ISSUE 99, GREAT PLANT BREEDERS, Part 4. Harold Fogle & the Rainier Cherry

Harold W. Fogle (1918-2006)

In the 1940s the University of Washington hired Harold Fogle, a new Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, to bolster its peach breeding program at the University Ag Center in Prosser. Sometimes the forces of nature disrupt the ambitions and plans of institutions. The big freeze of 1949 destroyed the University’s entire breeding stock of peach and nectarine trees. Dr. Fogle turned attention to fruit trees that had survived the freeze, the sweet cherry varieties. [Michael Marks, “Rainier-the Beauty Queen of Cherries,” U-T San Diego (June 19, 2013), 37.] The Pacific northwest had been a major center of sweet cherry culture since the 1890s, growing acres of Bing and Queen Ann. Bing, America’s favorite sweet cherry, was dark colored, firm, and well balanced in terms of acid and sugar. Unfortunately, the Bing had a regrettably short ripening season when it was available. Fogle began breeding cherries with the intention of improving the Bing by given it a longer season. He began by crossing it with the cold tolerant Van, another dark red cherry released in 1937, often planted in conjunction with the Bing, as a pollinator tree.

Among the multitude of crosses between Bings and Vans, one activated a recessive trait. Designated P1-680 it sported a golden blush on its skin, rather than the rich red of both parents. When ripe it boasted about 25% sugar and little acid. Another University of Washington fruit breeder called it “tree candy.” [ ] In 1960 Fogle released the cherry, naming it “Rainier” after Washington’s Mount Rainier. His cherry had two great virtues--beauty and sweetness—and one great liability—great vulnerability to bruising. That liability restricted the use of the tree to serving as a pollinator for Bings for 20 years.

The Rainer’s spread through the orchard world of Washington was due to Grady Auvil, a grower with whom Fogle entrusted his find. Auvil loved the flavor, but knew his fellow growers would find the fruit too costly to grow if sold at Bing prices. He touted it as a pollinator tree, and in that capacity it proved better than Van. In the 1970s the number of Rainier trees spread through a small network of cherry growers, including Don Olmstead and Richard Ormiston. This circle began introducing the fruit into the market, selling it at premium prices. Because of its delicacy, it was a hard fruit to pick and ship. But everyone who tasted it fell instantly in love, even at prices twice those of Bing. One who did was Toshi Amatsu an exporter of goods to Japan. In 1992 he tasted the Rainer and realized it would be a sensation in Japan. The establishment of the Japanese market—that paid top dollar—cemented the variety as the premium sweet cherry produced in the United States. [Stuart Eskehazi, “The Other Rainier,” Seattle Times-Post Intelligencer (June 27, 2004), 154-58.

Curiously Fogle was not present to witness the slow spread of grower support and fame for his cherry variety. In 1963, he accepted a position as breeder at the USDA Agricultural Research Service at Beltsville, Maryland. There he contributed to the landmark survey, North American and European Fruit and Tree Nut Germplasm Resources Inventory.

Fogle continued his breeding work releasing two heat tolerant peaches, Havis and Cullinan, the latter still being employed in the deep South in 2025. He also worked at plum breeding. But his great endeavor during this time was to serve as a governmental enabler of breeding work I fruits and nuts. He was so helpful that he was awarded in 1978 the Wilder Medal, the highest award of the United States Pomological Society.

Fogle died in 2006 having created one of the beloved stone fruits of the twentieth century. His life as an public facilitator in the world of fruit breeding proved equally as useful.