Red Delicious Information & Red Delicious Links at HealthHaven.com

This article is about the cultigen of apple. For the rock band, see Red Delicious (band).

"Red Apple" redirects here. For the community in California, see Red Apple, California.

Red Delicious and its cross section

Rows of trees under hail nets

The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars, that was recognized in Wellsburg, Iowa in 1880. As new cultivars with improved color and earlier harvestability have replaced the original cultivar in commercial orchards, the taste and texture of the harvested commodity have deteriorated, and many customers have begun to reject the Red Delicious at the food market.^[1]

[edit] History

The Red Delicious originated at an orchard in 1880 as "a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness". Stark Nurseries held a competition in 1892^[2] to find an apple to replace the Ben Davis apple. The winner was a red and yellow striped apple sent by Jesse Hiatt, a farmer in Peru, Iowa, who called it "Hawkeye". Stark Nurseries bought the rights from Hiatt, renamed the variety "Stark Delicious", and began propagating it. An apple tree, later named the Golden Delicious was also marketed by Stark Nurseries, after it was purchased from a farmer in Clay County, West Viginia, in 1914, and the Delicious became the Red Delicious as a retronym.^[3]

[edit] Production decline

In the 1980s, Red Delicious represented three-quarters of the harvest in Washington state. A decade later, reliance on Red Delicious had helped to push Washington state's apple industry to the edge.^[3] In 2000, Congress approved and President Bill Clinton signed a bill to bail out the apple industry, after apple growers had lost $760 million since 1997.^[1] By 2000, this cultivar made up less than one half of the Washington state output, and in 2003, the crop had shrunk to 37 percent of the state's harvest, which totaled 103 million boxes. Although Red Delicious still remained the single largest variety produced in the state in 2005, others were growing in popularity, notably the Cameo, Fuji and Gala varieties.^[3]

[edit] Sports (mutations)

Over the years, many propigable mutations, or sports, have been identified in Red Delicious apple trees. In addition to those that were propagated without any legal protection (or cut out because they were seen as inferior) 42 sports have been patented in the United States:

Plant Patent Number	Date	"Inventor"	Marketed as	Mutated From	Assignee	Habit	Patern	Earlier	Color

