Red-fleshed apple varieties showing more promise

Dutoit Group (Dutoit) was excited about results from its semi-commercial trials with Ifored’s red-fleshed apple varieties, which will be marketed under the Kissabel brand name.

- Glenneis Kriel

Willie Kotze, technical manager at Dutoit, told Farmer's Weekly that they have been planting various Kissabel varieties, with different skin colours, as they became available in their trial blocks on their Western Cape farms at Witzenberg and Koue Bokkeveld.

Three years ago, they selected five of the promising red-skinned varieties, grafted these on M9 rootstocks and planted them on 1ha of land, under shade netting, for further evaluation. This year, the trees produced their first semi-commercial yields.