Washington's newest apple, WA 64, ripens in mid-September at a Quincy-area orchard that hosts advanced selections from Washington State University's breeding program. Researchers want to see if reflective fabric can help color the cross Honeycrisp and Cripps Pink. (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)
Washington’s latest apple, WA 64, ripens in mid-September at a Quincy-area orchard that hosts superior alternatives from Washington State College’s breeding program. Researchers wish to see if reflective material can assist coloration the cross Honeycrisp and Cripps Pink. (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)

To find out the optimum harvest time for WA 64, the brand new apple launched by Washington State College, researchers will harvest at repeated intervals within the coming weeks.

Throughout a discipline day targeted on the brand new cultivar, Manoella Mendoza, analysis operations supervisor for the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee, instructed attendees she was taking a look at fruit firmness ranges to find out the primary of a number of alternatives.

“I believe it could possibly be a single choice selection, however we’re nonetheless engaged on that information,” he mentioned.

Manoella Mendoza, research operations manager for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, explains at a field day Sept. 12 how fruit quality testing will be conducted after this evaluation block is harvested. . (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)
Manoella Mendoza, analysis operations supervisor for the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee, explains at a discipline day Sept. 12 how fruit high quality testing might be performed after this analysis block is harvested. . (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)

A cross of Honeycrisp and Cripps Pink, the cultivar retains its firmness very nicely throughout storage, he mentioned; so nicely, the truth is, that he’s cautious to not choose it up too firmly.

Along with optimizing harvest timing, this 12 months’s harvest trials will have a look at using reflective mulch to reinforce coloration, whether or not stems have to be trimmed, and whether or not bruises develop when picked and transported in containers. The sphere day was held at a business orchard in Quincy, the place the cultivar was planted in 2015 as a part of breeding program evaluations.

trade members may have one other probability to see WA 64 within the bushes on Tuesday, September 19, when WSU will host one other discipline day on a Prosser-area check block. For extra particulars, go to: treefruit.wsu.edu/occasions.

The WSU Workplace of Advertising is within the course of of choosing a accomplice to handle the propagation and licensing of the brand new selection, breeder Kate Evans mentioned. Subsequent the cultivar might be named and advertising and marketing plans might be developed.

In the meantime, WSU researchers have planted rootstock trials and coaching programs to develop extra and higher horticultural suggestions for when WA 64 bushes can be found for business planting in 2026. Subject day attendees toured this block, which nonetheless isn’t bearing fruit, at WSU’s Dawn Orchard. .

Equally, the sector day additionally visited a analysis block designed to point out how rootstock choice and pruning practices affect manufacturing in WA 38 (marketed as Cosmic Crisp), WSU’s earlier launch, which growers Washington started planting on a large scale in 2018.

In a WA 38 test block at WSU's Sunrise Research Farm, physiologist Stefano Musacchi shows how these trees, planted on M.9 rootstock and pruned with a long-pruning approach that he advises against, produced a bountiful crop in the second leaf but they also developed blind wood. at the base of the branches and along the trunk.
In a WA 38 check block at WSU’s Dawn Analysis Farm, physiologist Stefano Musacchi reveals how these bushes, planted on M.9 rootstock and pruned with a long-pruning method that he advises towards, produced a bountiful crop within the second leaf however in addition they developed blind wooden. on the base of the branches and alongside the trunk. “That is what we do not need,” he instructed discipline day attendees. (Kate Prengaman/Good Fruit Grower)

The spiked selection is vulnerable to blind wooden, so mission chief Stefano Musacchi used the sector day to point out growers how his most popular brief pruning method pushes fruit shoot improvement towards the trunk. In distinction, bushes that had longer branches carried extra fruit on these branches, however confirmed vital blindness when the branches bent below the load of the fruit.

“If the second leaf is harvested an excessive amount of, we’ll return and see the blind wooden improve,” he mentioned.

—by Kate Prengaman

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