University of Minnesota introduces Kudos apples amid growing climate concerns

David Bedford is among the first people in the world to have tasted a Honeycrisp apple.

He shepherded the champion apple to markets when he started at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s. And still remembers the taste.

"I was pretty new at the game then," Bedford said, regarding the apple's release in 1991. "I, frankly, wasn't sure what was going on."

Honeycrisp, the varietal developed in the U orchard a few miles southwest of Lake Minnetonka, ushered in a new, scrumptious age of apple crispness. In the before times, apples had flavor — but not like Honeycrisp's bite.

For a fruit market long suffering under mealy Red Delicious apples, Honeycrisp rocked apple taste expectations. The breed unleashed creativity and market demand for what an apple — and its myriad textures — could be.

Apple breeders are now tasked with solving a more serious crucible: an increasingly hot and dry climate.

Minnesota orchards — like other backyard gardeners and corn farmers in the North Star State — coaxed crops this fall after yet another summer of scant rainfall.

Currently, 82% of the state sits in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Summer's hot temperatures spilled into fall, prompting officials to cancel this month's Twin Cities Marathon, a typical harbinger of autumn.

Apples, in general, are resilient. They take years to grow and bear fruit, so a year or two of sub-optimal conditions won't spell doom. But experts, like Bedford, are already wondering if the increasingly hot summers could diminish fruit in years ahead.

"Our varieties get through normal winters under normal conditions," Bedford said last week from his office at the Horticultural Research Center and Apple House in Victoria.

What unnerves Bedford, he said, is a tough winter walloping a drought-distressed orchard.

"The worry would be, you've had an orchard that has been drought-stressed for three years now, and you have the winter of all winters."

The U can only do so much. Apples, essentially, have two parts: tops and bottoms. The U focuses on the top, the tasting part. The real challenge to develop more heat-resistant apple trees could come through focusing on the rootstalks.

Gennaro Fazio, a Geneva, N.Y.-based geneticist and apple rootstock breeder with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said for years researchers have investigated breeding trunks and roots for apple trees that take less water. These breeds, scientists hope, would not only withstand climactic changes over the next century but could also grow in places, such as Tunisia, without abundant water access.

"We're planting apples in places where it might be a little bit more difficult to access water, or it might be in certain heat situations," Fazio said.

One 2015 report from Gennaro and two colleagues, looked at amplifying genes in apple trunks that produce "vigorous root systems" and could help the trees adapt for a drier future.

Andy Ferguson, who co-owns Ferguson's Orchards, has commercial orchards in western Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro.

This summer, his staff has run drip irrigation systems to keep trees sufficiently watered.

"Luckily, apple trees are pretty resilient from drought, especially mature trees," Ferguson said. "What we really worry about is the younger trees."

Last year's snowpack was helpful, he said, but apple pickers are notoriously, well, picky. If a significant stretch of a tree's early life is in drought, experts say apples can ripen too early or drop fruit.

The program at the U was born out of climate woes. Minnesotans in the mid-19th century brought apple trees from out east. But these varieties couldn't survive the famously harsh winters. When one apple tree did survive near Lake Minnetonka, news spread, Bedford said. Soon after, the Legislature funded an experiment station.

This fall, the U announced the arrival of its 29th variety, named Kudos. Nurseries first received Kudos for propagation last year, meaning its apples won't be ready for picking until later this decade.

Bedford stands next to the oldest-living Honeycrisp tree. He estimates that he's taken 100 cuttings from the plant and there are 25 million Honeycrisp trees now around the globe. Kudos' lineage comes from apple royalty: Honeycrisp and Sweet Tango.

Drought resistance is just one of 20 factors to judge an apple and it is not yet among the top considerations for breeders.

"You got to have the crisp," Bedford said. "We live and die by two things: flavor and texture."

Asked how he and his team arrive at the scientific conclusion of just what makes an apple good, Bedford is clear. "You eat them."