The Evolution of the Apple and Hybrid Produce

Even before she ate her first sugar snap pea, Karen Caplan knew that hybrid fruits and vegetables were a key part of the world of produce. Her mother, Frieda Rapoport Caplan, had created a business in 1962 largely by introducing exotic new fruits and vegetables to Americans, and Karen eventually took over as president and CEO of the eponymous business, Frieda’s. But seeing the birth of that particular type of pea brought home to her the genius of combining two different breeds of plants.

Here’s how it happened: One of Frieda’s growers had noticed that both the Chinese flat snow pea and the English pea had less-than-ideal characteristics. The former had a tasty exterior but harbored a row of tiny, immature peas, while the latter yielded plump, delicious peas in an inedible shell. The grower wondered: What if the two were crossbred? The results were revelatory: The sugar snap pea merged the best qualities of the two and the hybrid vegetable became a beloved staple on supermarket shelves. “Brilliant idea,” Caplan says. “I did an illustration that went on the package that showed the consumer that you have this plump English-looking pea, but you don’t have to pull it apart.”

Crossbreeding has taken place in nature for as long as crops have been grown. “But what’s happened,” Caplan says, “is we’ve been able to accelerate that many times, because scientists are so brilliant and so innovative.”

Indeed, despite all the advancements in genetic technology, traditional hybrids are still the domain of plant breeders who harness nature by crossbreeding plants—taking the old-fashioned route to optimize crops for food security, pest resistance, climate resilience, and new tastes alike. Hybrids such as Cavendish bananas, boysenberries, and the aforementioned sugar snaps have changed consumer tastes forever, while newer ones like pink strawberries, Cotton Candy grapes, and the plum-apricot combination called “pluots” are still finding their audiences. But one thing is for sure: They’re here to stay, and in a changing climate they’re more important than ever.

Building a better apple

Even before she ate her first sugar snap pea, Karen Caplan knew that hybrid fruits and vegetables were a key part of the world of produce. Her mother, Frieda Rapoport Caplan, had created a business in 1962 largely by introducing exotic new fruits and vegetables to Americans, and Karen eventually took over as president and CEO of the eponymous business, Frieda’s. But seeing the birth of that particular type of pea brought home to her the genius of combining two different breeds of plants.

Here’s how it happened: One of Frieda’s growers had noticed that both the Chinese flat snow pea and the English pea had less-than-ideal characteristics. The former had a tasty exterior but harbored a row of tiny, immature peas, while the latter yielded plump, delicious peas in an inedible shell. The grower wondered: What if the two were crossbred? The results were revelatory: The sugar snap pea merged the best qualities of the two and the hybrid vegetable became a beloved staple on supermarket shelves. “Brilliant idea,” Caplan says. “I did an illustration that went on the package that showed the consumer that you have this plump English-looking pea, but you don’t have to pull it apart.”

Crossbreeding has taken place in nature for as long as crops have been grown. “But what’s happened,” Caplan says, “is we’ve been able to accelerate that many times, because scientists are so brilliant and so innovative.”

Indeed, despite all the advancements in genetic technology, traditional hybrids are still the domain of plant breeders who harness nature by crossbreeding plants—taking the old-fashioned route to optimize crops for food security, pest resistance, climate resilience, and new tastes alike. Hybrids such as Cavendish bananas, boysenberries, and the aforementioned sugar snaps have changed consumer tastes forever, while newer ones like pink strawberries, Cotton Candy grapes, and the plum-apricot combination called “pluots” are still finding their audiences. But one thing is for sure: They’re here to stay, and in a changing climate they’re more important than ever.

Building a better apple

To demystify the process of developing hybridized produce, let’s look at the journey of a grocery-store icon: the apple.

When breeders at academic institutions or private companies aim to create a new apple breed, the idea is to merge two varieties with desirable qualities and complementary strengths, says Jim Luby, a professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Horticultural Science, who has directed fruit-crop breeding and genetics research since 1982.

Researchers have many varieties and unnamed selections available to them to use as parents. “One might be a very crisp fruit but susceptible to a disease, so you might cross that with one that’s disease resistant,” Luby says.

To demystify the process of developing hybridized produce, let’s look at the journey of a grocery-store icon: the apple.

When breeders at academic institutions or private companies aim to create a new apple breed, the idea is to merge two varieties with desirable qualities and complementary strengths, says Jim Luby, a professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Horticultural Science, who has directed fruit-crop breeding and genetics research since 1982.

Researchers have many varieties and unnamed selections available to them to use as parents. “One might be a very crisp fruit but susceptible to a disease, so you might cross that with one that’s disease resistant,” Luby says.

In spring, breeders hand-pollinate the flowers of a tree that has one set of desirable characteristics with the pollen of another tree with different desirable characteristics, then cover them to prevent bees and other pollinators from introducing other types of pollen. Seedlings are then grown and grafted to a rootstock, where breeders first evaluate them in the fruiting stage. The ones that show the most potential are called “selections,” and they are further grafted or cloned to get multiple copies—to confirm the traits that breeders saw in the seedling. “So it’s really at that point, where we’ve done some of what we call a ‘clonal evaluation,’ where we’ve evaluated multiple copies of an individual, that we hope we have an idea of its potential,” Luby says.

In the fall, the plants yield seeds that are then either sprouted in a greenhouse over the winter or planted in spring. Raising the trees can take four to seven years, and when they finally flower and yield fruit, they’re evaluated for various traits—texture usually being the first. “Just about everyone in the world likes a crisp apple,” Luby says. “And otherwise, they’ve got to have some kind of a pleasing flavor.” The breeder goes into the process looking for a taste profile that tips into either the sweet or the tart category, depending on what they think the market most strongly desires.

In spring, breeders hand-pollinate the flowers of a tree that has one set of desirable characteristics with the pollen of another tree with different desirable characteristics, then cover them to prevent bees and other pollinators from introducing other types of pollen. Seedlings are then grown and grafted to a rootstock, where breeders first evaluate them in the fruiting stage. The ones that show the most potential are called “selections,” and they are further grafted or cloned to get multiple copies—to confirm the traits that breeders saw in the seedling. “So it’s really at that point, where we’ve done some of what we call a ‘clonal evaluation,’ where we’ve evaluated multiple copies of an individual, that we hope we have an idea of its potential,” Luby says.

In the fall, the plants yield seeds that are then either sprouted in a greenhouse over the winter or planted in spring. Raising the trees can take four to seven years, and when they finally flower and yield fruit, they’re evaluated for various traits—texture usually being the first. “Just about everyone in the world likes a crisp apple,” Luby says. “And otherwise, they’ve got to have some kind of a pleasing flavor.” The breeder goes into the process looking for a taste profile that tips into either the sweet or the tart category, depending on what they think the market most strongly desires.

The new apple breed must also have a reasonably attractive appearance—ideally a bright color—and be free from skin cracks or other defects. “Especially for the first sale of a new variety, getting a shopper to notice the fruit in the display is important,” Luby says. A final step is to stow the apples away for several months and then test them again to make sure the variety holds up in storage.

If an apple breed passes all these tests, it heads to a nationwide network of growers that vet new varieties. “They have a grower’s eye, or a commercial eye, for what might be valuable,” Luby says. Some apples develop viruses while growing over the next few years, which can be an issue with clonally propagated crops, Luby says—but that doesn’t necessarily disqualify them. The variety can be treated and the virus removed at the Clean Plant Center Northwest in Washington state, after which growers can safely reintroduce the species into their orchards.

If the apple passes all these tests, the breeder will license nurseries to propagate trees and apply for a patent. “If it proves to be useful in a lot of those environments and pleasing to the consumer, it’s commercialized,” Luby says. “And growers will grow it and marketers will market it.”

From there? The classic tale of Johnny Appleseed is fictional for a reason: Every tree that comes from this new variety is cloned by grafting a seedling onto an existing rootstock rather than grown from a seed. “Every one of these new varieties traces back to one apple tree,” Luby says. That’s because apple trees are what’s known as genetically self-incompatible—that is, they can’t self-fertilize from a single seed, and will instead borrow from whatever is available, even a crabapple. In nature, this is how the tree maintains its sturdiness and adaptability to different environments.

Made to last

The new apple breed must also have a reasonably attractive appearance—ideally a bright color—and be free from skin cracks or other defects. “Especially for the first sale of a new variety, getting a shopper to notice the fruit in the display is important,” Luby says. A final step is to stow the apples away for several months and then test them again to make sure the variety holds up in storage.

If an apple breed passes all these tests, it heads to a nationwide network of growers that vet new varieties. “They have a grower’s eye, or a commercial eye, for what might be valuable,” Luby says. Some apples develop viruses while growing over the next few years, which can be an issue with clonally propagated crops, Luby says—but that doesn’t necessarily disqualify them. The variety can be treated and the virus removed at the Clean Plant Center Northwest in Washington state, after which growers can safely reintroduce the species into their orchards.

If the apple passes all these tests, the breeder will license nurseries to propagate trees and apply for a patent. “If it proves to be useful in a lot of those environments and pleasing to the consumer, it’s commercialized,” Luby says. “And growers will grow it and marketers will market it.”

From there? The classic tale of Johnny Appleseed is fictional for a reason: Every tree that comes from this new variety is cloned by grafting a seedling onto an existing rootstock rather than grown from a seed. “Every one of these new varieties traces back to one apple tree,” Luby says. That’s because apple trees are what’s known as genetically self-incompatible—that is, they can’t self-fertilize from a single seed, and will instead borrow from whatever is available, even a crabapple. In nature, this is how the tree maintains its sturdiness and adaptability to different environments.

Made to last

That hardiness—not only in apples, but in all crops—is important now as much as ever, in a climate-challenged world.

Luby says diseases common to North Carolina and Virginia are now turning up in southern New England; out west, water availability and heat are becoming critical issues. In areas unexpectedly seeing early frost damage, researchers are developing varieties that stay dormant until later in the season. “Climate change isn’t going to be the same everywhere,” Luby says. “There are different effects in different places.”

If a breed navigates this developmental gauntlet, the final stop is your local supermarket aisle. People can be creatures of habit, which can make selling a new variety challenging. But conversely, Caplan says, Frieda’s customers are often delighted to find something new. “People get bored. Like you might eat broccoli all day long, but you wish the broccoli stalk wasn’t so thick and so bitter—and broccolini appears.”

Buyers like the incremental change that hybrids bring—when the item is familiar but offers a new twist. “Our philosophy has always been to keep a few aspects of the item similar to what a consumer is used to—just change it up a little bit,” Caplan says.

But even that’s not truly the end of our hypothetical apple’s journey. After it comes to market, there’s sometimes still tweaking to be done. The Honeycrisp was a hit when it first appeared in 1991, but the fruit didn’t ripen until mid to late September—later than sellers liked. Hence the recent development of two new but earlier-growing types: Sweetango and Rave. If you wish it, in the world of hybrids, almost anything is possible.

That hardiness—not only in apples, but in all crops—is important now as much as ever, in a climate-challenged world.

Luby says diseases common to North Carolina and Virginia are now turning up in southern New England; out west, water availability and heat are becoming critical issues. In areas unexpectedly seeing early frost damage, researchers are developing varieties that stay dormant until later in the season. “Climate change isn’t going to be the same everywhere,” Luby says. “There are different effects in different places.”

If a breed navigates this developmental gauntlet, the final stop is your local supermarket aisle. People can be creatures of habit, which can make selling a new variety challenging. But conversely, Caplan says, Frieda’s customers are often delighted to find something new. “People get bored. Like you might eat broccoli all day long, but you wish the broccoli stalk wasn’t so thick and so bitter—and broccolini appears.”

Buyers like the incremental change that hybrids bring—when the item is familiar but offers a new twist. “Our philosophy has always been to keep a few aspects of the item similar to what a consumer is used to—just change it up a little bit,” Caplan says.

But even that’s not truly the end of our hypothetical apple’s journey. After it comes to market, there’s sometimes still tweaking to be done. The Honeycrisp was a hit when it first appeared in 1991, but the fruit didn’t ripen until mid to late September—later than sellers liked. Hence the recent development of two new but earlier-growing types: Sweetango and Rave. If you wish it, in the world of hybrids, almost anything is possible.

Hybrid Fruits and Vegetables – Far From a New Concept

Building a better apple

Building a better apple

Made to last

Made to last

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