How Many Types of Delicious Apple Are There?
- A Golden and a Red Delicious apple.red and golden delicious apples image by tim elliott from Fotolia.com
Delicious is a particular variety of apple, a name coined by James Hart Stark. Stark started Stark Bro's nursery in Missouri in 1816, bringing trees from his family orchard in Kentucky. In the 1930s, Paul Stark Sr. helped write U.S. legislation to create patent rights for plant varieties. Stark Bro's has introduced many apple varieties, and holds the exclusive rights to breed many patented varieties of the fruit. As of 2010, there are at least 10 types of Delicious apple, and over 60 sport varieties, which are the result of naturally occurring mutations in the color and growth pattern of the fruit. - The Hawkeye is the original Delicious apple. Jesse Hiatt cultivated this apple for 10 years and named it after the state of Iowa, his adopted home state. The Hawkeye has a yellow and red streaked appearance and a sweet flavor. Clarence Stark of Stark Bro's tasted the apple and pronounced it "Delicious!" When Stark Bro's bought rights to the discovery, the apple was renamed Delicious after Clarence Stark's initial comment. This apple is harvested in late September.
- A Red Delicious apple.red delicious apple image by tim elliott from Fotolia.com
Stark Bro's took clippings from the original Hawkeye trees, developing the Red Delicious, which was introduced in 1893. This apple has become one of the most popular apples in the United States, and has over 48 sport varieties. Its trees bear a high volume of fruit, which is harvested in late September. A Red Delicious apple is large and deep red, with a strong, sweet flavor, and is best eaten raw. Its texture is not as firm as that of the Golden Delicious, and neither the flavor nor the texture of the Red Delicious hold up well when the apple is cooked. - A golden delicious applepomme golden image by Bernard BAILLY from Fotolia.com
The Golden Delicious apple was discovered and named by the Stark Bro's company in 1914, and is unrelated to the Red Delicious. There are seven sport varieties of the Golden Delicious apple. This apple is golden yellow, with a mild sweet flavor. The Golden Delicious tree is self-pollinating, and bears fruit annually. Apples are harvested from mid-September to late October. The fruit must be handled with care during harvesting because it bruises easily. A Golden Delicious apple is sweeter than a Red Delicious, and has a firmer texture that holds up well when baked in the oven. - This apple is a hybrid one-quarter Golden Delicious in parentage, along with the Gravenstein, Edgewood and Clo apples. It ripens early, and is harvested in late August. Mollie's Delicious apples are large and conical in shape, with a pinkish-red color. Mollie's Delicious trees tend to spread, and their growth is moderately vigorous. Although the apples ripen quickly, the trees bear fruit slowly, perhaps only every other year.
- The Delicious varieties have spawned many sport varieties as nurseries select natural mutations, or splice two different apples together to remedy perceived weaknesses in a particular strain. Growers will develop a sport variety to alter the coloring of the apple, such as the Stark Delicious, which is a more striped version of the original Delicious. Growers also develop sport varieties to alter the growth habit of the tree by creating "spurs" with a larger volume of fruit. For example, the Stark Spur Delicious is a delicious strain with a higher number of fruit buds per length of branch.
