Cultivar 82: Cal Trio

Cal Trio is a Trio crabapple, one of N. E. Hansen's three species apple hybrids. It was bred to combine American wild crab keeping quality, cultivated apple fruit quality, and Siberian crab hardiness.[S1] Its recorded parentage is Mercer crab x Sweet Russet crab, and sources date it to 1938.[S1] [S2] In Hansen's scheme, the Trio name marked these as international or three species apples.[S1]

Hansen introduced Cal Trio as part of a broader South Dakota breeding program for hardy northern fruit.[S1] The bulletin places it with the named Trio crabapples, not with standard dessert apples. This helps explain both its crabapple identity and its breeding purpose.[S1] Prairie Canada reference works later kept it as a Hansen introduction and repeated the same parentage and 1938 date.[S2]

The fruit is described as about 1 1/2 inches across and 1 3/8 inches deep, or about 4 cm in Prairie Canada sources.[S1] [S2] Hansen described it as polished bright red all over, solid, juicy, and sharp acid with a sweet aftertaste.[S1] A later prairie source describes the color more briefly as yellow red.[S2] The flavor suggests a crab with more complexity than a purely austere acid fruit, but still closer to utility or keeping use than to a modern dessert apple.[S1]

Cal Trio stands out for its keeping quality. Hansen called it promising as an all winter crab.[S1] At the same time, he noted that it does not cook up, though it is fairly tender and has a rather neutral flavor in kitchen use.[S1] This points to a fruit valued more for storage and winter availability than for cooking quality.[S1]

The cited sources do not give detailed notes on tree habit or disease.[S1] [S2] Its hardiness is not stated directly by zone, but it came from Hansen's northern hardy fruit program and from the Trio breeding effort aimed at winter hardiness in severe northern conditions.[S1] This supports reading it as a cold climate crabapple selection, though the packet does not give a direct zone rating.[S1]

Cal Trio matters chiefly as part of Hansen's three species apple work. Its significance is less in fame than in what it represents: an early deliberate effort to produce a long keeping, hardy crabapple from mixed continental apple ancestry for the northern Plains.[S1]

Summary source basis

• S1: New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest
• S2: Edible Apples in Prairie Canada

This summary currently draws chiefly from New Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, with 1 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Listed in the table of contents under 'International or Three-Species Apples.'”
— ^[1]

“Reference points to Bulletin 339, page 20.”
— ^[1]

“Solid, juicy.”
— ^[1]

“Sharp acid with sweet aftertaste.”
— ^[1]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• Mercer crab x Sweet Russet crab.
• Parentage given as Mercer x Sweet Russet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Fruit, polished bright red all over, 1 Yz inches across x 1 % inches deep, solid, juicy, sharp acid with sweet aftertasteNew Hardy Fruits for the Northwest, p21
• Cal Trio (Mercer x Sweet Russet): Hansen (1938) Fruit 4cm, yellow-red.Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, p21
• Cal Trio (Mercer x Sweet Russet): Hansen (1938) Fruit 4cm, yellow-red.Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, p21
• Cal Trio (Mercer x Sweet Russet): Hansen (1938) Fruit 4cm, yellow-red.Edible Apples in Prairie Canada, p21

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context