US plant patent 90	Apr 3, 1934	Shotwell		Delicious		standard	less stripe	2 wk.	3-4 times
US plant patent 1278	May 18, 1954	Plough	Royalred¹⁸⁰⁵	Richared	C&O	standard	blush	10 d.	lighter
US plant patent 1411	Aug 23, 1955	Brauns	Red King¹⁸¹¹	Starking	Van Well	standard	stripe	2 wk.	more complete
US plant patent 1565	Feb 12, 1957	Bisbee	Starkrimson	Starking	Stark	spur	blush	"earlier"	similar
US plant patent 1805	Feb 3, 1959	Frazier & Jenkins		Starking	Elon J. Gilbert	standard	blush	10 d.	brighter
US plant patent 1811	Feb 17, 1959	Hamilton	Hamilton		Hamilton	standard	blush	2 wk.	darker
US plant patent 1822	Mar 24, 1959	Gilbert	Redspur	Starking	C&O	spur	blush	later	brighter
US plant patent 1916	Feb 23, 1960	Hutchinson	Top Red³⁵⁵⁶	Shotwell	C&O	standard	striped	2-3 wk.	darker
US plant patent 1930	Apr 5, 1960	Wood	Woods, Starkspur²⁶⁰⁶	Starking	Stark	spur	striped	1 wk.	deeper
US plant patent 2285	Sep 24, 1963	Gould		Red Delicious	Miller&Miller	standard	blush	"early"	more intense
US plant patent 2433	Aug 11, 1964	Gilbert Miller	Sturdyspur	Starking	Cons. Orch. Co	spur	blush	"early"	dark
US plant patent 2440	Aug 25, 1964	Frank Rypczynski	"Frank", Super Starking⁵⁵⁶⁹	Starking	Stark	standard	subdued stripes	30 d.	fuller
US plant patent 2606	Mar 15, 1966	Cooper		Starkrimson or Welspur		spur	stripe	10-14d.	more intense
US plant patent 2816	June 4, 1968	Trumbull	Oregon Spur⁴⁸¹⁹	Red King	Van Well	spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker
US plant patent 2956	Dec 23, 1969	Diede		Starking	Stark	standard			more intense
US plant patent 3025	Feb 2, 1971	Matson	Stark Earlibrite⁵⁵⁴⁷	Ryan Red	Stark	standard	blush	1 month	bright
US plant patent 3035	Mar 2, 1971	Maxam		Starking		standard	blush		deeper
US plant patent 3040	Apr 13, 1971	Norton		Vance		spur		2-3 wk.	brilliant
US plant patent 3485	Feb 19, 1974	Coke	Rose Red	Starking	Rose	spur	blush	from start	dark
US plant patent 3541	May 7, 1974	Pagnelli		Starking	Stark	spur	blush		brighter
US plant patent 3556	May 28, 1974	Ward	Early Red One⁴⁸³⁹	Brauns	Van Well	standard	stripe	4 wk.	darker blackish-purple
US plant patent 3557	May 28, 1974	Flanagan		Starking	Stark	spur	stripe	before Topred	brighter, lighter
US plant patent 3567	June 11, 1974	Slusarenko		unknown	Stark	standard	stripe	4 d. before #2440	red
US plant patent 3578	June 25, 1974	Campbell	Red Chief³⁵⁷⁸	Starkrimson	Hilltop	spur	stripe	"earlier"	deeper, brighter
US plant patent 4159	Nov. 29, 1977	Silvers	Silverspur	Hi Early	McCormick	spur	stripe	2 wk. before Hi Early	bright
US plant patent 4372	Jan 30, 1979	Craig		Oregon Spur		spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker, heavier
US plant patent 4587	Aug 12, 1980	Perleberg	Ace	Starkrimson or Oregon Red		spur	stripe	18 d.	bright but deep
US plant patent 4801	Jan 19, 1982	Garretson		Starking	Carlton	<spur / dwarf	blush		bright
US plant patent 4819	Feb 2, 1982	Green	Oregon Spur II⁶¹⁹⁰	Oregon Spur	Wells & Wade	spur	stripe	10 d.	dark
US plant patent 4839	Apr 20, 1982	Evans et al.	Scarlet Spur⁶¹⁹⁰	Oregon Spur	Van Well	spur	blush	2 wk.	red stem
US plant patent 4926	Nov 9, 1982	Coke&Smith	Super Clone^4926M	Starking	McCormick, Bountiful Ridge	spur, dwarfing	stripe	no change, late bloom	light
US plant patent 5334	Nov 13, 1984	Kemp	Top Spur⁵³³⁴	Starkrimson	C&O	spur	stripe	5-7 d.	deeper, brighter
US plant patent 5421	Mar 26, 1985	Hanners	Eve's Delight	Spokane Beauty		stripe			light
US plant patent 5472	May 21, 1985	Jenkins	Jenred,⁵⁴⁷² Starkspur,⁵⁴⁷² Ultrastripe⁵⁴⁷²	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	stripe	15 d.	more consistent
US plant patent 5547	Sep 3, 1985	Hare	Hared,⁵⁵⁴⁷ Dixiered,⁵⁵⁴⁷ Starkspur⁵⁵⁴⁷	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	blush	15-20 d.	dark
US plant patent 5569	Oct 8, 1985	Gonzalez	Rico⁷²³⁷	Sharp Red	Merleley & al.	standard	stripe	20 d.
US plant patent 6190	May 31, 1988	Sandidge	Super Chief	Red Chief		spur	stripe	18 d.	red stem
US plant patent 6702	Mar 28, 1989	Valle	Vallee Spur⁶⁷⁰²	Red Chief		spur	blush	2 wk.	dark red with bloom
US plant patent 7237	May 29, 1990	Sali	Sali⁷²³⁷	Redspur		semi-spur	blush	"earliest"	purple tinge
US plant patent 7928	Aug 4, 1992	Winkel	AW-164,⁷⁹²⁸	Redchief	Inter-Plant Patent Marketing	spur	blush	5-10 d.	brighter
US plant patent 10832	Mar 23, 1999	Deutscher	Cumberland Spur^10,832	Oregon Spur		spur	blush	10-14 d.	complete
US plant patent 14757	May 4, 2004	Burchinal	Adams Apple, Burchinal Red Delicious^14,757	Oregon Spur II	Microsoft	spur	blush	immediately	more uniform, deeper, purple, bloom

