Midwest Apple Improvement Association

About MAIA
Board of Directors
Newsletter
Crosses
Membership
Apple History
Membership Application

Selection Evaluation
You can print this pdf file and use it to evaluate your new seedlings.

Pollination techniques
Text and photos on making crosses

Visit the PRI site for information on scab resistant apples. We have searchable databases for apple germplasm, progeny numbers, and field evaluations.

Annual Meeting

This year’s annual meeting will be held at Dawes Arboretum
 Newark, Ohio, November 10, 2007

Meeting Agenda

Letter to Members

About MAIA, the Midwest Apple Improvement Association

There is a need for a Midwest apple breeding program. As current apple breeding programs are unlikely to produce varieties that will be economically viable for the lower Midwest

Mission Statement

To develop Economically and Culturally Viable Apple Cultivars for the Midwest

Goals and Activities

  1. Champion the cause (the need for a Midwest apple-breeding program), and build a viable membership organization covering the Midwest.
  2. Carry out a grower driven, grower involved breeding program with the help of the Ohio State University and other research institutions.
  3. Develop and carry out a marketing program for the varieties developed including nursery stock and the apples.

Apple Breeding Objectives

  1. Reliable and productive cropping equal to or better than Golden Delicious
  2. Fireblight resistances
  3. Scab resistances
  4. Consumer qualities acceptable to the modern consumer: size, firmness, store-ability, flavor, unique qualities and maturity fitting with current or other new varieties to lengthen the apple harvest and marketing season.

The opportune time is now. Kazakstan apple genetic material, which has been made available to Midwest growers, offers some real hope for developing apple varieties suited to the Midwest. The USDA collected plants have been screened for frost tolerance and disease resistance.

The Kazakstan plant samples have a vast array of diverse genetics. Crossbreeding Kazakstan stock with the best modern varieties will provide new sources of disease resistance, cropping reliability and unique quality characteristics.

This site maintained by Anna Whipkey