussions there about low chill apple cultivars.

Not that this is anything that you've asked, but have you thought about seeing if some of your farmers can hook up with KIVA for funding?(it's a micro-lending organization set up to help 3rd world people set up businesses and first-world people find worthy causes to donate to)

Carla in Sac

Applenut,

What a wonderful project to be involved in.

I remember when Anna was first introduced. Before Dorsette Golden was introduced, the companion tree was Ein Shemer. From what I remember, both came out of a breeding program in Israel. Perhaps there are other varieties developed from those same efforts that may be useful to you. I have no idea who or where in Israel so that may take some research.

Another possible source for apple varieties might be the Zaigers. You probably are aware of them. Floyd Zaiger and his family have been breeding fruit for several decades in
Central California. You probably have seen reference to them in connection to Dave Wilson Nurseries, Floyd Zaiger's biggest outlet. When I visited Floyd Zaiger about 30 years ago, he gave me a tour of his facility and showed me some of his efforts. He is best known for his stone fruit developments, such as Plouts, Apriums, and many varieties of Peaches and Nectarines. He is the breeder that developed the low chill cherry varieties of Royal Lee and Minnie Royal. When I visited, he was involved with apples and even some pear / apple crosses. I don't know if he is involved with them today.

Over the years, I think I remember reading that the Zaigers have contributed plant material to those helping fruit production in third world countries, especially material that may not have market viability here, but may have desired characteristics for the climates you need to deal with.

It certainly would not hurt to contact them.

By the way, you know who I am. I contribute in the Dave Wilson Forum as Big Jim.

Thank you all for your responses (keep them coming).

Harvestman; The patent holders for Pink Lady won't even license it in England, and so I don't have much hope for Africa. GoldRush is still under patent. The actual breeders at PRI are very magnanamous and willing to help out however they can to make their cultivars available world wide, but the actual patents are held by the Universities, who are cash-strapped and looking for every penny they can. They have often stepped in the way to make it harder to test without actually purchasing a license.

The reason America was able to develop so many varieties is because of the millions of seedlings planted for cider. I visited a breeder in Israel who plants 60,000 apple seedlings a year in a quest for a new variety; the two samples he showed me weren't all that good, and he was disappointed also. However, when he saw Arkansas Black and Williams Pride, we agreed to import them to Israel. There's been no breeding done at Kibbutz Ein Shemer since Abba Stein came up with his varieties (Anna, Ein Shemer), and Prof. Assaf retired from the Volcani Institute, and so I don't expect anything more to come out of Israel. However, I do have some of their local Arab seedling rootstocks in virus therapy in Beltsville APHIS, but it will take several years for them to clear quarantine.

Axel; a 1987 study in Kenya compared rootstocks under un-irrigated conditions, and M2 and M106 were the most productive, but the seedling rootstocks were catching up in production. We shipped a couple hundred trees on M111 to Rwanda last spring and so we'll see how they'll do. Northern Spy does seem like a good choice also. The problem I'll run into is that these are clonally propagated rootstocks that require stool beds, something that will take a while to establish. Starting rootstocks from seed will allow more propagation. Granny Smith is definately on my list, as here it never goes dormant and still bears like crazy.

Carla; thanks for the lead. Funding however has not been an issue, as what we do is pretty cheap. I can ship 200 trees and grafting supplies in a 34 lb. box that only costs $240 to ship air freight to deepest darkest Africa.

Jim:

Thanks for the tip on the Zaigers. Tom Spellman still doesn't know I'm up to this, but I'm scheduled to meet with him later this fall and maybe there's something he can suggest. My contact in Israel worked with Zaigers and Family Tree a lot however, and there wasn't much he could suggest.

Keep the advice coming!

Applenut

Northern Spy cuttings root easily, so no stool beds needed, right?

As you might know, Brazil now grows grapes (including wine grapes) 10 degrees from the Equator, in the Rio Francisco watershed. They get two crops a year. So this might work.

But one wonders what is wrong with mangoes, pineapples, or papayas, not to mention high value, ridiculously easy to grow fruits such as acai (yes, they need refrigeration). They all grow like weeds in those climates with no real pests, papaya small trees covering ditches and road banks the same way as sumac here. And acai in the Amazon is even worse than papayas in the South.

Also, for strictly local consumption there are several undeveloped Brazilian fruits with potential to become important cash crops, or so said my 900+ pages tome "Brazilian Fruits", before someone forgot to give it back.

Dear Applenut,

I was in Hawaii recently and I had a blast visiting the local farmers markets to purchase fruit. I was surprised to see apples available as well. I am sorry but I cna not remember the varieties. However, ther must be a fruit society you could contact to find out what they are having success with in their tropical climate, both for production of fruit and grafting.

Cheers
Sam

I too find it odd that apples would be a better cash crop than mangoes, but it makes sense at some level if these other crops are super abundant - people always want what they can't get.

You guys hit it on the head; temperate fruits in general such as peaches, apricots, apples, and grapes are in high demand in the tropics where they already have fruit; mangos, bananas, and pineapple. Its just like northern gardeners that bring their dwarf orange tree indoors all winter or build extensive glass houses.

On the other hand, it only seems natural to grow apples where they can be easily grown; this year the mountain apple crop got hit with a late frost and its slim pickins; but down here in the valley I get reliable crops every year.

Applenut