APPLE

Modern varieties are not produced from seed because apples do not breed true. The progeny of one tree will all be different. The apples on the market are the result of selection of seedlings from nature and of scientific bred varieties. Commercial plantings of varieties of apples are propagated by budding or grafting the desired parent tree onto a selected root stock.

Malus genus is a group of about 25 species of small, many-branched, round, broad-headed, spring blooming trees or shrubs of the temperture zones. The fruit is characteristically globular and is called apome, which is developed from an inferior ovary, and has a cartilaginous papery enclosure for the seeds. The apple has a calyx of five speals; five white or pinkish-white petals roundish or obovate; flowers perfect (that is, having both male and female active organs); numerous stamens (male organs), usually 20; and a compound pistil (female organ) made up of five simple pistils. Each pistil usually has two embryo sacs, each containing an ovule which may be fertilized by pollen to produce seeds. There are usually 7-10 seeds per fruit (about 2 per carpel) but there may be more.

The general structure of the apple can be seen by cutting a cross section of mature fruit. The flesh of the fruit which we eat is actually swollen, modified stem tissue. We usually throw away the true fruit which is the carpels and seeds, better known as the core.

HISTORY: The original home of the apple is not known, but is thought to be in the region of the Caspian Sea. Alphonse de Candolle did extensive research and believed that the apple originated in the region between the Persian Province Ghilan on the Caspian Sea and Trebizond on the Black Sea. Sir Joseph Hooker writes in his"Flora of British India" that"apples which are apparently wild, are growing in the mountains of northwest India.

The apples of today are much different than apples that prehistoric man found growing wild in the woods of Asia. It is believed that apples were an important food since very early times. Carbonized apples were found in the prehistoric lake dwellings of Switzerland. According to J.R. Magness, USDA pomologist, the remains show that the apples were not only stored fresh for eating but also preserved by curing and drying in the sun.

The wild apples that prehistoric man ate were probably only 1 to 2 inches in diameter, acidic and astringent. Cultivation of the apple probably started with the beginning of agriculture in Europe. The Greek writer Theophrastus mentions varieties grown in Greece in the fourth century B.C. Selection for the best types of wild seedlings goes back as far as the beginning of history, according to Magness.

He believes that"methods of budding and grafting fruits were known more than 2,000 years ago. According to Unger, Cato (third century, B.C.) knew seven different apple varieties. Pliny (first century A.D.) knew 36 different kinds." Superior varieties were grown throughout Europe in the 17th century. They probably originated as chance seedlings and were propagated vegetatively.

Both seeds and grafted trees of European varieties were brought to this country by early American colonists. Within a few years after the first settlements, bearing apple trees were reported. Apple trees were spread by traders, missionaries and Indians. Records of grafting desirable varieties onto wild stocks date back to 1647 in Virginia, according to Magness. He also reports that in 1686 William Fitzhugh, in describing his own plantation, mentions"a large orchard of about 2,500 trees, most grafted, well fenced with a locust fence." Apple growing in New England had progressed so that Dudley, in 1726, stated in the Philosophical Transactions"our apples are without doubt as good as those of England and much fairer to look to, and so are the pears."

An eccentric missionary and fruit tree nurseryman named John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, traveled throughout the frontier settlements of Ohio and Indiana in the first half of the 19th century, planting apple tree nurseries, preaching and carrying the news. He often persuaded Indians to care for the trees. He lived to see many bearing trees throughout the areas he roamed.

Many of the important varieties in this country came from chance seedlings. Even today, most of our commercial varieties are improved selections of these chance findings. These include Baldwin, Winesap, Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Spitzenburg, McIntosh, Newtown Pippin and Delicious. Most of today's important varieties were developed from chance seedings. Cortland is an exception.

In Turkestan in 1219, Ye-lu-Tchu-tsai, a Chinese traveler, reportedly found dense forests of apple trees.