The Fruit Blog
A discussion (if any one comes along to discuss with, otherwise it's more of a monologue) of fruit and fruit breeding.Evil Fruit Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04418359967016333855noreply@blogger.comBlogger278125
Updated: 3 hours 47 min ago
'Ohio Everbearing' black raspberry
When I first heard about the 'Explorer' primocane-fruiting black raspberry, I was convinced it was the first such variety. As it turned out, I was wrong, as numerous such cultivars existed by the turn of the century, although very few ever achieved any importance.
An exception to this, however, is the very first primocane-fruiting black raspberry, 'Ohio Everbearing'. Although not a major commercial success, this variety remains significant as one of the very first cultivated American selections of Rubus, and probably the first named black cap (given the abundance of wild black raspberries, it probably took an unusual trait such as fall-fruiting to warrant a name and cultivation).
'Ohio Everbearing' was discovered in the wild by Nicholas Longworth. Longworth was a self-made millionaire banker from Cincinnati, which in 1804 when he moved there was almost the western frontier. Although his family remained important in local and U.S. politics, and he left an estate worth $10 million when he died in 1863, Longworth's most lasting legacy is as a horticulturist. Often called "The Father of American Viticulture" (a title sometimes applied to his correspondent, John Adlum), Longworth was an avid collector and disseminator of fruit varieties. He championed first the 'Alexander' and then the 'Catawba' grapes and introduced at least one strawberry of his own creation.
Everbearing Black Caps listed in Fred Card's
Bush Fruits (1920)
American Everbearing
Cottier Everbearing
[Grigg's] Daily Bearing
Earhart
Everlasting
Every Day
Fadely
General Negley
Hixon's Everbearer
Kagy Everbearing
King of Cliff's
Lum's Autumn Black Raspberry
Miller's Daily Bearing
Munson's Everbearing
Mystery
Ransom's Everbearing
Sweet Home
Wonder
Longworth found the original 'Ohio Everbearing' somewhere in central Ohio, where he had retreated in the fall of 1832 to escape cholera outbreaks in Cincinnati. Despite it being September or October, he "found a raspberry in full bearing, a native of our state, the only everbearing raspberry I have ever met with. I introduced it the same winter into my garden, and it is now cultivated by me in preference to all others, and my table is supplied from the beginning of June to frost." Although the variety struggled somewhat on the gravelly soils of his fields, it performed better on clay soils, and Longworth was convinced it might have a future, especially in England. He sent plants there, as did A.J. Downing, though it seems have had little impact there. The legendary Dr. Hogg did note its existence in England as late as 1884, when it was probably gone in the U.S. (Incidentally, in my hypothetical strawberry-themed band, my stage name was going to be "Dr. Hogg").
Longworth was among the foremost horticultural authorities of his day, and an everbearing variety of raspberry would seem to be a major development, so it seems like it should have caught on, but while he and a few others cultivated it commercially, it never seems to have. Black caps, in general, have never attained commercial prominence, perhaps because they were foreign to European tastes, and thus unable to compete with the more familiar red raspberries. Many other everbearers, such as 'Grigg's Daily Bearing', 'Miller's Daily Bearing', and 'Lum's Autumn Black' were selected from its seedlings. (Indeed, I rather suspect most, if not all, of those everbearing black raspberries that appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century may claim it as an ancestor. Most of these seem to originate in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, or Illinois, the areas nearest the discovery and commercialization of Longworth's variety).
An exception to this, however, is the very first primocane-fruiting black raspberry, 'Ohio Everbearing'. Although not a major commercial success, this variety remains significant as one of the very first cultivated American selections of Rubus, and probably the first named black cap (given the abundance of wild black raspberries, it probably took an unusual trait such as fall-fruiting to warrant a name and cultivation).
'Ohio Everbearing' was discovered in the wild by Nicholas Longworth. Longworth was a self-made millionaire banker from Cincinnati, which in 1804 when he moved there was almost the western frontier. Although his family remained important in local and U.S. politics, and he left an estate worth $10 million when he died in 1863, Longworth's most lasting legacy is as a horticulturist. Often called "The Father of American Viticulture" (a title sometimes applied to his correspondent, John Adlum), Longworth was an avid collector and disseminator of fruit varieties. He championed first the 'Alexander' and then the 'Catawba' grapes and introduced at least one strawberry of his own creation.
Everbearing Black Caps listed in Fred Card's
Bush Fruits (1920)
American Everbearing
Cottier Everbearing
[Grigg's] Daily Bearing
Earhart
Everlasting
Every Day
Fadely
General Negley
Hixon's Everbearer
Kagy Everbearing
King of Cliff's
Lum's Autumn Black Raspberry
Miller's Daily Bearing
Munson's Everbearing
Mystery
Ransom's Everbearing
Sweet Home
Wonder
Longworth found the original 'Ohio Everbearing' somewhere in central Ohio, where he had retreated in the fall of 1832 to escape cholera outbreaks in Cincinnati. Despite it being September or October, he "found a raspberry in full bearing, a native of our state, the only everbearing raspberry I have ever met with. I introduced it the same winter into my garden, and it is now cultivated by me in preference to all others, and my table is supplied from the beginning of June to frost." Although the variety struggled somewhat on the gravelly soils of his fields, it performed better on clay soils, and Longworth was convinced it might have a future, especially in England. He sent plants there, as did A.J. Downing, though it seems have had little impact there. The legendary Dr. Hogg did note its existence in England as late as 1884, when it was probably gone in the U.S. (Incidentally, in my hypothetical strawberry-themed band, my stage name was going to be "Dr. Hogg").
