Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Major commercial cultivars of apple
'Delicious' ('Red Delicious') is still the most popular apple in the world al-
though its share of total production has been declining. It was discovered
as a seedling tree growing in an orchard in Iowa, USA in
and intro-
duced commercially by Stark Brothers in
. The archetypal 'Delicious' is
produced in Washington State and its fruits are of the highest quality when
grown in this area, or places with similar climate, with high light intensity and
warm daytime temperatures coupled with cool nights. These result in good red
colour development and an elongated shape (Westwood,
). Other major
producers of 'Delicious' are China, Italy, Chile, France, Argentina, Spain and
Canada. The climate of northern Europe is not ideal because it tends to pro-
duce small fruits in cool summers (Bultitude,
). There are many distinct
clones of 'Delicious', selected from 'bud-sports' which possess advantages in
terms of compactness of habit and fruitfulness (spur-types), the extent, deep-
ness and attractiveness of red coloration of their skin and season of harvest.
Many of these clones are registered as separate cultivars under plant breeder's
rights or plant patent schemes. 'Delicious' has a high chilling requirement but
some lower-chill mutants have been found in Mexico (Hauagge and Cummins,
).
The original 'Delicious' was a moderately vigorous, upright-spreading
and round-headed tree which produced spurs fairly freely. The fruits had
a greenish-yellow, becoming golden-yellow, ground cover with a dark crim-
son flush and short, broken, dark red stripes. They had a very characteristic
oblong-waisted shape, flattened at the base, distinctly ribbed and five-crowned
at the apex. They were of medium size (
mm diameter) with very firm, fine-
texturedjuicyandsweetfleshandatoughskin.'StarkingDelicious',discovered
as a bud-mutation of 'Delicious' in
, is similar to 'Delicious' but with more
redskincolour.'StarkspurSupreme',discoveredasabud-mutationof'Starking
Delicious' in
, has bright, cherry-red fruit skin, is harvested about a week
after 'Delicious' and its trees are medium-small, upright and winter-hardy
spur-types. 'Red Chief', a bud-mutation of 'Starkrimson Delicious' (itself a
spur-type, solid-blushed variant of 'Delicious'), was discovered in
and is
notable for its very large as well as brightly coloured fruits. These few examples
of the many strains of 'Delicious' illustrate the way in which the 'Delicious'
apple group encompasses a range from those strains which give medium-sized
fruits to those which give large fruits, from those with partially red-coloured
skin to those that are red all over and from those with a spreading branch
habit to those that are compact and heavily spurred. With modern storage
technology the fruits can be kept for
months or more.
The 'Delicious' group is susceptible to apple scab, which is a problem in
humid regions but less so in dry and hot production areas such as Washington
