—by Ross Courtney
A Central California fruit company known more for peaches, nectarines and blueberries is commercializing an apple that harvests as early as the Fourth of July.
This apple does not yet have a trade name, but Family Tree Farms in Reedley believes the early ripening, bicolored fruit of ZeeApple-1, bred by Zaiger Genetics, could add a feather in California’s fresh-from-the-orchard marketing cap and also compete against traditional varieties after storage.
The Golden State ships 2 million fresh 40-pound boxes of apples per year, as many apples as Washington does in a week.
However, the state consumes six times that volume, meaning grocers rely on stored, transported apples to meet demand. To give California growers an edge, marketing agencies play up fresh apples versus controlled-atmosphere storage. Specialty retailers in the region go out of their way to promote local and fresh.
“The California consumer is requesting and looking for locally grown, fresh produce, and this (new apple) would check both of those boxes,” said Todd Sanders, executive director of the California Apple Commission.
However, Family Tree Farms has bigger plans for this apple, saying it stores just as well as more entrenched varieties.
“This is a special enough apple that I don’t want to limit it to a time frame,” said Dan Jackson, a member of the family that owns Family Tree Farms.
The company aims for 300 acres of ZeeApple-1 in California, Jackson said. It also has collaborators with blocks in Australia, France, South Africa and Washington.
Family Tree Farms will market California-grown and internationally produced fruit through its own offices, while domestic production outside California will be led by Chelan Fresh of North Central Washington.
Chelan Fresh has evaluation blocks in different locations in Washington, said Cass Gebbers, CEO of Gebbers Farms, one of the partners in the Chelan Fresh marketing group. It may be the earliest apple to come off trees in the northern part of the state, he said. But he agreed it is just as good fresh or from storage.
Gebbers declined to share acreage but said the company believes in the apple.
“We’re committed, we’re down the road a ways,” Gebbers said.
Breeding and testing
The new apple made appearances at several stops on the International Fruit Tree Association’s summer tour through Central California. Among them was Zaiger Genetics of Modesto, which bred and patented ZeeApple-1.
Zaiger first crossed the parents — themselves varieties that had never been named — in the 1980s while searching for an apple that would harvest early and withstand the Central Valley’s hot summers, said Leith Gardner, owner of Zaiger Genetics.
“We were trying to find something that stayed red here in the valley,” she said.
Other breeding targets were fire blight tolerance, precocity and slow oxidation, meaning it won’t brown quickly after being sliced.
Once ZeeApple-1 started to check the right boxes, it moved to commercial trials. Grower Jeff Colombini of Lodi, California, has a history of testing Zaiger varieties. He first planted it in 2020 but “moved” the block two years later by grafting wood onto old Cripps Pink trees on M.7 roots in another location. Today, he has a row of 30 trees in their third leaf.
He likes the apple’s early harvest timing, which is about the same as his other early variety, Wildfire Gala. ZeeApple-1 comes off the trees with about 20 pounds of pressure, compared to his usual 16–18 pounds, giving it a more forgiving harvest window than with Galas or Fujis.
It colors and sizes well for California, but its precocity requires diligent chemical thinning. He was late on that chore this year, and his apples ended up on the small side when he picked on July 19 — still early for his location, which is north of and cooler than Reedley.
“The timing is important because we want to get our apples picked, packed and sold before the 800-pound gorilla starts harvest,” said Colombini, current chair of the California Apple Commission. He meant Washington.
The timing may even give an early start to juice makers who specialize in using fresh apples instead of concentrate, he said.
Family Tree Farms
Colombini delivers his small crop — 2.5 bins this year — to Family Tree Farms, which has exclusive marketing rights in California. The company is a global giant in blueberries, stone fruit and citrus.
Jackson, of Family Tree Farms, has about 40 acres of ZeeApple-1 on M.9 rootstocks on his farm. He planted two-leader trees at 15- by 4-foot spacing and single leaders in 15-by-2 spacing.
In his experience, the apple harvests two weeks ahead of Gala strains, giving empty warehouses a chance to fire up their lines early. It also might come off trees before summer heat.
This year, the apple colored well despite an unprecedented heat wave of nearly two weeks over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, he said. One of his blocks has netting, more for hail than shade, and the other does not. He could use Surround (kaolin clay) as a sun protectant but chose not to this year — wanting to test the apple’s limits.
His first two picks colored well and beat the heat. His two later picks suffered some sunburn and low color. His goal is two picks, once he gets better at thinning, Jackson said. He echoed Colombini’s concerns about that task.
The company is in the process of working on the trademark and has some name ideas.
“The hardest part for us now is: What do we call the apple?” Jackson said. •
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