Malus domestica
Origin: Michigan
Improvement status: Breeding population
Seeds per packet: 5
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
We're very excited to be offering these 'Kelly Renee' apple seeds, thanks to our friend Ken Asmus of Oikos Tree Crops in southwestern Michigan. Ken tried to retire a few years ago, but the plants apparently kept calling him back! He's still selling seeds and plants, but now he's only selling bulk amounts of seeds, pricing out the smaller customers who just want to try a packet-sized amount. So we're happy he's willing to have us buy a few things from him in bulk so we can offer them at a smaller size to all of you!
Here's what Ken says about 'Kelly Renee':
"This new apple variety represents a new beginning for the apple. Selected for attributes normally not found in today's modern day breeding programs, 'Kelly Renee' delivers on taste and texture plus creates a whole new genre of apples that can be grown organically with minimal inputs. It can even be harvested on the tree into December without the fruit degrading. Kelly Renee apples maintain their shape without damage from freezing temperatures and do not blet or fall apart like most crabapples. The fruit keeps its integrity and flavor over two months in the orchard, ripening fully in mid-October but continuing into November here in southwestern Michigan.
It is also the beginning-of-the-end for the high intensity spray programs needed to grow the apple. 'Kelly Renee' is one of a few 'no or low spray' apples that can be grown organically or in other similarly low-input systems. It has strong insect resistance due to its thick skin. Very little codling moth has been evident over the last decade and few fruit-worms of any type have been found, though some damage has been observed on the skin causing a 'warping' of the apples growth during the season. This only happens on a small portion of the crop, but it would likely be advantageous to maintain a neem spray regime as both preventive and curative during the early and mid-season to help clean up the apples in their appearance.
The 'Kelly Renee' apple is a lightly sweet apple with dense white flesh that does not break down in cooking, similar in many ways to the 'Northern Spy' [a beloved old heirloom apple]. Its density makes it ideal for apple sauce. Visitors to my farm who have eaten the apple fresh like it best later in the season as it ripens fully.
'Kelly Renee' grew from seed collected from a tree at an old abandoned homestead in northern Michigan. It was a solid russet apple that looked like a baked potato in a tree. I grew out several seedlings of it and this one was the most vigorous of the lot. As the tree matured, the yields greatly increased. To this day, the most I have sprayed it was twice in a season, with many seasons giving no spray.
The seeds are valuable in helping create further varieties in this russet class. From others who have worked with these no-spray apples, russets often appear to offer a solution with resistance to both disease and insects due to their thick skins. For this reason, the no-spray apple movement will have to educate people on the benefits of these apples both environmentally as well as health-wise — especially to the farmers who currently have to spray a regular crop of apples 16 times a year with very powerful insecticides (and these only get more powerful as insects develop resistance and new insects move into the orchard environment).
GERMINATION: Apples are wonderful to grow from seeds, as the variation is fantastic in terms of creating a diverse population of seedlings. Add lightly moist peat moss to the seeds and store for 90-120 days in cold refrigeration from 34F to 38F. Seeds will begin sprouting slowly in refrigeration, so watch out for seeds to develop long roots in the bags during refrigeration. Pluck those out and plant them in pots as soon as you can. Most seeds will sprout quickly after putting the seeds at room temperature after at least 90 days of cold. Seeds are prone to damping off [dying young from fungus attacking their roots] so be careful to use the right soil mix with a lower peat percentage [and a good amount of perlite to keep it from staying too moist]."