Longworth was among the foremost horticultural authorities of his day, and an everbearing variety of raspberry would seem to be a major development, so it seems like it should have caught on, but while he and a few others cultivated it commercially, it never seems to have. Black caps, in general, have never attained commercial prominence, perhaps because they were foreign to European tastes, and thus unable to compete with the more familiar red raspberries. Many other everbearers, such as 'Grigg's Daily Bearing', 'Miller's Daily Bearing', and 'Lum's Autumn Black' were selected from its seedlings. (Indeed, I rather suspect most, if not all, of those everbearing black raspberries that appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century may claim it as an ancestor. Most of these seem to originate in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, or Illinois, the areas nearest the discovery and commercialization of Longworth's variety).
Categories: Friends
And while we're talking about obscure fruits with Z's in their names...
I recently came across this fairly thorough discussion of Syzygium species from the Philippines on the blog Market Manila, with the common names "makopa" and "tambis". The discussion features a number of photos and spans three posts:
Tambis / Makopa / Curacao or Malay Apple
The Tambis (Syzygium Aqueum) Chronicles, Take II…
Tambis & Makopa Side By Side…
I don't really know much about the Myrtaceae. I was reminded of these posts because Syzygium sounded kind of like Ziziphus, and had it in my head that the two fruits looked kind of alike (although not so much, now that I look at them again). I thought maybe they were related, but no, not remotely--they're not even in the same order.
Tambis / Makopa / Curacao or Malay Apple
The Tambis (Syzygium Aqueum) Chronicles, Take II…
Tambis & Makopa Side By Side…
I don't really know much about the Myrtaceae. I was reminded of these posts because Syzygium sounded kind of like Ziziphus, and had it in my head that the two fruits looked kind of alike (although not so much, now that I look at them again). I thought maybe they were related, but no, not remotely--they're not even in the same order.
Categories: Friends
Jujube jujube?
I just came across an interesting tidbit on the nomenclature of the cultivated jujube (mostly on an obscure corner of the internet called Wikipedia...)
Ever since I learned the jujubes were actual fruit and not just a type of candy, I've been using Ziziphus jujube as the Latin name (now, granted, it's not like the Latin binomial for jujube comes up in my daily conversation that much). Well, apparently I'm a little bit behind the times, because the name seems to have been Ziziphus zizyphus since 1882.
I personally am so easily amused that this alone would be adequate to entertain me, but the story of how it wound up with that name is kind of interesting as well. In general, tautonyms (those in which the genus and species names are identical), while permitted in zoological nomenclature (hence Gorilla gorilla and Iguana iguana) are no good in botanical names. However, this one skated by on a technicality.
It was Mr. Taxonomy himself, Carolus Linnaeus, who gave the species its first modern binomial, Rhamnus zizyphus, placing it in the same genus as the buckthorns. However, in 1768 Philip Miller (a late and reluctant adopter of Linneaus' binomial system) decided it was sufficiently different to merit a separate genus, and gave it the name Ziziphus jujube. Why he changed it from a 'y' to an 'i' is unclear--it might well have been a typographical error. However, the arcane rules of taxonomy dictated that because Ziziphus and zizyphus were the first validly published and described names, and were not actually in violation of the tautonym rule thanks to the spelling difference, and thus the appropriate name, so in 1882 the name was changed to Ziziphus zizyphus.
And yes, I realize I'm probably one of about three people who found that interesting.
Ever since I learned the jujubes were actual fruit and not just a type of candy, I've been using Ziziphus jujube as the Latin name (now, granted, it's not like the Latin binomial for jujube comes up in my daily conversation that much). Well, apparently I'm a little bit behind the times, because the name seems to have been Ziziphus zizyphus since 1882.
I personally am so easily amused that this alone would be adequate to entertain me, but the story of how it wound up with that name is kind of interesting as well. In general, tautonyms (those in which the genus and species names are identical), while permitted in zoological nomenclature (hence Gorilla gorilla and Iguana iguana) are no good in botanical names. However, this one skated by on a technicality.
It was Mr. Taxonomy himself, Carolus Linnaeus, who gave the species its first modern binomial, Rhamnus zizyphus, placing it in the same genus as the buckthorns. However, in 1768 Philip Miller (a late and reluctant adopter of Linneaus' binomial system) decided it was sufficiently different to merit a separate genus, and gave it the name Ziziphus jujube. Why he changed it from a 'y' to an 'i' is unclear--it might well have been a typographical error. However, the arcane rules of taxonomy dictated that because Ziziphus and zizyphus were the first validly published and described names, and were not actually in violation of the tautonym rule thanks to the spelling difference, and thus the appropriate name, so in 1882 the name was changed to Ziziphus zizyphus.
And yes, I realize I'm probably one of about three people who found that interesting.
Categories: Friends
Kid's version of the Endicott pear story...
Not real fancy, but still kind of nice. I can appreciate any attempt to get kids interested in horticulture. It held my two-year-old's attention for nearly a minute, which is about 45 seconds longer than almost anything else I've tried this afternoon.
A Tree Grows in Danvers (USDA-ARS)
A Tree Grows in Danvers (USDA-ARS)
Categories: Friends
Primocane-fruiting black raspberries, revisited
I was pleased to find a note in my e-mail this morning from Pete Tallman, developer of the 'Explorer' black raspberry. I mentioned 'Explorer' two years ago (have I really been at this that long?) as an exciting development in a crop in which very little breeding has been done (and, frankly, very little breed success obtained).
Unfortunately, 'Explorer' has not really been a success. I've seen it twice, both times under tunnels: once in Pennsylvania, where it had virtually no fruit and a powdery mildew problem, and another time in upstate New York, where the plants looked healthier but fruit set was still poor, though better. I was rather disappointed, as I'd been pretty excited about the thing.
Tallman's message today explains a big part of the problem: 'Explorer' is not self-fertile. Apparently his field featured things that flowered and provided adequate pollen at the right time, so the problem was never evident under his conditions. This fits with what I saw: the tunnel at Penn State where I saw it had, if I recall, only one other variety in it, while the one in NY, where it had at least some fruit, had several.
