Research and Development

According to history, the first apple tree was planted in Quebec in 1629. 200 years later, grafting of the trees was introduced and during the next decades, a few hundred varieties were thus developed. Most, if not all, of these varieties no longer exist and it would not be until about 1930 that John McIntosh from Ontario introduced the now renowned McIntosh. Even though this apple is still the best seller in Quebec, apple growers and organisations are still looking for “THE” apple of tomorrow.

The Grand-Parent’s Orchard is a member of “Pommes de demain”, a R&D club which strives to create new and promising varieties. Without promise of success, these efforts are part of our overall objective to remain at the forefront of our industry.

We are proud members of “Pommes de demain”, a R&D club involved in developing new apple varieties that will meet consumer demands of tomorrow. The Grand-Parent’s Orchard is aiming to maintain a leadership role in its sector of activities to better serve you.

To offer a quality product in sufficient quantities in a climate with variable conditions necessitates having an orchard infrastructure in line with the most advanced technology. Everywhere around the world, prices for agricultural land, costs of operations and global warming has pushed apple growers into choosing varieties, techniques and methods adapted to these realities and the climate for their respective region.

The Grand-Parent’s Orchard has been in the process of transforming their orchard using the traditional umbrella shaped “Standard size” apple trees to the new high density plantation model from New-York called “Tall-Spindle”. 2009 was the first harvest from three-year old dwarf trees and it won’t be until 2018 that the planting of new trees will be finished for a total of 20,000 trees.

Marked Apples Inc. will benefit from this orchard’s architecture to produce, directly in the trees, generic designs on the apples such as hearts, stars and happy faces for the pleasure of their clients.