YAKIMA, Wash. – A tree fruit varieties management company in Yakima has announced an agreement with Stemilt Growers Inc., Wenatchee, and Chelan Fresh Marketing, Chelan, to commercialize red-flesh apples to be grown in Washington.

Proprietary Variety Management has tested two unnamed varieties of red-flesh apples developed by apple breeder Bill Howell, of Prosser, and found them to be of exceptional quality, said Lynnell Brandt, president of PVM and Brandt’s Fruit Trees Inc., a Yakima nursery.

Howell is president of the Northwest Nursery Improvement Institute, an association of commercial tree fruit nurseries of which Brandt’s Fruit Trees is a member.

Stemilt and Chelan Fresh will plant test blocks to evaluate the varieties horticulturally with an eye toward marketing them in a few years, Brandt said.

Article by Dan Wheat, Capital Press