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Re: [nafex] Seedling tree



As a matter of fact, Donna, the apple x pear cross IS possible.  The late Don Egolf at National Arboretum worked on this a bit some 3 decades ago;  Don figured he was getting about one true intergeneric hybrid per 20,000 crosses -- not the best odds.  Our pomes are a bit oddball, you know -- the pear x quince hybrids are well known as Pyronia veitchii;  'Shipova' and 'Smokvarka' are in eastern Europe widely distributed Sorbus  by  Pyrus  cultivars. No doubt there are other notables lurking around. The Polish and Russian pomologists have done considerable work along these lines.

As to your peddler neighbor's apple -- Golden Delicious x pear?  Not even a little bit likely -- but not quite impossible.

Jim Cummins
Geneva
 www.cumminsnursery.com
 

Kieran or Donna wrote:

A fellow came through yesterday selling apples from his orchard.  I had fun
talking with him.  He claimed to have a Golden Delicious X pear apple.  I
told him he didn't.  I hear these sorts of stories now and then, about the
"fruit salad' tree with apples and peaches on it, etc.  I explain why that
could not happen, and so I did with this one.  He came back a few minutes
later and said he didn't want to look like a fool, but that this was really
an exceptional apple and he wanted to promote it.  I said if he was going to
go around saying it was an apple/pear cross, that he was certainly going to
look like a fool to anyone who knows better, unless he had proof.  I said if
he'd grow out a hundred seedlings and look for pear charasterics to
resegregate, he could make pomological history if he was right.  Then I
asked if he could tell his 10 varieties apart by the leaves, and he said
yes.  I said he might be able to figure out the pollen parent (assuming he
does not make the history books) from the leaves on the seedlings.  He asked
if I'd grow out the seeds, I said sure.  NOW I realize they would need to be
selfed to tell anything, right?  He asked me to ask you all what you thought
about the possibility that it might really be a pear apple cross.  I didn't
tell him you would all snicker.  Ya'll do seem a lot more polite and gentle
with novices than me.
    There is more.  He got almost a hundred trees grafted to this variety.
He's been watching it for 12 years, and though it gets CAR, it seems immune
to fire blight.  He says the flavor is superb.  He says it looks rather like
Grimes Golden, but cooks completely differently.  He's given away several of
these trees already, and might give away a few more.  I'll bet it wouldn't
be hard to get him to send some apples for one of these famous apple tasting
you people do in more genteel areas than Black Hole, Tennessee.  Apparently
he has some kind of email address, with someone else manning the machine for
him.  Anyone game?  I should be able to get the email address and pass on
your comments or requests.  Donna TN z6

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