While unfortunate, this isn't entirely shocking, as self-incompatibility is fairly common among wild, diploid Rubus, and 'Explorer' is not far removed from the wild source of the primocane-fruiting trait that Tallman discovered. (Not surprisingly, the trait hasn't persisted very long in most commercial types).
Anyway, all is not lost. Tallman has selected another primocane-fruiting black raspberry, dubbed PT-2A4, which does pass the self-compatibility test, and has other desirable traits compared to 'Explorer'. As he describes it:
"Compared to Explorer, the PT-2A4 berries are larger, higher drupelet count, and smaller seeds. PT-2A4 holds my all-time record for a single primocane black raspberry at 3.82 grams. Admittedly, that's a max berry, not an average, but I gotta track something, and average isn't awfuly interesting. Maybe with a little fertilizer this year I could break 4 grams. Unfortuantely, PT-2A4 hasn't captured the reduced thorniness of Explorer, so there remains further breeding down the road to see if I can tie that trait back in again."
He also included a link to his website, which includes a page for PT-2A4.
Unfortunately, 'Explorer' has not really been a success. I've seen it twice, both times under tunnels: once in Pennsylvania, where it had virtually no fruit and a powdery mildew problem, and another time in upstate New York, where the plants looked healthier but fruit set was still poor, though better. I was rather disappointed, as I'd been pretty excited about the thing.
Tallman's message today explains a big part of the problem: 'Explorer' is not self-fertile. Apparently his field featured things that flowered and provided adequate pollen at the right time, so the problem was never evident under his conditions. This fits with what I saw: the tunnel at Penn State where I saw it had, if I recall, only one other variety in it, while the one in NY, where it had at least some fruit, had several.
While unfortunate, this isn't entirely shocking, as self-incompatibility is fairly common among wild, diploid Rubus, and 'Explorer' is not far removed from the wild source of the primocane-fruiting trait that Tallman discovered. (Not surprisingly, the trait hasn't persisted very long in most commercial types).
Anyway, all is not lost. Tallman has selected another primocane-fruiting black raspberry, dubbed PT-2A4, which does pass the self-compatibility test, and has other desirable traits compared to 'Explorer'. As he describes it:
"Compared to Explorer, the PT-2A4 berries are larger, higher drupelet count, and smaller seeds. PT-2A4 holds my all-time record for a single primocane black raspberry at 3.82 grams. Admittedly, that's a max berry, not an average, but I gotta track something, and average isn't awfuly interesting. Maybe with a little fertilizer this year I could break 4 grams. Unfortuantely, PT-2A4 hasn't captured the reduced thorniness of Explorer, so there remains further breeding down the road to see if I can tie that trait back in again."
He also included a link to his website, which includes a page for PT-2A4.
Categories: Friends
New grape rootstocks from the University of California
Five new rootstocks from Andy Walker's breeding program at UC-Davis (cleverly named GRN-1 through 5):
New nematode resistant rootstocks for 2008 (Western Farm Press)
I was particularly pleased to see that GRN-1 is a hybrid of bunch grape and muscadine. Despite lots of talk about Euvitis/Muscadinia hybrids, there really haven't been many releases (I can only think of this and 'Southern Home', as well as maybe a few germplasm releases).
I don't know nearly as much about grape rootstock breeding as I do about the above ground part, but I always enjoy seeing how much wild material is used, and the completely different selection of species they're dealing with: V. champinii, rufotomentosa, monticola, rotundifolia, rupestris, and berlandieri, just in these five releases. Some of these (especially the first three) rarely if ever occur in the pedigrees of fruiting vines.
New nematode resistant rootstocks for 2008 (Western Farm Press)
I was particularly pleased to see that GRN-1 is a hybrid of bunch grape and muscadine. Despite lots of talk about Euvitis/Muscadinia hybrids, there really haven't been many releases (I can only think of this and 'Southern Home', as well as maybe a few germplasm releases).
I don't know nearly as much about grape rootstock breeding as I do about the above ground part, but I always enjoy seeing how much wild material is used, and the completely different selection of species they're dealing with: V. champinii, rufotomentosa, monticola, rotundifolia, rupestris, and berlandieri, just in these five releases. Some of these (especially the first three) rarely if ever occur in the pedigrees of fruiting vines.
Categories: Friends
A new year and a new look for the Fruit Blog
Well, I know I've been a bit scarce lately...between the holidays and everything else my mind's just been elsewhere. But I made a sort of New Year's resolution to keep this thing going, so I sat down to write a new post...
...and instead I re-did the blog template. Hopefully everyone likes it. I don't really know HTML that well, and there are still lingering issues (expect tinkering here and there for a while). There wasn't really a grand vision or anything--I just started screwing around with things.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the second sidebar. I decided to do this because to put everything in the one sidebar meant that useful things frequently got buried way, way down at the bottom. I may have somewhat reduced the impact of this by interspersing the fruit watercolors (from the USDA collection), but I thought they looked cool, and they kind fixed my problem with the grey not going down to the very bottom of the page like I wanted. I know things are a little more cluttered now...but hopefully not unreadably so.
Probably the biggest addition is the "Books" section in the sidebar. These are books about fruit and breeding that I've found interesting over the years (I don't actually own all of them, but I do most, and I've at least looked at all of them). The titles link to their respective Amazon pages (although some are out of print, and so your only hope is going to be a used copy). In the interest of full disclosure: I am a part of the Amazon Associates program, and get a cut (a very small cut) of anything you buy through these links. I have mixed feelings about this, since I didn't create this blog with the intention of making money (and what a fool I'd have been if I had!). But I do have a few costs here and there (domain name registration, for example) and a couple of bucks would provide me a little more incentive to keep things going around here when things get slow. I've been approached several times about placing ads on the site, but I've always turned them down. This way I keep control of what gets advertised, and hopefully people find some interesting or useful books. (It's kind of a pain to set up the links, so I have to admit I didn't put a ton of care into their organization or selection. I'll keep adding and arranging this section over time. If you have any suggestions you'd like added, let me know).
