Newly patented variations of apples that thrive in warm weather, developed by a University of Maryland researcher, could be a solution to stunted production in recent years. Christopher Walsh's new apple variations, currently called MD-TAP1 (a child of Gold Rush apples) and MD-TAP2 (a child of Fuji apples), are smaller than most commercial apple trees and are essentially resistant to fire blight, but won’t be on supermarket shelves for at least a couple of years. Walsh said he finds a patentable apple variety for every thousand or so trees that he plants seedlings of. These variations grow on manageable trees that require less pruning than usual, which is what growers recently have been yearning for.

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