David Bedford, the applebreeder at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, was on today's AM Minnesota program. We are fortunate to have an apple breeding program in Minnesota, as there are only three in the United States. In addition to the one here, there is one in Washington state and in New York. Bedford said we have had the program here for 108 years. The program was begun out of a need. When settlers were moving here from the East they brought apple seeds along. They soon discovered that their apple varieties were not winter hardy enough to survive Minnesota winters.

Their first task was to go to parts of the world that were cold like Minnesota and get trees that were winter hardy. They did not taste very good so they began to cross those with the apple varieties they liked. Bedford said it takes about 24-30 years to develop an apple variety. Over the years, the University of Minnesota has developed and released 27 apple varieties. Many of the apples you see in the store were developed in Minnesota. In the picture is one of the newer varieties called Sweet Tango.

 

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