Karmijn de Sonnaville is a variety of
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
bred by Piet de Sonnaville, working in
Wageningen
Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many ...
(
the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
) in 1949. It is a cross of
Cox's Orange Pippin and
Jonathan, and was first grown commercially in 1971.
National Fruit Collection page
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It is high both in sugars (including some sucrose) and acidity. It is a triploid
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...
, and hence needs good pollination, and can be difficult to grow. It also suffers from fruit russet, which can be severe. In Manhart's book "Apples for the 21st century", Karmijn de Sonnaville is tipped as a possible success for the future, but as time passes, it seems less likely to make it to the big-time.
Karmijn de Sonnaville is not widely grown in large quantities, but at The Apple Farm in Ireland it is grown for eating and juice-making, for which the variety is well suited.
Piet de Sonnaville died in 1995, but was still involved in apple breeding at that time; his son Ben, who lives in Altforst in the Netherlands, continues to grow apples and breed new varieties.
References
Karmijn de Sonnaville
at Orange Pippin
Trees of AntiquitySalt Springs Apple Company
{{Apples, state=collapsed
Apple cultivars
Dutch inventions