In the quest to make apple trees more resilient in a warming climate, some Michigan researchers are looking for a late bloomer. A native Michigan apple
Michigan State University horticulture professor Steve Van Nocker holds wild apples near a Malus coronaria tree Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Meridian Township, Mich. In the quest to make apple trees more resilient in a warming climate, some Michigan researchers are looking for a late bloomer.
Van Nocker wants to identify the genes responsible for the Malus coronaria’s delayed blooms and use them to develop more frost-resistant apple varieties, a decades-long process. But first, he’s hiking through forests, trying to find the elusive trees. University of Maryland researchers recently announced the development of a more heat-tolerant apple variety. At Penn State University, a team built an unmanned vehicle with a propane-fueled heater that can roll through an orchard and automatically warm trees.
According to a Washington State University study published this month, major apple-growing counties in the top three U.S. apple-producing states — Washington, Michigan and New York — are seeing fewer cold days and more warm fall nights than they used to. Washington also is experiencing more extreme heat.
Malus coronaria – also called sweet crabapple — was once so common in Michigan its blossoms were designated as the state flower in 1897. But the species appears to be in decline, van Nocker said. Parking lots and shopping centers now stand in many of the places where the tree was documented in the past, and the remaining trees often produce little new growth or fruit.
Making a later-blooming commercial apple could take decades. If a Malus coronaria is crossed with a commercial apple tree to make a new hybrid, it would take four or five years for that tree to start producing apples. Crossbreeding would continue until researchers developed an apple with the desired traits of both varieties.“With climate change, it’s quite possible that apples won’t be able to be produced in Michigan in the future,” he said.
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