Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
otherwise identical; and 'Jonnee', a bud mutation of 'Blackjon' discovered in
which has even earlier developing and more intensive fruit colour than
'Blackjon' and larger fruits. 'Jonathan' and its sports were widely grown, e.g. in
the eastern USA and Hungary, but its share of world production has declined
in recent years. 'Jonathan' is susceptible to cedar apple rust, fire blight and
powdery mildew.
'Rome Beauty' originated in Ohio, USA at some date before
when it
was brought to notice. It has medium-large fruits (
mm diameter) whichhave
a greenish-yellow becoming pale yellow ground colour flushed with red. The
flesh is creamy white, coarse-textured and often lacking in flavour although
juicy. The trees are vigorous, upright-spreading and become round-headed.
They do not produce spurs very readily. Flowering in England is seven days
after 'Cox's Orange Pippin' and picking is in the third week of October. There
are a number of red sports. The outstanding characteristic of 'Rome Beauty'
is its heavy cropping and regular annual bearing, Childers (
) attributing
its economic success to this factor despite inferior quality. Its relative decline
since that time probably reflects improved technology of production of high
quality cultivars which need more 'management' to crop consistently, and also
improvements in the storage and transport of such cultivars. 'Rome Beauty' is
susceptible to powdery mildew and very susceptible to apple scab, cedar apple
rust and fire blight.
'McIntosh' was discovered in Ontario, Canada in
by John McIntosh
and named in about
mm diameter)
with a greenish-yellow becoming pale yellow ground colour with half or more
of the surface a deep purplish red. The flesh is white with a faint tinge of
pink, fine-textured, sweet and juicy but rather soft. The trees are moderately
vigorous and spreading and produce spurs freely. In England it flowers four
days before 'Cox' and is picked in mid-September, i.e. a week or so before
'Cox' and more than a month before 'Golden Delicious'. This requirement
for only a short growing season and its winter hardiness facilitated its produc-
tion in northerly areas such as British Columbia (Swales,
. The fruits are medium-large (
) and Poland
(Rejman,
). There are a
number of sports of 'McIntosh', e.g. 'Summerland McIntosh' which was in-
troduced in
) as well as north-eastern USA (Childers,
as a solid red bud mutation, and 'MacSpur' which was
discovered as a whole-tree sport of 'Summerland McIntosh' in
and has
very compact growth, high yield, high resistance to powdery mildew and is
very hardy. This is now the official 'McIntosh' strain for British Columbia and
'McIntosh' is still the second most important apple cultivar in that province
(Watson,
). The use of 'McIntosh' in England has been restricted by its
very great sensitivity to apple canker under UK conditions. It is very suscepti-
ble to apple scab, moderately resistant to fire blight and very resistant to cedar
apple rust.