Anyway, hope everyone had a happy holidays, and hopefully you'll be seeing a little more of me. Please let me know if the new layout has screwed something up for you, or if you hate it or would like to see other enhancements.
Update: I've checked the new template in Safari, two versions of Firefox, and Flock. I'll check it in Chrome and Explorer when I get to work on Monday, but frankly I don't hold out a lot of hope for Explorer...the site's always looked kind of crappy on it, and I doubt this made it any better.
...and instead I re-did the blog template. Hopefully everyone likes it. I don't really know HTML that well, and there are still lingering issues (expect tinkering here and there for a while). There wasn't really a grand vision or anything--I just started screwing around with things.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the second sidebar. I decided to do this because to put everything in the one sidebar meant that useful things frequently got buried way, way down at the bottom. I may have somewhat reduced the impact of this by interspersing the fruit watercolors (from the USDA collection), but I thought they looked cool, and they kind fixed my problem with the grey not going down to the very bottom of the page like I wanted. I know things are a little more cluttered now...but hopefully not unreadably so.
Probably the biggest addition is the "Books" section in the sidebar. These are books about fruit and breeding that I've found interesting over the years (I don't actually own all of them, but I do most, and I've at least looked at all of them). The titles link to their respective Amazon pages (although some are out of print, and so your only hope is going to be a used copy). In the interest of full disclosure: I am a part of the Amazon Associates program, and get a cut (a very small cut) of anything you buy through these links. I have mixed feelings about this, since I didn't create this blog with the intention of making money (and what a fool I'd have been if I had!). But I do have a few costs here and there (domain name registration, for example) and a couple of bucks would provide me a little more incentive to keep things going around here when things get slow. I've been approached several times about placing ads on the site, but I've always turned them down. This way I keep control of what gets advertised, and hopefully people find some interesting or useful books. (It's kind of a pain to set up the links, so I have to admit I didn't put a ton of care into their organization or selection. I'll keep adding and arranging this section over time. If you have any suggestions you'd like added, let me know).
Anyway, hope everyone had a happy holidays, and hopefully you'll be seeing a little more of me. Please let me know if the new layout has screwed something up for you, or if you hate it or would like to see other enhancements.
Update: I've checked the new template in Safari, two versions of Firefox, and Flock. I'll check it in Chrome and Explorer when I get to work on Monday, but frankly I don't hold out a lot of hope for Explorer...the site's always looked kind of crappy on it, and I doubt this made it any better.
Categories: Friends
Rumors of the bananas' death have been greatly exaggerated?
Found this today thanks to the wonder of Google News:
Banana Shortage? Nothing to Worry About (Medicine Hat News)
This of course misunderstands (or maybe just ignores) the biggest threat posed by banana diseases. Pesticides and cultural practices can probably preserve banana production for those of us in developed countries, where a few cents difference in price doesn't even register. But bananas are also a staple crop for millions of people, many of whom are already in a very precarious position. Even a slight decrease in yield could mean going hungry, or it could also mean the elimination of the what little surplus they had to barter or sell to buy other supplies, pay for schooling or medicine, etc.
(Sorry I haven't been around--just been distracted.)
Banana Shortage? Nothing to Worry About (Medicine Hat News)
This of course misunderstands (or maybe just ignores) the biggest threat posed by banana diseases. Pesticides and cultural practices can probably preserve banana production for those of us in developed countries, where a few cents difference in price doesn't even register. But bananas are also a staple crop for millions of people, many of whom are already in a very precarious position. Even a slight decrease in yield could mean going hungry, or it could also mean the elimination of the what little surplus they had to barter or sell to buy other supplies, pay for schooling or medicine, etc.
(Sorry I haven't been around--just been distracted.)
Categories: Friends
Journal of Genetics
I just discovered that just about every article ever in the Journal of Genetics is available online! (I say "just about", because they appear to have missed a couple). The Journal of Genetics was the site of some of the great early articles in fruit genetics, and by virtue of being so darn old, people rarely seem to have copies of them floating around, so the fact that they are now just a click away is pretty darn cool.
I was also interested to note that the Journal of Genetics followed editor J.B.S. Haldane (yes, that Haldane) to India when he moved there in 1957--so the journal is currently published by the Indian Academy of Sciences.
Anyway, as an example of the goodies lurking in depths of the Journal of Genetics, I present one of my favorite series of papers, by C.W. Richardson. They're favorites for two reasons. First, they were some of the first attempts at serious genetics in strawberries, a crop that is near and dear to my heart. But second, and frankly more importantly, they have some of the least informative titles ever. I always hate when I have to cite them, because I always have to actually pull out the papers and look through them, because its impossible to remember which facts go with which...
A Preliminary Note on the Genetics of Fragaria (1914)
A Further Note on the Genetics of Fragaria (1918)
Some Notes on Fragaria (1920)
Notes on Fragaria (1923)*
* This last one, unfortunately, is one of the ones they seem to have missed scanning--there's a link, but no PDF.
Update: A friend of mine found the missing paper! It's been accidentally included at the end of the previous article! (Just scroll down...)
I was also interested to note that the Journal of Genetics followed editor J.B.S. Haldane (yes, that Haldane) to India when he moved there in 1957--so the journal is currently published by the Indian Academy of Sciences.
Anyway, as an example of the goodies lurking in depths of the Journal of Genetics, I present one of my favorite series of papers, by C.W. Richardson. They're favorites for two reasons. First, they were some of the first attempts at serious genetics in strawberries, a crop that is near and dear to my heart. But second, and frankly more importantly, they have some of the least informative titles ever. I always hate when I have to cite them, because I always have to actually pull out the papers and look through them, because its impossible to remember which facts go with which...
