‘Golden Delicious’

The world’s most widely grown apple variety was found in a farm orchard in West Virginia, USA, and most likely originated from a seed of ‘Golden Reinette’. The farmer Anderson H. Mullins in 1914 sent 3 apples to the owner of the famous “Stark Brothers” tree nursery. Mr. Stark saw the value of the fruits at once, hurried to the Mullins farm and bought the variety for 5000 dollars. Now plantations of ‘Golden Delicious’ bear fruits worldwide, wherever it is not too cold for it, as unluckily is here in Latvia. ‘Golden Delicious’ has many not-so-good properties – it is susceptible to scab, the fruits need proper thinning to be large and tasty, and special treatment for storage to prevent shrivelling. After cold springs the apples develop unshowy russet. But all this is compensated by the flavour and high productivity. Many clones of this cultivar are grown, too, with better looking fruits and compact spur-type trees.