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Kevin Brandt, the vice president of Proprietary Variety Management shared that Cosmic Crisp® is looking for grants and additional funding due to the predicted big rollout.

Competitors have become friends in order to prepare for the success of the Cosmic Crisp®. The five marketing entities that handle the lion’s share of the state’s apple marketing are teaming up and already finding success in the shared venture. Currently the plan is to have PVM develop and coordinate the marketing plan with advisement from the formed committee.

Always looking ahead, industry leaders say that the Cosmic Crisp® already has the perfect makings of a hit. Even with the continued success of the Honeycrisp, the market isn’t saturated like some might guess. In fact the real question is if the industry can keep up.

Read the full article in Capital Press.

The Great Lakes Expo hosted various experts and industry leaders to talk about the things that keep growers up at night. Think pests, labor issues, and water usage.

Outside of the general grower concerns and Michigan-centric topics, Cosmic Crisp® was presented as a major industry competitor. Aside from unprecedented production, Cosmic Crisp®’s long-term storage capabilities means that growers will need to adjust how they approach storage to remain competitive.

Read the full article in Growing Produce.

Consistency and technology were the biggest points made during the second day of the Hort Show. Bloom targets, honeybee foraging models, and pruning plans were voiced as a way to obtain and gain success through consistent crops.

Another major key point was to think of organic growing in terms of ecosystems and ultimately from a big picture perspective.

Read the full article in Good Fruit Grower.

On Day 1 of the Hort Show, Cosmic Cris ® took center stage during discussion about specialized varieties. Lynnell and Kevin Brandt shared exciting Cosmic Crisp numbers such as nurseries having 5.8 million trees ready for planting in 2018.

Lynnell also told growers that branded produce is really where the industry in headed. The numbers speak to that as well, currently 38 percent of produce is branded. Marketing is at the heart of Cosmic Crisp’s ®

introduction and growers also closed the discussion suggesting that the state invest in efforts to make the new apple known. 

Read the full article in Good Fruit Grower.

Washington has imported most of the apple breeds they grow. Red Delicious from Iowa, Golden Delicious from West Virginia, Gala from New Zealand, Grammy Smith from Australia, Fuji from Japan, and Honeycrisp from Minnesota. Better commercial apples have been a goal for Washington State since the 90s. The movement away from the Red Delicious to the consumers’ choice Honeycrisp is part of what is driving leaders in the industry. Cosmic Crisp® is set to be Washington’s debut.

A traditional approach is not the Cosmic Crisp® approach. This means instead of pushing the product on consumers, Washington is getting consumers pulled in the exciting early days through taste tests and focus groups.

Sounds exciting? Join the party. Intense demand for the Cosmic Crisp® required a random lottery in 2014 to award the first trees because so many Washington growers wanted the chance to be part of history and grow their state’s sensational apple. Millions of more apples have been ordered because the initial lottery wasn’t enough.

Apple production is ramping up in other states such as Minnesota, Michigan, and New York but with the highly anticipated Cosmic Crisp®, Washington is still the state to beat.

Read the full article in Seattle Business Magazine.

Honeycrisp has set an industry example that shoppers want the best and most exclusive varieties. This makes Cosmic Crisp® worth the gamble and “almost a mandatory industry development.” The demand is real and Cosmic Crisp® is expected to hit the public market in 2020.

With so much industry support, the sky’s the limit. That’s exactly why WSU’s breeding program has specifically developed Cosmic Crisp® for Washington growers and industry investments are almost $500 million in production and marketing.

Good Fruit Grower Magazine

Cosmic Crisp hit the screen with a spot on CBS Sunday Morning. With special correspondent, Mo Rocca, describing the apple’s “sparkling, rosy cheeks, the Cosmic Crisp is pomological royalty.” He even ponders if Johnny Appleseed would approve of the new apple. Watch the entire segment on CBS News:  Was Johnny Appleseed for Real?

Washington apple growers are pinning big hopes on the Cosmic Crisp, having already planted 630,000 apple trees this spring. There will be an estimated 10 million more planted over the next two years.

Read the original article in Capital Press, “Growers pin big hopes for Cosmic Crisp.”

Washington State University researchers recently shared their perspectives on growing the new Cosmic Crisp® apple variety at a field day south of Wenatchee.

Those tips include that Mechanical pruning works well on Cosmic Crisp apple trees by the fourth year and cutting the tips of one-year old limbs controls growth better than limb bending.

The only negative note about growing Cosmic Crisp® is the trees grow vigorously, and that can cause too much space between fruit and pushing more fruit to the outer edges of the tree, which is a less desirable location for fruit to grow. Apples that grow closer to the trunk are preferred.

Read “Growers get latest Cosmic Crisp® horticultural tips” in the Capital Press.