Surprising 'Honeycrisp' Information Released

Today in an interview with Topper Sponsel of Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard, the first public release of unexpected information regarding the origins of the highly popular Honeycrisp apple was made by David Bedford, head of the apple breeding program at the University of Minnesota's Agricultural Experiment Station. It answers one question that wasn't even being asked, and leaves another that was thought to be known but, as it appears now, may never be known.

Records and public releases from the University of Minnesota from 1991 to the present have identified the parentage of Honeycrisp as the cross 'Macoun' x 'Honeygold'. But recently completed DNA testing has determined that neither Macoun nor Honeygold are parents of Honeycrisp. That's the answer to the question no one was asking.

The testing determined for certain that Keepsake, another apple from the University of Minnesota's apple breeding program that was released in 1978, is one of the parents. But, despite extensive searching, the other parent has not been identified. There is no DNA match among any of the varieties that are thought to be possible parents.

Bedford proposed one explanation for the whereabouts of the parent that doesn't seem to exist. "It might be a numbered selection and even discarded by now."

That statement seems to leave open the possiblity that a numbered selection which still exists may be the unknown parent, but he didn't say whether there are plans for any further attempts to determine that.

No explanation was given as to how the erroneous parentage designations were made in the first place. The University's Research Center routinely crosses and plants thousands of seeds annually, moving them and the resulting seedling trees from place to place over a period of years, so there are multiple points where a mix-up could take place. Bedford did not mention it in regard to the error, but it is a matter of public record that he began work at the University's experimental farm in 1979 and took over the breeding program in 1982. The cross in question was made in 1960 and handled by others preceding him.