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Pink Pearl Apple Scionwood (Spring 2024)


A pretty pink-fleshed apple created by Albert Etter. Also known as Etter Surprise.

Pink Pearl is biennial tending, low vigor, and somewhat disease susceptible. It is hardy to zone 4. It makes a great landscape tree; the late bloom is a profusion of pink-crimson flowers.

The apple is medium sized, rosy cream, with flesh that is streaked with a startling bright pink. It is a wonderful table apple that makes a beautiful and tasty pink applesauce. The flesh is crisp, fine-grained, and aromatic with a delicious sweet-tart flavor. Some say it has a sour berry notes.

Pink Pearl was first introduced in 1944 by Albert Etter (1872-1950), a Californian plant breeder famous for breeding red-fleshed apples. Etter was a "visionary" in the sense that he rejected the conventions of fruit breeding and sought out the most exotic and peculiar plant material with a view to revolutionizing the commercial market. After obtaining scion of the red-fleshed apple "Surprise" around 1900, Etter set about breeding dozens of red-fleshed seedlings. Pink Pearl (originally Test Seedling #39) is today the most commonly grown product of this breeding program.

In comparison to the red-fleshed varieties developed by Niels Hansen, Etter's Surprise progeny are less pigmented but superior in terms of eating quality. An excellent discussion of Etter's career can be found at Albert Etter and the Pink-Fleshed Daughters of 'Surprise' by Ram Fishman.

Volume Pricing

Premiums are included in the following prices if applicable. These prices are for regular scion. Add $1 for clean scion.

Quantity Pink Pearl Apple Scion
1 $12.00
2-5 $7.00
6-10 $6.00
11-99 $5.00
100+ $4.00

Order Your Scions

Select clean or regular:

$13.00 ea.

This is the full retail price for orders of 1 scion. You can get these scion for as low as $4.00 each – see Volume Pricing above. More about Pricing & Grading.

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Clean vs. Regular

Our clean scion is harvested from trees grown on G.16, which is extremely sensitive to viruses. These trees would not have survived if the scion contained viruses. Our clean wood has not been lab tested. Regular = may contain one of the common latent viruses; this is not usually a problem and can be used with most rootstocks.

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Pink Pearl is biennial tending, low vigor, and somewhat disease susceptible. It is hardy to zone 4. It makes a great landscape tree; the late bloom is a profusion of pink-crimson flowers.

The apple is medium sized, rosy cream, with flesh that is streaked with a startling bright pink. It is a wonderful table apple that makes a beautiful and tasty pink applesauce. The flesh is crisp, fine-grained, and aromatic with a delicious sweet-tart flavor. Some say it has a sour berry notes.

Pink Pearl was first introduced in 1944 by Albert Etter (1872-1950), a Californian plant breeder famous for breeding red-fleshed apples. Etter was a "visionary" in the sense that he rejected the conventions of fruit breeding and sought out the most exotic and peculiar plant material with a view to revolutionizing the commercial market. After obtaining scion of the red-fleshed apple "Surprise" around 1900, Etter set about breeding dozens of red-fleshed seedlings. Pink Pearl (originally Test Seedling #39) is today the most commonly grown product of this breeding program.

In comparison to the red-fleshed varieties developed by Niels Hansen, Etter's Surprise progeny are less pigmented but superior in terms of eating quality. An excellent discussion of Etter's career can be found at Albert Etter and the Pink-Fleshed Daughters of 'Surprise' by Ram Fishman.


The Fruit

Fruit Type

Category: Apple
Subcategory: Cold-Hardy, Hot-Climate, Red Flesh

Fruit Uses & Storage

Uses: fresh eating, cider, sauce
Storage duration: less than one month (approximate, depending on storage conditions)

Fruit Appearance

Skin color: yellow
Flesh color: pink

Fruit Origins

Parentage: Surprise seedling
Origin: Humboldt, California
Introduced in: 1944
Introduced by: Albert Etter

The Environment

Calendar & Geography

USDA zones: 4 - 8
Chill hours: Not yet determined
Ripening date: Sep 15 (approximate, in New York State) + 0 days after McIntosh

Diseases & Pests

Apple Scab: Susceptible
Fireblight: Susceptible

Pollination

Pollination Factors

Bloom group: 1
Is it self-fertile? N
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid

Pollination Partners

This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Pink Pearl Apple. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.

Tree Ships Currently in Stock
Virginia Crab Apple 2024 0
Elstar Apple 2024 0
Rubinette Apple 2024 0
St. Edmund's Russet Apple 2024 0
Liberty Apple 2024 0
Cripps Pink Apple 2024 0
Freyberg Apple 2024 0
Melrose Apple 2024 0
Bramtot Apple 2024 0
Muscadet De Dieppe Apple 2024 0
Sturmer Pippin Apple 2024 0

See all pollination matches for Pink Pearl Apple






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