RED TO THE CORE
The Apple Isle has given birth to its own unique apple. This new apple is “Magnus Summer Surprise” and it has a fascinating backstory. Developed by apple expert and nurseryman Bob Magnus at Woodbridge Fruit Trees at Cygnet, it is marketed around Australia through Tasmanian horticultural company PMA.
Bob has retired, but his son, Dr Nik Magnus, is carrying on the fruit tree side of Bob’s nursery business, juggling busy careers as both assistant surgeon and nurseryman.
From the outside it is a medium-sized, smooth, scarlet apple. It looks very much like the apple in the fairytale that the wicked queen used to poison Snow White but, if Snow White had bitten this Tassie apple, not only would she have been right as rain, she’d have discovered its rosy red flesh.
The red pigment also permeates its deep pink spring flowers, reddish leaves and bark, adding to its garden appeal.
“When you cut into a stem it’s red too” adds Nik.
The red flesh colour and fruit size have come from its interesting parentage, which is a cross between a crabapple and a dessert apple.
Nik Magnus explains that in 1989 his father noticed an old crabapple growing near Huonville. Its large, bright red fruit with deep red flesh piqued his interest. When he tasted the fruit he discovered too that it wasn’t as tart as a normal crabapple. Bob suspected it was a chance seedling that had a crabapple and a dessert apple as its parents and thought it was worth propagating.
“Apples are very promiscuous,” explains Nik. “If you collect seeds from any backyard apple — such as a “Granny Smith” — and sow them, you’ll probably have as many different apples as the seeds you sowed.
“Bob took grafting wood from the old crabapple tree,” says Nik. The result was a success, and Bob named the new tree “Huonville Crab” and began selling it.
Some 10 years later Bob became interested in apples with red flesh — more for their novelty value for the backyard grower than as a commercial variety destined for the supermarket, says Nik.
He wondered if the “Huonville Crab” could be used to breed a red-fleshed apple, so in 2002 he collected seeds by saving pulp left over from pressing the crabs to get juice. The seeds were planted and hundreds of seedlings grew.
It can take apples five to seven years to produce fruit and in that time the trees can grow to be more than 5m tall.
Luckily, Bob had some tricks of the trade to speed up the process and keep the trees small. He took grafting wood from the seedlings and grafted them onto super-dwarfing rootstocks.
This reduces the space needed to grow the trees and gets them to fruit production much earlier.
Within a few years he could sample the fruit — and one showed promise.
“The fruit are small to medium with rich pink flesh that’s white around the core and a sweet flavour,” says Nik. Bob decided it was worth propagating as a backyard fruit tree.
From this one selection, thousands of grafted dwarf and semi-dwarf “Magnus Summer Surprise” trees have been produced and are now available at garden centres or by mail order from Woodbridge Fruit Trees (www.woodbridgefruittrees.com.au).
“There’s still stock available,” says Nik, and the trees will fruit next year or the year after.
The tree is a heavy and regular bearer that produces its apples mid-season (March to April). To get slightly larger fruit, Nik recommends thinning fruit in early summer.