Dutoit Group (Dutoit) was excited about results from its semi-commercial trials with Ifored’s red-fleshed apple varieties, which will be marketed under the Kissabel brand name.
Willie Kotze, technical manager at Dutoit, told Farmer’s Weekly that they have been planting various Kissabel varieties, with different skin colours, as they became available in their trial blocks on their Western Cape farms at Witzenberg and Koue Bokkeveld.
Three years ago, they selected five of the promising red-skinned varieties, grafted these on M9 rootstocks and planted them on 1ha of land, under shade netting, for further evaluation. This year, the trees produced their first semi-commercial yields.
Kotze said that a challenge with these varieties, with flesh ranging in colour from a delicate pink to intense red, is that they originate from old, red-fleshed, wild apple varieties, carefully selected and crossbred over many years.
“I was not excited when I tasted the varieties when we started the trials years ago, as most of the apples of the varieties back then were small, astringent and the skin was extremely dense, not like the crisp and crunch associated with modern varieties,” he said.
The apples from the semi-commercial orchards, however, were appealing.
“The apples were a good size, with yields comparable with those of other modern varieties. What really grabbed me was its sweet-tart balance with berry flavours and crisp texture,” he said.
Read the full article: pressreader.com
