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1. CSMastermind · 1789709616 · focus · HN ↗

   Apples have some of wildest biology that I've seen as a non-professional biologist. At many genes, they carry two different alleles instead of two matching ones. They're almost all self-incompatible. A Honeycrisp flower cannot pollinate a Honeycrisp flower.

   This means that you can't breed them in the traditional sense that we do with other plants. Outside of Granny Smith apples the ones you eat are mostly the results of mutations in the grown plants that we cut off and graft.

   1. biotinker · 1789756258 · focus · HN ↗

      > Outside of Granny Smith apples the ones you eat are mostly the results of mutations in the grown plants that we cut off and graft.

      Not sure where you're located, but this isn't true in the US. The vast majority of apples available here are seedlings of crosses by two other varieties. Examples:

      Golden Delicious, one parent is Grimes Golden, the other unknown.

      Fuji, Red Delicious × Ralls Janet

      Gala, Kidd's Orange Red × Golden Delicious

      There are certainly some sports (the technical term for for the spontaneous mutations) like you mention. Royal Gala, available in NZ, is a sport of Gala. But most are not.

      An enormous amount of industry effort goes into crossing known varieties, growing the seedlings, and looking for the apples with the best traits. Cosmic Crisp is a great example of a recent one.

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