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> Pretty much all fruit trees used in agriculture are produced by cloning I was surprised some years ago when I learned that most apple trees are grafts: you t
by username223 10y ago
> Pretty much all fruit trees used in agriculture are produced by cloning
I was surprised some years ago when I learned that most apple trees are grafts: you take a branch from a tree with apples you like, attach it to a shoot of some other apple tree, and it will produce the apples you like. A neighbor's tree had burned down, and he had no idea what sort of apples the shoots sprouting from the stump would produce.
- pfooti 10y agoYah, the problem is that if you plant a seed you often get a wild type apple with a totally random flavor profile (self-pollination within a particular tree won't produce apple trees with fruit that are identical to their parent).
- DashRattlesnake 10y ago> the problem is that if you plant a seed you often get a wild type apple with a totally random flavor profile IIRC, it's even worse than that. You will almost always get a wild-type apple with an often inedible flavor profile or texture. The orchards they use to develop new apple varieties have thousands of trees, and might not even produce a single new marketable type.
- nikcub 10y agoPlanet Money had a great episode on a farmer who created a new type of apple: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/05/27/410085320/episode-627-the-miracle-apple http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/05/27/410085320/episo...
- username223 10y agoHoneycrisp, right? It has been awhile since I listened to it, but IIRC the interesting part was the creator's efforts to protect the apple's flavor by trademarking the name. Most new varieties are bred for looks, yield, and shelf life at the expense of taste. (Remember when Fujis were good?)
- username223 10y agoI just re-listened to it, and it reminded me that Opals are excellent. If you can find them, i.e. you live in Washington, try them. They look like some of the worst apples (golden delicious), but they're some of the best.
- PeterisP 10y agoWhat's even more surprising is that this has been that way for more than 3000 years, the technique of grafting apples is literally prehistoric. I believe the reason for this is that taste and quality of fruit is quite random in pollinated seeds, seeds from a single tree will bear apples quite distinct from what the "parent" had, so if you want predictable, good fruit you need to clone the upper part by grafting.