A Preliminary Note on the Genetics of Fragaria (1914)
A Further Note on the Genetics of Fragaria (1918)
Some Notes on Fragaria (1920)
Notes on Fragaria (1923)*
* This last one, unfortunately, is one of the ones they seem to have missed scanning--there's a link, but no PDF.
Update: A friend of mine found the missing paper! It's been accidentally included at the end of the previous article! (Just scroll down...)
Categories: Friends
Winter Banana
I just had my first 'Winter Banana' apple (and am about halfway through my second), from a local ranch just up the road from where I work. It's really good! I worried a little bit about an apple with "winter" in the name--I thought maybe it suggested an apple selected for its storage potential, not flavor. But the concern was unwarranted. The flesh was fine-grained and crisp but gave easily. The flavor was sweet and mild, and the mild aroma, while not to me particularly reminiscent of banana, was unusual and distinct, though not intrusive.
Plus, it's a beautiful apple. Medium-size, glossy, green with a striking red blush covering maybe a third of the surface. Apparently it was once a fruit-basket favorite because of its good looks. I bought three of them, so I've saved one and maybe I'll take a picture of it for you.
Plus, it's a beautiful apple. Medium-size, glossy, green with a striking red blush covering maybe a third of the surface. Apparently it was once a fruit-basket favorite because of its good looks. I bought three of them, so I've saved one and maybe I'll take a picture of it for you.
Categories: Friends
Beach Apples
I've seen a handful of stunted twisted apples near beaches over the years, but never anything with fruit that could rival the Aldeburgh beach apple:
An Apple at the Sea Side (Joan Morgan's Fruit Forum)
An Apple at the Sea Side (Joan Morgan's Fruit Forum)
Categories: Friends
The Vaviblog
There's not too much there yet, but I'd link to just for the name alone:
Vaviblog
Basically a blog in the voice of Nikolai Vavilov (in case it wasn't obvious from the name.)
Vaviblog
Basically a blog in the voice of Nikolai Vavilov (in case it wasn't obvious from the name.)
Categories: Friends
Now maybe we know why they were keeping the name a secret...
Maybe it's because it's kind of stupid: The new University of Minnesota apple release is named 'SweeTango'.
An Apple Is Born (Epicurious)
Plus: We've entered a new age! YouTube trailers for fruit cultivars!
SweeTango - A Sneak Preview (YouTube)
(Much thanks to the anonymous commenter who noted this on the post below...I thought it deserved more exposure).
All I can say is I hope the apple is better than the name. It's got an encouraging pedigree at least—Honeycrisp x Zestar.
An Apple Is Born (Epicurious)
Plus: We've entered a new age! YouTube trailers for fruit cultivars!
SweeTango - A Sneak Preview (YouTube)
(Much thanks to the anonymous commenter who noted this on the post below...I thought it deserved more exposure).
All I can say is I hope the apple is better than the name. It's got an encouraging pedigree at least—Honeycrisp x Zestar.
Categories: Friends
Irish Apples
Not a ton of substance here, unfortunately, but I'm a sucker for any story with lots of old apple names:
Irish Peach has a crisp flavor (BBC)
I'm kind of bummed that 'Irish Peach' gets no mention outside of the title and a caption. C'mon...don't toy with us like that.
I think about England a lot when it comes to apples...somehow Ireland kind of gets forgotten.
Irish Peach has a crisp flavor (BBC)
I'm kind of bummed that 'Irish Peach' gets no mention outside of the title and a caption. C'mon...don't toy with us like that.
I think about England a lot when it comes to apples...somehow Ireland kind of gets forgotten.
Categories: Friends
Jeesh...
...is there a limitless supply of these scraper sites? I crush one out and another pops up. This one appears to be mirroring it automatically.
So this one's for them:
You are reading The Fruit Blog:
thefruitblog.blogspot.com
or
www.thefruitblog.com
If you are reading this anywhere else (except on an RSS reader or through FoodCandy), then the site you are reading this on stole this content. Please do not patronize their advertisers, and please feel free to tell them how you feel about about stealing content (assuming you feel badly about it--if you're really into it and think its awesome, you don't need to say anything. Also, please go away.)
Okay, now I feel a little better.
So this one's for them:
You are reading The Fruit Blog:
thefruitblog.blogspot.com
or
www.thefruitblog.com
If you are reading this anywhere else (except on an RSS reader or through FoodCandy), then the site you are reading this on stole this content. Please do not patronize their advertisers, and please feel free to tell them how you feel about about stealing content (assuming you feel badly about it--if you're really into it and think its awesome, you don't need to say anything. Also, please go away.)
Okay, now I feel a little better.
Categories: Friends
'Honeycrisp' and the U. of Minnesota Apple Breeding Program
Just came across a nice piece on the University of Minnesota apple breeding program:
With Honeycrisp's patent expiring, U of M looks for new apple (CityPages.com)
I thought the article was a decent "layman's" sort of overview of the UMN apple breeding program, and there's certainly plenty of interest in the program these days thanks to 'Honeycrisp', which has seen a surge of popularity unlike anything I've seen for an apple variety in my lifetime. 'Honeycrisp' at one point commanded an enormous premium, though massive plantings have begun to drive prices down (and there are those who consider it to have been grossly overplanted--many of the trees still due to come into production in the next few years. We'll see how that pans out...)
I like 'Honeycrisp' quite a bit, but I have a hard time believing it really ranks with Google as one of "25 Innovations That Changed The World" (Warning—PDF). It's certainly seen quite the burst of popularity, and yes, it's got an unusual texture, but its basically just a relative outlier on an existing scale of textures. I'm told there are other varieties with a similar breaking texture out there, such as 'Red Baron' (though admittedly I haven't had them). It's definitely good, and it's definitely interesting, but it's an incremental development, not a revolutionary one.
