Aug 09, 2013 09:23 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Susan Brown, apple breeder and horticulture professor at Cornell University, has developed two new apple varieties, 'SnapDragon and RubyFrost' in partnership with New York Apple growers at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. They are now available at selected farm stands.

SnapDragon, a Honeycrisp hybrid, is described as crunchy, juicy and spicy -sweet flavour. This distinct breed is also known to have a longer shelf life. While the RubyFrost, which ripens later this fall, has a rich red color and a juicy taste.

"I remember my very first bite of SnapDragon. The taste, the crispness and the juiciness impressed us," said Brown. "Retailers will appreciate its other qualities as well, because although SnapDragon's harvest window starts relatively early - in late September - its long storage and shelf life means retailers may be able to offer it with consistent quality for a longer time than Honeycrisp."

Before releasing the varieties to the public, both SnapDragon and RubyFrost were subjected to extensive taste-testing process as NY1 and NY2. 

The breeding process for RubyFrost and SnapDragon, began in 1992 and 1998 respectively. Susan said that the new varieties took relatively less time to bear the final results when compared to Empire apples that took 40 years to come to fruition.

 "We make a cross and we plant out seedlings and it takes four years for it to first fruit," said Brown. "So we took that first bite and we knew we had something and so we propagated trees. And when you propagate trees that take two more years. And then when we tested them we said we want to rush this to commercial growers so we put it out onto multiple sites in New York. And when the growers started tasting it was like, 'Oh my God, this is wonderful.' "

So far, Cornell has produced 66 different variants of apple, including Cortland, Macoun, Empire, Jonagold and the disease-resistant Liberty.

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