Well-known but unpatented sports include:

Chelan Red, which has been described as having oxblood red fruit
Hi Early
Houser
Mood,²⁴³³ or Starking, which colors ~2 wk. before "standard Delicious"¹⁴¹¹
Richared - brighter red than standard, blush, not stripe ¹²⁷⁸
Ryan
Sharp Red
Spokane Beauty
Wellspur

In 1977, the application for #4159 noted the "starchy and bland taste of some of the newer varieties."

The plant patent for #4926 promoted the sport as a dwarfing interstock, a dwarfing rootstock for pears, or to produce "crab apple" sized Delicious apples.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b "'Perfect' Apple Pushed Growers Into Debt". New York Times. November 4, 2000. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E5DF1439F937A35752C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-08-02. "Losses piled up. And now the bill has come due. Last month, Congress approved and President Clinton signed the biggest bailout in the history of the apple industry, after the government reported that apple growers had lost $760 million in the last three years. ... In trying to create the perfect apple for major supermarket chains, these farmers say, they may have sacrificed taste to cosmetics. The growers say their story is like a fable with lessons for how the nation produces its fresh food."
^ http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com/uploadedfiles/Delicious%20Apples%20and%20Their%20History.pdf
^ ^a ^b ^c "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core.". The Washington Post. August 5, 2005. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080402194.html. Retrieved 2008-07-27. "The reliance on Red Delicious helped push Washington's apple industry to the edge in the late 1990s and into this decade. Depressed prices for Red Delicious, weaker foreign markets and stiffer competition from abroad, including apple concentrate from China, contributed to major losses in the nation's apple industry, which mounted to $700 million in 2001, according to the U.S. Apple Association. The industry has recovered somewhat since then, in part because reduced harvests have buoyed prices."

This fruit-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[nyt-0] "'Perfect' Apple Pushed Growers Into Debt". New York Times. November 4, 2000. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E5DF1439F937A35752C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-08-02. "Losses piled up. And now the bill has come due. Last month, Congress approved and President Clinton signed the biggest bailout in the history of the apple industry, after the government reported that apple growers had lost $760 million in the last three years. ... In trying to create the perfect apple for major supermarket chains, these farmers say, they may have sacrificed taste to cosmetics. The growers say their story is like a fable with lessons for how the nation produces its fresh food."

[1] ttp://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com/uploadedfiles/Delicious%20Apples%20and%20Their%20History.pdf

[wp-2] "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core.". The Washington Post. August 5, 2005. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080402194.html. Retrieved 2008-07-27. "The reliance on Red Delicious helped push Washington's apple industry to the edge in the late 1990s and into this decade. Depressed prices for Red Delicious, weaker foreign markets and stiffer competition from abroad, including apple concentrate from China, contributed to major losses in the nation's apple industry, which mounted to $700 million in 2001, according to the U.S. Apple Association. The industry has recovered somewhat since then, in part because reduced harvests have buoyed prices."

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Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Production decline

[edit] Sports (mutations)

[edit] References