A wild collected, possible F1 or F2 progeny in our wild #apple germplasm collection have exhibited flowering in just their third year! Other apple also exhibited short juvenile periods but this one is a big windfall for our #prebreeding program specifically. I even got it to set controlled crosses.

The crossing seasons been busy this year! Lots of successful crosses in our pre-breeding #apple program! Some of these crosses represent our fourth, fifth or later generations of our decade old program! Cheers to wide crosses and breaking down the interrelatedness that’s rampant in apple cultivars!

Red-fleshed #pears are so cool

#redfleshedpears

Think of better times during the fall #apples #pears

What was classified as a potential #rootstock turns outs to have great fruit quality. Stems are too long but hey you can’t always win the #genetic lottery

#pears #plantbreeding

Out in the Pacific Northwest, home to one of my favorite wild #apples - #Malusfusca! Having spent more than a decade working with fusca and its hybrids, it was really fun to co-lead the effort to resolve the first North American wild apple species #genome with @bmansfeld.bsky.social.

Still one of my most favorite traits to find in #pome fruit #redflesh

#redfleshedapple #redfleshedpear #otterson #apple #pear #cider #rosé

First post on #bluesky figured I’d share our most advanced #pear selection!

#plantbreeding #pome #fruit