I think the argument is that it was revolutionary in the sense that it revitalized a lot of orchards in the Northeast and upper Midwest, particularly small family farms, and it did in fact do that to an extent. However, I think that's partly due to good marketing, and partly an element of "right place, right time". Full of varieties 50+ years old and little recent momentous development, the market was ripe for something new in the way of apples, and 'Honeycrisp' was distinct enough to fill that niche.
I'm still wondering what the newest UMN apple release is going to be named--last time I spoke to some one who'd heard the name, they treated it as though it was secret on par with a nuclear launch code (even while admitting it was being used freely in some circles). So it better be good.
Update: I noticed that the USDA site on 'Honeycrisp' that I linked to has old, incorrect pedigree--Macoun x Honeygold. This was disproven via molecular fingerprinting some years ago (this was actually the subject of the second Fruit Blog post ever). One parent is 'Keepsake', the other unknown.
I've been entertaining myself playing with grape marker data from the USDA, checking out possible parents for old American cultivars. That's how you know you're a big fruit geek--when you spend hours comparing pedigree data for fun...
Blogged with the Flock Browser
With Honeycrisp's patent expiring, U of M looks for new apple (CityPages.com)
I thought the article was a decent "layman's" sort of overview of the UMN apple breeding program, and there's certainly plenty of interest in the program these days thanks to 'Honeycrisp', which has seen a surge of popularity unlike anything I've seen for an apple variety in my lifetime. 'Honeycrisp' at one point commanded an enormous premium, though massive plantings have begun to drive prices down (and there are those who consider it to have been grossly overplanted--many of the trees still due to come into production in the next few years. We'll see how that pans out...)
I like 'Honeycrisp' quite a bit, but I have a hard time believing it really ranks with Google as one of "25 Innovations That Changed The World" (Warning—PDF). It's certainly seen quite the burst of popularity, and yes, it's got an unusual texture, but its basically just a relative outlier on an existing scale of textures. I'm told there are other varieties with a similar breaking texture out there, such as 'Red Baron' (though admittedly I haven't had them). It's definitely good, and it's definitely interesting, but it's an incremental development, not a revolutionary one.
I think the argument is that it was revolutionary in the sense that it revitalized a lot of orchards in the Northeast and upper Midwest, particularly small family farms, and it did in fact do that to an extent. However, I think that's partly due to good marketing, and partly an element of "right place, right time". Full of varieties 50+ years old and little recent momentous development, the market was ripe for something new in the way of apples, and 'Honeycrisp' was distinct enough to fill that niche.
I'm still wondering what the newest UMN apple release is going to be named--last time I spoke to some one who'd heard the name, they treated it as though it was secret on par with a nuclear launch code (even while admitting it was being used freely in some circles). So it better be good.
Update: I noticed that the USDA site on 'Honeycrisp' that I linked to has old, incorrect pedigree--Macoun x Honeygold. This was disproven via molecular fingerprinting some years ago (this was actually the subject of the second Fruit Blog post ever). One parent is 'Keepsake', the other unknown.
I've been entertaining myself playing with grape marker data from the USDA, checking out possible parents for old American cultivars. That's how you know you're a big fruit geek--when you spend hours comparing pedigree data for fun...
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Categories: Friends
I know it's useless to complain, but...
...please, don't spam the comments. If you post an irrelevant link, I don't care how witty or insightful the comment you attach to it is, I'm going to delete the comment. People reading about citrus are not shopping for hard drives or electronic scales or whatever else it is you're selling on your bizarro pseudo-blog.
Sorry, just needed to gripe a little. We've been getting slammed pretty hard, and I don't know a real good way to avoid it. It's obviously real people doing it and not mass-spamming robots, because they sometimes write semi-relevant comments, so I can't imagine its really economical.
Sorry, just needed to gripe a little. We've been getting slammed pretty hard, and I don't know a real good way to avoid it. It's obviously real people doing it and not mass-spamming robots, because they sometimes write semi-relevant comments, so I can't imagine its really economical.
Categories: Friends
Fruit Genetics Friday #7: Plant Sex Chromosomes Part II: Strawberries
A couple weeks back, in the very infrequent Fruit Genetics Friday series, I discussed sex chromosomes in fruit, specifically papaya. At the time, the only two fruit crops I knew of with sex chromosomes were papaya and kiwi. Monday I opened my e-mail to a paper, forwarded to me by a friend who is also one of the authors, describing a very interesting development in this area:
Genetic mapping of sex determination in a wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana, reveals earliest form of sex chromosome (Heredity)
(Unfortunately, for non-subscribers, this will just be an abstract, but I'll try to hit the good stuff).
People were excited about the discovery of sex chromosomes in papaya, because it represented one of the most primitive sex chromosomes yet found in plants. Well, it turns out that F. virginiana, one of the ancestors of our cultivated strawberry, has sex chromosomes too (counter to what I said in that earlier post, incidentally), and these are even younger in their development! They're also really unusual in how they operate. In papaya and kiwi, as well as most other plants and lots of animals, the homogametic sex is the female (as in 'XX') and the heterogametic sex is male ('XY'). This seems to be the more typical arrangement, but strawberries, oddly enough, have the opposite arrangement.
So if you recall the arrangement in papaya, you had two critical loci. One, which we'll call "F" is a suppressor of femaleness, and the other is a promoter of maleness, which we'll call "M". So the two "wild type" chromosomes (which I'll call X and Y, since it puts it in terms people are familiar with and is essentially correct, even though the terminology isn't really used consistently in plants) consist of:
f---m (X chromosome)
F---M (Y chromosome)
So a female would be XX, or (fm)/(fm), so no maleness promoted and no femaleness suppressed. And male would be XY, with the femaleness suppressed, and maleness promoted. Hermaphrodites are generally a mutation of the Y chromosome (which we'll call the Y+ chromosome), so that the suppression of female development ceases to function, but male development still takes place:
(f)---M (Y+ chromosome)
So the sexes are basically female (XX), male (XY), and hermaphrodite (XY+). (because the YY isn't viable, you can't get a homozygous, true-breeding hermaphrodite).
