Horticultural convention provides early look at new variety
Washington State University tree fruit students cut samples of the new WA 64 apple at the Washington State Tree Fruit Association annual meeting in early December.
Cheryl Schweizer/Basin Business Journal
KENNEWICK — The colors of the apple variety known as WA 64, at least for now, may give it an advantage when it hits produce shelves in a few years.
“It meets modern consumer preferences. It’s a bi-color apple,” said Jeremy Tamsen, director of innovation and commercialization for the College of Agricultural, Human and Resource Sciences at Washington State University. “So you see that yellow, that pink and red. This one does get a little orangey, too, depending on how much sun it gets.”
Growers could try a sample of WA 64 at the Washington State Tree Fruit Association annual convention in Kennewick in early December. It’s the offspring of the Cripps Pink and Honeycrisp varieties, and WSU researchers have been working on it since 1998, according to a WSI press release.
WA 64 was released for commercial licensing earlier this year, according to the press release, and is expected to reach the market by 2029. It doesn’t have a name yet. That will come in 2024; as part of that process, WSU will be asking the public for their ideas.
Its ancestors are a case of opposites attracting - Cripps Pink is known for its tartness, and Honeycrisp for its sweetness.
“You get some of that tartness, and I do think all of the sweetness from both parents,” Tamsen said. “And the texture is a nice blend between the two. It’s got some of the crispy juiciness that the Honeycrisp is famous for, but it has a firmer crunch.”
Successful apples have to do several things at once. Tasting good is one, but not the only one.
“It’s got a really great texture,” Tamsen said “It has that same anti-browning quality when you cut it. It doesn’t brown for a long time. That hits on a big consumer preference.”
For growers, the goal was to fill a gap in the harvest season, he said, so they don’t have to lay off their labor force.
“This apple harvests around the same time as the Golden Delicious. And we’re trying to give people options because one thing orchardists are always trying to manage is their labor load. How do they move that throughout the harvest season, keep their folks around, keep them on their payroll so they can get all their apples off,” he said.
Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.