Parentage of Karmijn de Sonnaville

[OrangePippin-Richard]

All the authorities agree that Karmijn de Sonnaville is descended from Cox's Orange Pippin - and it has a similar intense flavor. However the other parent is not known, and is supposedly either Belle de Boskoop or Jonathan.

BdB is plausible - well-known in the Netherlands at the time (1950s). It is also relatively disease-free, as is KdS (and unlike Cox). However as a triploid, pollination would not have been easy. The flavor is OK, but not great. The relatively large size of BdB also seems consistent with KdS

Jonathan has excellent flavor, and a marriage of Jonathan and Cox sounds like it should explain KdS's excellent flavor. However Jonathan is quite disease-prone, like Cox, so you might expect their children to be also disease-prone (although to contradict that, Alkmene, which is also the product of two disease-prone parents, is usually disease-free).

I'm starting to think BdB is the most likely other parent - any other arguments for or against?

[PA_Docent]

I'll keep you updated about my progress. I plan to experiment with cross pollination when my trees are bearing and I have both Cox OP and BdB in my orchard. Thanks for the interesting post, Richard!