Nov 2, 2020

Kevin Maloney: Developing seriously good apples at Cornell AgriTech

If you could create the most perfect apple, what would it look and taste like?

My ideal apple would be firm, crisp and juicy, with equal amounts of sugar and acid. It would also be pest-resistant, uniform in shape and appearance, and easy to grow. I consider SnapDragon to be my perfect apple right now.

Describe your work in helping develop successful apple varieties.

I manage the apple breeding orchards, greenhouse and nursery at Cornell AgriTech.  Susan and I make new genetic crosses every year, aimed at improving fruit quality, disease resistance and ornamental characteristics. There is a constant cycle of new offspring from the crosses we make that need testing and evaluation. We have off campus trials in all apple producing regions across New York state.

I benefit from interaction with growers, industry representatives, extension staff, faculty, students, summer scholars and crop consultants. In addition, we have a great farm research unit in Geneva that supports our research.

What makes your partnership with Susan Brown unique, and how does it play into the apples that are released?

We both worked in other Cornell fruit breeding programs prior to our positions in the apple breeding program, which gave us different perspectives.

Susan has afforded me a number of great opportunities. With her encouragement, I successfully completed my master’s degree through Cornell’s employee degree program, and I also graduated from the LEAD New York program. Our partnership is successful because we complement each other and genuinely enjoy the challenge of developing new apple varieties.

What do you love most about working in the apple breeding program?

I enjoy having the opportunity to eat hundreds of different apples each year. I am lucky to have worked for most of my career at Cornell AgriTech, which has such a rich breeding history, and to have worked with so many great people. I’m driven by the challenge of creating apples that consumers will crave and that will benefit the industry. We want to introduce more varieties that will benefit wholesale and retail producers, U-pick farms and the hard cider industry in New York State, as well as varieties that will make the consumer experience more enjoyable.