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New apple cultivar inspiring grower hope

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New apple cultivar inspiring grower hope

A co-operative of apple growers from the U.S. and Canada are banking on SweeTango – a cross between Honeycrisp and Zestar – being the next big apple variety.

September 29, 2008, Lake City, Minn. – A co-operative of apple growers from the U.S. and Canada are banking on SweeTango – a cross between Honeycrisp and Zestar – being the next big apple variety.

Zestar. Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota

The new apple cultivar, developed by plant breeders at the University of Minnesota, will be available in the U.S. starting August 2009. It will be grown by 45 members of an apple growers’ cooperative, known as Next Big Thing.

The variety won’t be available in Canada until 2011 because of plant material certification requirements.

Read the whole story here.

To view a promotional video for the new variety, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPF0UHv110.

Honeycrisp.  Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota