University of Maryland researchers have developed what may just be the perfect apples for American growers trying to adapt to a changing world. The two new apples, a yellow and a red one are heat-tolerant, blight-tolerant, low-maintenance, easy to harvest and not least, delicious-tasting. Both have been approved for patents and are awaiting the final grant from the U.S. Patent Office.
They address a growing suite of problems the apple industry has been grappling with. The fruit has always been labor-intensive to bring to market, with trees that need to be trained, pruned, and harvested by hand. In the past decade, all U.S. farmers have felt the squeeze of labor shortages, and the apple industry has been among the hardest hit.
The new Maryland varieties grow into much shorter trees, which makes harvesting easier; they also appear tolerant to fire blight, a destructive bacterial disease common to apples. Another important feature of these apples is heat tolerance, one of the earliest characteristics bred into apples.
Source: umd.edu