Honeycrisp

History

Honeycrisp came out of the University of Minnesota’s apple breeding programme, which aimed at winter-hardy apples of high quality¹. The cross that produced it was probably made about 1960, although records from the period are lacking². The seedling was planted in 1962 at the University’s Horticultural Research Center near Excelsior and picked out in September 1974 for testing as MN 1711¹. The original tree was discarded after winter injury in 1977, and four grafted copies in a test orchard were also marked for removal; David Bedford, newly appointed as breeder, spared them because they stood on a poor site and too few notes had been taken on the selection². MNopedia dates the rescue to 1982³.

The University filed for a plant patent in November 1988, granted in March 1990 with Jim Luby and David Bedford as inventors¹, and introduced the variety in 1991². In 2006 the Minnesota legislature made it the state fruit⁴, after a letter-writing campaign by a class of fourth-graders at Andersen Elementary School in Bayport³. By 2019 the University had received $16.5 million in royalties; the US patent expired in 2008³.

The parentage recorded for the seedling, Macoun × Honeygold¹, soon looked doubtful, and DNA markers showed it to be wrong². A marker study identified Keepsake as one parent, and in 2017 a study of 3,435 SNP markers confirmed Keepsake and identified the other parent as MN1627, an unreleased University selection from Duchess of Oldenburg × Golden Delicious, selected in 1951 and probably now extinct².

Honeycrisp became one of the main American apples: the US industry’s forecast for the 2026/27 crop put it fourth among US varieties, after Gala, Red Delicious and Granny Smith, with 10 per cent of production (“approximately 27 million bushels”)⁵. Most of the US crop is grown in the Pacific Northwest, and in 2022 it was the most valuable of the five leading US apples, worth roughly twice as much per pound as Fuji⁶. Nine cultivars bred from it were then on the market⁶, among them Minneiska and WA 38².

The fruit

The fruit is medium to large, 7.0 to 10.2 cm across, and oblate to roundly oblate⁷. The thin skin is 50 to 90 per cent mottled red over yellow, more coloured where the sun reaches it¹, and it may colour less well in warmer climates⁷. The cream-coloured flesh is coarse-grained, extremely crisp and very juicy, its large cells bursting with juice when bitten^1,7. The flavour is sweet-tart and mildly aromatic^1,7; fruit picked early is mild, while later pickings can be strongly aromatic¹. Above all a dessert apple, it is also good for pies, crisps, apple sauce and salads^1,7.

At Excelsior it can be picked from 10 September to 15 October, best in the fourth week of September, about five days after McIntosh; the fruit ripens evenly and does not drop¹. It holds its crispness in store: the patent recorded at least five months at about 1 °C without controlled atmosphere¹, and the University now gives about seven months in cold air at about 3 °C and ten months or more in controlled atmosphere⁷.

Growing

The tree is moderately vigorous; the patent describes it as slightly upright¹, the University’s growing notes as somewhat spreading⁷. It is hardy in USDA zone 4, about −32 to −34 °C (“-25 to -30°F”)⁷. The patent recorded annual crops without thinning; the trees set up to 5 per cent of fruit with their own pollen, but cross-pollination is desirable for commercial crops¹.

Awais Khan of Cornell has called it “one of the most difficult apple cultivars to grow”⁸. It needs careful nutrient management to limit bitter pit, is prone to zonal leaf chlorosis, and suffers several storage disorders, among them bitter pit, soft scald and soggy breakdown⁶. Bitter pit is worst on young trees; soft scald can be reduced by holding the fruit at 10 °C for five to seven days before cold storage, and the fruit should not be stored at 0 °C or below⁷. Vigorous young trees on susceptible rootstocks can be badly hit by fire blight in severe years, while older trees show moderate to good resistance⁷. Honeycrisp is diploid^6,8.

Where the sources disagree

• Parentage. The patent records the cross as Macoun × Honeygold¹. DNA studies show instead that Honeycrisp is Keepsake × MN1627²; the DNA evidence is much the better supported.
• Who made the cross. MNopedia says Cecil Stushnoff made the cross in 1960, yet the archive it lists describes him as joining the University’s horticulture department in 1967³. The breeders’ own study says only that the records point to a cross made around 1960².
• Apple scab. The patent described the variety as slightly susceptible to scab¹; later work reports it as resistant^2,6.