Changing apples in Maryland

 

As the climate changes, plant horticulturists and agricultural scientists are doing their best to keep up. In Maryland, they're working on creating new varieties of apple that can deal with warmer and wetter weather. No doubt this is being done elsewhere, but since I'm in Maryland and the article was about apples in Maryland, I'm noting it here.

Maryland researchers breed apples for a changing climate
Two new varieties can better tolerate hotter, wetter weather.

"Decades ago, Chris Walsh – now an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland – started researching and breeding apples in his region.

Walsh: “And I realized that the new apple varieties that we were trialing locally didn’t have the ability to stand up to the heat.”

So he started breeding apples that can. Recently, his team secured patents for two varieties – one red, and one yellow.

So far, they’re just called MD-TAP1 and 2 – short for Maryland Tree Architecture Program. But they’ll get catchier names when licensed by a commercial nursery."

More about this here, from the University of Maryland.

This is the new red apple: