Red Delicious
Chance seedling, possibly seedling of Yellow Bellflower
Red Delicious ( German: red delicious ), originally Delicious is a variety of apple. The apple was from the mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, the world's most popular apple variety and dominated in the United States for decades the market for dessert apples.
Red Delicious is the most researched of all apples. Through a wide distribution, and his memorable appearance Red Delicious was in the U.S. a long time for the typical apple and its representation in itself. The apple is prone to mutations. Due to the spread and mutation inclination there is no other variety so many different variants in the trade as Red Delicious. So also Red Delicious was originally just a particularly red variant of Delicious.
Red Delicious is one of the most widespread varieties requested on the world market for apples. Of the currently dominating other varieties, Fuji is a direct descendant, Gala a descendant of the second generation.
- 3.1 origin
- 3.2 Market importance
- 5.1 Storage
Description
Fruit
The apple has a firm and juicy flesh. The taste is very sweet with little acidity. It is partly, on the other hand perceived as extremely palatable as " perfume-like ." Delicious apples have been selected decades, especially in terms of their vision and their durability, the flavor played only a secondary role. Delicious tends to be mealy, but still al dente.
The apple belongs to the color group A (red varieties) with a smooth skin of dark red ( maroon ) color with striped surface. The ground color of skin is green, however, almost completely covered by the red body color. Today in the trade are especially forms that are solid color dark red. The original form was said to be strawberry red with dark red stripes. The shell is completely rust-free, thick and durable. The flesh is cream-colored.
The original shape is slightly elongated with a flat bottom. The numerous mutations in the trade, however, now provide for a diversity of fruits. The fruits are large to very large and have greatly marked and typical for this variety five cusps to the cup.
The market value of Red Delicious is primarily determined by the body color and fruit shape, the market continuously built up red apples preferred. Highest prices achieve apples with a fruit shape index ( height / width) of 1.08 and a red staining of more than 90 % of the area. Red Delicious must have a minimum size of 70 mm in the class and 65 mm in Classes I and II. Add extra class at least three quarters, in class I at least half and in class II at least a quarter of the fruit must be colored red.
Tree
The tree grows moderately strong, the branches pointing upward. The tree is as high trunk up to 7.5 meters high. The crown width also reaches up to 7.5 meters in diameter, on weaker smaller volume of documents are accordingly established.
The leaves are 5-10 inches long, dark green, with serrated margins and coarse grained. They are alternately arranged on the branch. In autumn, the tree sheds its leaves rapidly. Bloom time is in Europe in the early to mid spring. The flowers are pinkish white. Maturation takes place in Europe in mid-September, just before Golden Delicious. Harvest is about 140 to 160 days after flowering in a single pass. Some subtypes are fully colored full red in August, but still physiologically immature.
In terms of vulnerability and productivity of the tree compared to other apples is average. He has, in contrast to many other varieties only a small alternation.
Mutants
The original variety was greatly changed by the breeders. They selected this example, after more red, then to accept the red color before they are fully ripe, or particularly well to survive the CA warehouse. Today there are hundreds of sub-types on the market, of which only some are more widespread. They include: Oregon, Otago, Red Chief, Red King, Red Trail, Richared, Star King, Starkrimson, Strong track.
Sandidge ( trade name: Super Chief ) is an evolution of Red Chief. The apple has a deck staining of 100% and is getting dull striped. The fruit has a regular shape with the Red Delicious typical five humps. Evasni (brand name: Scarlet track) is a mutation of the mutation Oregon Trail. The apple is also solidly colored red, but has a washed-out color impression. The fruit is somewhat flattened. In turn Jeromine hardly be weaker colored fruits occur. Another very highly colored variant is Erovan.
Origin and Distribution
Origin
The variety originated from a chance seedling, which the farmer Jesse Hiatt of Peru located in Iowa about 1872. As a mother of the seedling possibly a Yellow Bellflower comes into question, who stood nearby. The tree did not grow up in a row, so Hiatt reportedly tried twice, cut down him. As the seedling resisted the attempts to get rid of him, cultivated Hiatt him eventually further and named the new variety Hawkeye after the nickname of the state of Iowa, where he was.
Hiatt tried several times to spread the apple to breeders. At this time, however, was about the preferred apple shape, and the breeders spurned the heart-shaped apple with the pronounced ribs. In the 1880s, the shipping Nurserymen Clarence Stark held a competition to find an apple that could replace the then widespread variety Ben Davis. He became aware of Hiatt's breeding, which had won the first prize on a fruit exhibition in Louisiana. He bought the rights from Hiatt and named for the type of apple in to Delicious. ( According to legend, he bit into an apple and said, " My, that's delicious! " ) Commercially led the Stark Delicious 1895 in the bargain.
