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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Heirloom fruit

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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>, Anton Callaway <marillen@earthlink.net>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Heirloom fruit
  • Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:46:07 -0700

The way I learned it is that an heirloom fruit is one that is propagated by seed, passed along from one person to another. For example, the Door County apricots which have been passed along as seed. They come sufficiently true from seed that seedlings of the variety are recognizeable as the parent variety. Indian Blood peach is another such type often grown from seed.
By comparison, "antique" fruits are asexually propagated (reproduced by cuttings or grafting) varieties which are at least 100 years old. "Delicious" apple qualifies as an antique by that, as does Concord grape, since they are over 100 years old.
-Lon Rombough
NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
On Sep 23, 2009, at 5:32 AM, Anton Callaway wrote:

Actually, all apples in commercial production today rely on the same basic mechanism of breeding as ever- genetic recombination. Namely when sexual reproduction occurs, a new and unique genetic mix is formed for each meiotic event. This is no different than what happens in the wild.



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