Well, turns out strawberry has a different arrangement. The roles of the genes are kind of reversed. You have a dominant promoter of femaleness (which we'll call 'G' (for "gyn-", as used in the paper)), and a dominant gene for male sterility (which the paper calls 'A', as in "andro-"). And in this case we'll use Z and W (the system from birds) rather than the XY system.
So the arrangement is:
g---a (Z chromosome)
G---A (W chromosome)
So the sexes are female (ZW) and male (ZZ). This actually fits with some old research dating as far back as the 1920's suggesting that the female is the heterogametic sex. This was backed up by Ahmadi and Bringhurst, who suggested a single locus with three alleles, F, H, and M (in decreasing order of dominance). I kind of suspect many of these single locus, three allele systems, which have been proposed in other species as well, turn out to be variations on the two locus system, like in strawberry or papaya.
Here's a cool bit: The strawberry sex chromosome is pretty primitive, and so recombination in between these loci isn't fully suppressed, and you actually get crossover between them 5.7% of the time. As a result, you can get variations, namely hermaphrodites (resulting from a G/a recombinant) or a neuter (the result of a g/A recombinant). That suggests something which is only barely functioning as a sex chromosome.
Because the sex chromosome seems to have evolved very recently, what I'm curious about is how widespread in related species it is. I think it quite likely that the other major octoploid species, Fragaria chiloensis, and its offspring with F. virginiana, the cultivated F. x ananassa, share this scheme. But do the lower ploidy strawberries?
If diploid strawberries possessed sex chromosomes previous to the evolution of octoploids, then the octoploids should have eight sex chromosomes. Having this many would probably result in a mess (although it seems to work out alright for the short-beaked echidna), and the fact that sex inheritance seems to be pretty simple suggest that if the octoploid had eight sex chromosomes, then six of them have probably ceased to function as such.
Though there may be some exceptions (there are a bunch of east Asian diploid species I'm not really familiar with) the diploids I'm aware of, F. vesca, F. viridis, and F. nubicola seem to be almost (but not quite) uniformly hermaphrodite. Yet a number of higher ploidy species in addition to the octoploids, including the hexaploid F. moschata and the tetraploid F. orientalis are at least partially dioecious. It may be that polyploidy, by creating "backup" copies of the chromosomes possessing the sex controlling loci, allows divergence of one pair into more specialized sex chromosomes.
I'd be curious to know if closely-related genera such as Rubus and Potentilla share this system. Research suggests that in both of these species, the females are the heterogametic sex. If they possessed similar sex chromosomes, that would suggest that the strawberry's sex chromosomes have remained in their primitive state for a long time, or that something about the common ancestor was prone to the development of such an arrangement.
The other, perhaps less novel, but no less cool, aspect of the paper is that it introduces the first SSR-based map of the octoploid strawberry. Including two markers linked to the sex loci!
Anyway, all told, pretty cool, huh?
Genetic mapping of sex determination in a wild strawberry, Fragaria virginiana, reveals earliest form of sex chromosome (Heredity)
(Unfortunately, for non-subscribers, this will just be an abstract, but I'll try to hit the good stuff).
People were excited about the discovery of sex chromosomes in papaya, because it represented one of the most primitive sex chromosomes yet found in plants. Well, it turns out that F. virginiana, one of the ancestors of our cultivated strawberry, has sex chromosomes too (counter to what I said in that earlier post, incidentally), and these are even younger in their development! They're also really unusual in how they operate. In papaya and kiwi, as well as most other plants and lots of animals, the homogametic sex is the female (as in 'XX') and the heterogametic sex is male ('XY'). This seems to be the more typical arrangement, but strawberries, oddly enough, have the opposite arrangement.
So if you recall the arrangement in papaya, you had two critical loci. One, which we'll call "F" is a suppressor of femaleness, and the other is a promoter of maleness, which we'll call "M". So the two "wild type" chromosomes (which I'll call X and Y, since it puts it in terms people are familiar with and is essentially correct, even though the terminology isn't really used consistently in plants) consist of:
f---m (X chromosome)
F---M (Y chromosome)
So a female would be XX, or (fm)/(fm), so no maleness promoted and no femaleness suppressed. And male would be XY, with the femaleness suppressed, and maleness promoted. Hermaphrodites are generally a mutation of the Y chromosome (which we'll call the Y+ chromosome), so that the suppression of female development ceases to function, but male development still takes place:
(f)---M (Y+ chromosome)
So the sexes are basically female (XX), male (XY), and hermaphrodite (XY+). (because the YY isn't viable, you can't get a homozygous, true-breeding hermaphrodite).
Well, turns out strawberry has a different arrangement. The roles of the genes are kind of reversed. You have a dominant promoter of femaleness (which we'll call 'G' (for "gyn-", as used in the paper)), and a dominant gene for male sterility (which the paper calls 'A', as in "andro-"). And in this case we'll use Z and W (the system from birds) rather than the XY system.
So the arrangement is:
g---a (Z chromosome)
G---A (W chromosome)
So the sexes are female (ZW) and male (ZZ). This actually fits with some old research dating as far back as the 1920's suggesting that the female is the heterogametic sex. This was backed up by Ahmadi and Bringhurst, who suggested a single locus with three alleles, F, H, and M (in decreasing order of dominance). I kind of suspect many of these single locus, three allele systems, which have been proposed in other species as well, turn out to be variations on the two locus system, like in strawberry or papaya.
