Grow Your Own Red Fleshed Apples from Seed!

Now, you can grow your very own red-fleshed apples from seed! The mother tree of these seedlings (the pistil parent, as the pollen parent is unknown) comes from a well-known red-fleshed cross between Honeycrisp and Aerlie Red Flesh. These apples were much better than expected for a store-bought apple, with some people even noting a banana flavor. However, when we tried them for the first time in 2022, we didn’t notice any banana flavor. Instead, we experienced a lot of berry notes, and the specimen we tried wasn’t even the best—it had been stored for months.

Seedling Genetics and Flavor Variability

These seedlings will produce genetically unique offspring. The flavor of the fruit from these trees will be determined by nature, and since the mother tree came from a store-bought apple, it’s anyone’s guess what the final fruit will be like. The apple could potentially be a crabapple, as many orchards (likely in Washington, where this apple originated) use Indian Summer or Snowdrift crabapples as pollenizers. If that’s the case, the resulting fruit could be a super interesting apple-crab hybrid or a “spitter.” Alternatively, the pollen parent could have been Honeycrisp or another commercial cultivar.

Regardless of the parentage, the flesh of the apple should still be fairly red because the alleles controlling red flesh color tend to be dominant. If you decide to purchase these seedlings, please let us know how your apples turn out!

Hardiness and Growth

These seedlings are likely hardy to -40°F, as this is the hardiness of both parent trees. The seedlings range from 6-12 inches tall and are ready for planting.