Even Stark himself discovered a mutation of Delicious, the red area-wide and dark was as that of Delicious, which he named "Red Delicious". Although less pronounced flavor than the Red Delicious Delicious # '#, outsold ' better in the supermarkets.
The first Red Delicious tree survived until the 1940s. The tree was destroyed during the Armistice Day blizzard that raged on 11 November 1940, the Midwestern United States, in which, among other things, many thousands of apple trees were destroyed. From the roots of the most resistant tree, however, two new trees, one of which survived until 2013 grew.
Were in the first half of the 20th century, widely used as an underlay grown from seed of Red Delicious scions. It turned out that Red Delicious wears well under very different climatic and soil conditions. Along with the widespread use of Red Delicious in cultivation as was the practice, the Red Delicious seedling documents to use other apple varieties for finishing with veins. While the variety 'Red Delicious has disappeared as a base for the benefit of special, special growth properties of selected documents in the commercial cultivation, is the apple in less developed areas, continue to be used as a producer of seedlings.
Market significance
Red Delicious was in the second half of the 20th century the world's most popular apple. This began to change late 20th century. New varieties such as Gala or Fuji - both Delicious descendants - gained prominence, Delicious itself is grown even in the U.S. compared to earlier times only on a small part of the area.
For decades there have been in the U.S. or Australia, only two or three varieties of apples in the supermarket, " red", " green" and " mixed ", with Red Delicious was always "red", and the best-selling of this species. The wholesalers chose him for his good looks, reasonable storage and transport capabilities and the relatively undemanding tree, which could be relatively easily raise with a high yield in a variety of soils and climates. The largest growing area has long been the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, which offers a lot of rain, hot days and cold nights, ideal conditions for the Rotausfärbung and the characteristic conical shape.
The selection of variants that planted the farmers, it obeyed the grading system of supermarkets. The supermarkets had discovered that consumers attacked regardless of the taste of the apple variety, which had the strongest red color. The supermarket chains paid therefore apples by color and size, while the taste did not matter. The Red Delicious apples were over the decades getting bigger and redder, with thicker shells. They evolved from pale strawberry pink on fire engine, up to a very dark red that was sold as " Mitternachtsrot " in the trade. However, they lost their aromatic intensity.
Today, the share of Red Delicious in world production is declining. In recent decades, since the 1960s began consumers to ask for older apple varieties, and breeders put back more to the taste as a breeding criterion. New varieties such as Fuji, Gala, Braeburn or Cripps Pink also started the Red Delicious on its home market to outstrip. Large growing Nati Onnen are Argentina, China, Chile, France, Italy and Canada. In Central and Northern Europe the summers are often too cool, so that the tree produces only small fruits.
Especially in the U.S. caused the loss of importance of the Red Delicious for faults. After large parts of the apple producers had moved to the sole production of Red Delicious, this loss of importance of the hit from the 1990s. In 2000, the government decided. with a volume of $ 138 million the biggest bailout in the history of apple production, which promised each apple farmer up to $ 30,000. In apple production long-term, it took a decade before the American producers cultivated other varieties such as Gala ' # or Fuji; hitherto left many producers the business.
In South Tyrol Red Delicious occupied in 2008 to third place in the area under cultivation. The Red Delicious share so declined slightly in recent years.
Use
Red Delicious ' # is mainly used as an eating apple. While it retains its flavor when juices, he loses much during cooking or drying, shape and flavor and is sure hardly used.
Cultivation
Red Delicious grows best in regions where long sunny days combine with warm day and cold night temperatures. It is moderately hardy to very.
The trees are fast-growing. You need at least six to eight hours of sunshine a day and acidic, moist, well-drained soils. If they get enough water, they also tolerate hot summers. The trees are diploid, but not self-pollinating, so that a pollinator for fertilization is needed. The trees are resistant to fire blight infection and scab. The bark is valued by rabbits and other rodents, which can perform debarking of the tribe to the destruction of trees. In humid area Red Delicious trees are susceptible to apple scab. Red Delicious needs relatively little maintenance. The branches bear the relatively far apart resulting fruit good, so very little needs to be cut. The apples themselves remain hanging on the tree, so that a single harvest passage is sufficient.
Storage
Red Delicious has to be stored cool and dry, with low humidity, but not less than 3 ° C. In cold storage it is 230 days stable until the end of November, in CA storage, so until next early summer. For longer storage, the fruits are susceptible to fruit rot. Many commercially available Red Delicious have already angeschimmeltes core housing, the flesh is but it rarely affected.
Cultivars
The Fuji variety is a descendant of Red Delicious. Other descendants are Kidds Orange Red (the mother places the gala ), Empire and Caudle (trade name "Cameo ").