Variety research questions - need lots of info! :)

[juliecf]

I'm working on a poster of all my apple-crazy husband's favorite apples. If anyone has any of the following info, I would be most grateful.

SnowSweet - ploidy
Karmijn de Sonnaville - parentage
Albemarle pippin - parentage
Virginia Gold - ploidy
Stayman Winesap - ploidy
Mammoth Blacktwig - ploidy
Sir Prize - harvest time
William's Pride - ploidy
CrimsonCrisp - harvest time and ploidy
Virginia Beauty - ploidy
Fireside - ploidy
Hopples Antique gold - ploidy
Nickajack - harvest time and ploidy
SnapDragon - ploidy

Also, if an apple listed doesn't say ploidy, but something like "self-fertile" what would I write down for the ploidy?

Thanks to anyone who can fill in any of these gaps.

[Ace]

[Ace]

That sounds like a great project. I would love it if you could post the art when you are done. Searching the site you will in varieties and free ebooks under resources you will find info on most of the apples listed

The term you are looking for may be Diploid meaning having two sets of 17 chromosomes as opposed to Triploid (having three sets of 17 chromosomes). Triploids 51 total chromosomes cannot be evenly divided and are therefore Self-sterile.

[juliecf]

I would really love it if someone could give a layman's explanation for what Diploid, triploid, self-fertile and self-sterile mean. Love to put that on my chart -- 'cause it's all kind of hazy for someone who's not an apple breeder for a living!

Basically, diploids can pollinate themselves? or only other trees? And triploid cannot pollinate anything? Is self-sterile synonymous with triploid and self-fertile synonymous with diploid? Can those terms I just paired up be used interchangeably?

[Ace]

From: http://www.jamesandthegiantcorn.com/201 ... me-part-2/ :

"Many successful apple varieties are actually triploids (they have three copies of each chromosome instead of the usual two) and don’t produce fertile pollen. Growing these varieties is even more complicated because they need to be grown with at least two different diploid varieties of apple, so the diploid pollen can stimulate the triploid apple tree to produce fruit, and so each diploid kind of apple tree has a fertile unrelated variety of apple tree to pollinate its own flowers"

Triploids= Self-sterile and can not pollinate other apples

[juliecf]

Okay, so would this be the way to sum it up?

Triploid can pollinate nothing, not even themselves
Diploid can pollinate all other trees of their kind (i.e. apple)- diploid and triploid
Self-fertile can pollinate themselves and others
Self-infertile is the same as triploid?

That kind of a chart in a nutshell is what I'm looking for.

p.s I searched orangepippin.com's apple variety pages for the original info I was looking for and didn't find it, that's why I was asking on the forum. Is there a page I missed that has more info?

[OrangePippin-Richard]

There is a bit more to it than that.

Have a look at this article on our sister website, which tries to cover all the factors involved:

http://www.orangepippintrees.com/articl ... ruit-trees

[juliecf]

Thank you - that helped a bit. Still a little confusing, but I think I got it!

One more question: Can dilpoid varieties only pollinate other trees or can they pollinate themselves as well as others?

Thank you for being patient with a beginner!

[Skipley]

Diploids only pollinate others, never themselves, self sterile. Tripods are cannot pollinate anything but often produce fruit parthenocarpically -without fertilization.