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  • From: "Jerry Hapka" <jahapka@mncable.net>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] North Dakota apple: Wodarz #83
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 20:57:43 -0500

Hello,

Last fall I tasted a few interesting apples from a gentleman here in
northern Minnesota. The fruits were yellow with pink blush and had
a mild, sweet, pleasant taste that reminded me of marshmallows.
He called them Winter Banana, yet not with certainty; and so
I did some looking for the answer. I would guess that they were
more likely Wodarz #83 but I don't know. What I do know is that
the following are written about a variety called Wodarz and the
variety Wodarz #83:

1. "Wodarz - Unknown parentage. Green apple is not very
nice looking but is very sweet and stores well. Somewhat
tolerant to fire blight. Ripens late. Stores three months.
Hardy to -50 degrees F. Zone 3. Joint release of North Dakota
and the R.L. Wodarz family..."--Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory:
Third Edition

2. "...We have been distributing about 150 apple trees. Some
folks got No. 83, which is a yellow fruit. The quality,
according to some, approximates the flavor of Yellow Delicious."
--Wodarz, R.L in North Dakota Horticulture 9(2):2. July 1966.

3. "#83: Its pedigree does run back to Mcintosh or Medina
(a Delicious variety) as I have many seedlings of those two.
Folks that like Golden Delicious will like this #83. To my
judging, the flavor approximates that of Golden Delicious.
The tree is 17 years old, on its own roots, seems hardy, is
free from objectionable shortcoming. It will keep till spring,
but is at its best late in the fall."--"Apples and Crabapples
Developed and Selected" by R.L. Wodarz [ca. 1972]

[Items #2 and #3 above were from "Articles Relating to and/or
Written by R.L. Wodarz, 1925-1971," compiled by Robert G.
Askew. The Wodarz experimental orchard was in southeastern
North Dakota.]

4. In response to a page from the 2001 catalog from St.
Lawrence Nurseries: "...Thank you for mailing the list of apple
varieties from St Lawrence Nurseries...
The apple described is not the #83 as I know it!
#83 is yellow, smooth a very comfortable "shape" to hold,
ab't 2 to 2 1/2 inch[e]s mature - (comfortable to hold.) The
fruit keeps very well from fall until late spring...(in our dirt cellar)...
delicious flavor...
"Where did the company "get" the [scion]wood to graft and produce
the trees they call Wodarz #83? I have no recollection of our dad
giving away wood to anyone except NDSU (Bob Askew)...
I only wish #83 was described as its true self!...--personal letter
from Adelaide Wodarz, daughter of the late R.L. Wodarz,
June 17, 2003.

Hopefully this will help to make Ms. Wodarz's wish come true.

Jerry Hapka
Warroad, MN
Zone 3A




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  • [NAFEX] North Dakota apple: Wodarz #83, Jerry Hapka, 07/25/2003

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