Genus and species: Malus domestica Mill.
Variety denomination: ‘102543s/2’.
A new apple tree named ‘102543s/2’ was discovered near Quincy, Washington in 2016 as a spontaneous limb sport mutation of a ‘PremA17’ apple tree (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,546) growing in a cultivated orchard of ‘PremA17’ trees. One limb of the ‘PremA17’ tree bore fruit that exhibited an attractive blush color as compared to the other fruit on the tree. Asexual propagation by grafting was carried out in 2016 at Quincy, Washington. The variety has since been observed over a number of asexually propagated generations, and has been found to remain true to type.
‘102543s/2’ is distinguished from its parent ‘PremA17’ and from similar variety ‘Gala’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,637) by the characteristics set forth in Table 1 and Table 2 below.
The accompanying photographs were obtained in 2022 at Quincy, Washington. The trees depicted are five years old.
The following detailed botanical description is based on observations of four-year-old trees growing on ‘M9-337’ rootstock (not patented), made during the 2022 growing season near Parker, Washington. The described trees are bi- axial, grown on a V-trellis. All colors are described according to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart (2001). It should be understood that the characteristics described will vary somewhat depending upon cultural practices and climatic conditions, and can vary with location and season. Quantified measurements are expressed as an average of measurements taken from a number of individual plants of the new variety. The measurements of any individual plant, or any group of plants, of the new variety may vary from the stated average.