Here's a cool bit: The strawberry sex chromosome is pretty primitive, and so recombination in between these loci isn't fully suppressed, and you actually get crossover between them 5.7% of the time. As a result, you can get variations, namely hermaphrodites (resulting from a G/a recombinant) or a neuter (the result of a g/A recombinant). That suggests something which is only barely functioning as a sex chromosome.
Because the sex chromosome seems to have evolved very recently, what I'm curious about is how widespread in related species it is. I think it quite likely that the other major octoploid species, Fragaria chiloensis, and its offspring with F. virginiana, the cultivated F. x ananassa, share this scheme. But do the lower ploidy strawberries?
If diploid strawberries possessed sex chromosomes previous to the evolution of octoploids, then the octoploids should have eight sex chromosomes. Having this many would probably result in a mess (although it seems to work out alright for the short-beaked echidna), and the fact that sex inheritance seems to be pretty simple suggest that if the octoploid had eight sex chromosomes, then six of them have probably ceased to function as such.
Though there may be some exceptions (there are a bunch of east Asian diploid species I'm not really familiar with) the diploids I'm aware of, F. vesca, F. viridis, and F. nubicola seem to be almost (but not quite) uniformly hermaphrodite. Yet a number of higher ploidy species in addition to the octoploids, including the hexaploid F. moschata and the tetraploid F. orientalis are at least partially dioecious. It may be that polyploidy, by creating "backup" copies of the chromosomes possessing the sex controlling loci, allows divergence of one pair into more specialized sex chromosomes.
I'd be curious to know if closely-related genera such as Rubus and Potentilla share this system. Research suggests that in both of these species, the females are the heterogametic sex. If they possessed similar sex chromosomes, that would suggest that the strawberry's sex chromosomes have remained in their primitive state for a long time, or that something about the common ancestor was prone to the development of such an arrangement.
The other, perhaps less novel, but no less cool, aspect of the paper is that it introduces the first SSR-based map of the octoploid strawberry. Including two markers linked to the sex loci!
Anyway, all told, pretty cool, huh?
Categories: Friends
When Citrus Goes Feral
I've posted a few times in the past about the looming threat of citrus greening in the U.S. One of the biggest problems underlying this issue is the staggering quantity of abandoned citrus groves in Florida:
Abandoned Groves a Citrus Greening Threat (The Ledger, Lakeland, FL)
The groves serve as breeding grounds for the citrus psyllid, which transmits the bacterial disease. According to the article, a recent USDA survey calculated that there are 129,869 acres of abandoned citrus groves in Florida, roughly a fifth of the citrus acreage in Florida. That's 202 square miles!
Disease threats like this are hardly possible to eradicate even with careful management, and abandoned groves are everywhere in Florida. As I've mentioned before, the citrus industry in Florida hasn't been in great shape for a while, and greening isn't helping. And although the psyllid and greening are the current focus, feral groves are a ready reservoir for all kinds of pests and diseases.
But although a clear threat, abandoned groves in Florida also represent an opportunity. For one thing, they represent thousands of acres of quality agricultural land, sitting unused. This could be in the form of a new crop, or in rehabilitating the old. By virtue of being abandoned, these groves are basically "instant organic". Companies such as Uncle Matt's Organic have been rehabilitating some of these groves and producing organic citrus and citrus products. Because of the significant premium enjoyed by organics, these groves don't need to attain full commercial yields to be profitable, and a little regular maintenance can make a big difference in keeping diseases and pests from running wild.
(I met Uncle Matt last winter in Florida--he's a nice guy with a quality product. He's got a couple of short videos up about organic citrus growing, and I'm hoping for more in the future--the next one is supposed to be on disease control.)Blogged with the Flock Browser
Abandoned Groves a Citrus Greening Threat (The Ledger, Lakeland, FL)
The groves serve as breeding grounds for the citrus psyllid, which transmits the bacterial disease. According to the article, a recent USDA survey calculated that there are 129,869 acres of abandoned citrus groves in Florida, roughly a fifth of the citrus acreage in Florida. That's 202 square miles!
Disease threats like this are hardly possible to eradicate even with careful management, and abandoned groves are everywhere in Florida. As I've mentioned before, the citrus industry in Florida hasn't been in great shape for a while, and greening isn't helping. And although the psyllid and greening are the current focus, feral groves are a ready reservoir for all kinds of pests and diseases.
But although a clear threat, abandoned groves in Florida also represent an opportunity. For one thing, they represent thousands of acres of quality agricultural land, sitting unused. This could be in the form of a new crop, or in rehabilitating the old. By virtue of being abandoned, these groves are basically "instant organic". Companies such as Uncle Matt's Organic have been rehabilitating some of these groves and producing organic citrus and citrus products. Because of the significant premium enjoyed by organics, these groves don't need to attain full commercial yields to be profitable, and a little regular maintenance can make a big difference in keeping diseases and pests from running wild.
(I met Uncle Matt last winter in Florida--he's a nice guy with a quality product. He's got a couple of short videos up about organic citrus growing, and I'm hoping for more in the future--the next one is supposed to be on disease control.)Blogged with the Flock Browser
Categories: Friends
"Fruit Philanthropist"
TIME magazine's Lexicon section this week featured a term I rather like:
fruit philanthropist n.
Someone who voluntarily harvests surplus fruit and then donates it to food banks and centers for the elderly
USAGE: "Thus was born North Berkeley Harvest, part of a small but expanding movement of backyard urban gleaners--they might be called fruit philanthropists." --New York Times, Sept. 14, 2008
fruit philanthropist n.
Someone who voluntarily harvests surplus fruit and then donates it to food banks and centers for the elderly
USAGE: "Thus was born North Berkeley Harvest, part of a small but expanding movement of backyard urban gleaners--they might be called fruit philanthropists." --New York Times, Sept. 14, 2008
Categories: Friends