Red Delicious

'Red Delicious'
Hybrid parentage	Chance seedling
Cultivar	'Red Delicious'
Origin	Peru, Iowa, USA

Rows of trees under hail nets

A pile of 'Red Delicious'

The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars, recognized in Madison County, Iowa, United States, 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 accept the 'Red Delicious' as being a markedly inferior tasting variety at the food market. Roger Yepsen notes some of its less desirable qualities, "The skin is thick and bitter and has to be chewed vigorously... this apple ranks close to the bottom when cooked... sold year round, so shop with skepticism. Delicious retains its cheerful good looks long after its flavor has departed." According to the US Apple Association website it is one of the fifteen most popular apple cultivars in the United States.

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 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. Another apple tree, later named the 'Golden Delicious', was also marketed by Stark Nurseries after it was purchased from a farmer in Clay County, West Virginia, in 1914; the 'Delicious' became the 'Red Delicious' as a retronym.

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" of collapse. 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. 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 'Fuji' and 'Gala' varieties.

Sports (mutations)

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

Date	Inventor	Marketed as	Mutated From	Assignee	Habit	Pattern	Earlier	Color	Plant Patent Number
Apr 3, 1934	Shotwell		Delicious		standard	less stripe	2 wk.	3-4 times	US plant patent 90
May 18, 1954	Plough	Royalred1805	Richared	C&O	standard	blush	10 d.	lighter	US plant patent 1278
Aug 23, 1955	Brauns	Red King1811	Starking	Van Well	standard	stripe	2 wk.	more complete	US plant patent 1411
Feb 12, 1957	Bisbee	Starkrimson	Starking	Stark	spur	blush	"earlier"	similar	US plant patent 1565
Feb 3, 1959	Frazier & Jenkins		Starking	Elon J. Gilbert	standard	blush	10 d.	brighter	US plant patent 1805
Feb 17, 1959	Hamilton	Hamilton		Hamilton	standard	blush	2 wk.	darker	US plant patent 1811
Mar 24, 1959	Gilbert	Redspur	Starking	C&O	spur	blush	later	brighter	US plant patent 1822
Feb 23, 1960	Hutchinson	Top Red3556	Shotwell	C&O	standard	striped	2-3 wk.	darker	US plant patent 1916
Apr 5, 1960	Wood	Woods, Starkspur2606	Starking	Stark	spur	striped	1 wk.	deeper	US plant patent 1930
Sep 24, 1963	Gould		Red Delicious	Miller&Miller	standard	blush	"early"	more intense	US plant patent 2285
Aug 11, 1964	Gilbert Miller	Sturdyspur	Starking	Cons. Orch. Co	spur	blush	"early"	dark	US plant patent 2433
Aug 25, 1964	Frank Rypczynski	"Frank", Super Starking5569	Starking	Stark	standard	subdued stripes	30 d.	fuller	US plant patent 2440
Mar 15, 1966	Cooper		Starkrimson or Welspur		spur	stripe	10-14d.	more intense	US plant patent 2606
June 4, 1968	Trumbull	Oregon Spur4819	Red King	Van Well	spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker	US plant patent 2816
Dec 23, 1969	Diede		Starking	Stark	standard			more intense	US plant patent 2956
Feb 2, 1971	Matson	Stark Earlibrite5547	Ryan Red	Stark	standard	blush	1 month	bright	US plant patent 3025
Mar 2, 1971	Maxam		Starking		standard	blush		deeper	US plant patent 3035
Apr 13, 1971	Norton		Vance		spur		2-3 wk.	brilliant	US plant patent 3040
Feb 19, 1974	Coke	Rose Red	Starking	Rose	spur	blush	from start	dark	US plant patent 3485
May 7, 1974	Pagnelli		Starking	Stark	spur	blush		brighter	US plant patent 3541
May 28, 1974	Ward	Early Red One4839	Brauns	Van Well	standard	stripe	4 wk.	darker blackish-purple	US plant patent 3556
May 28, 1974	Flanagan		Starking	Stark	spur	stripe	before Topred	brighter, lighter	US plant patent 3557
June 11, 1974	Slusarenko		unknown	Stark	standard	stripe	4 d. before #2440	red	US plant patent 3567
June 25, 1974	Campbell	Red Chief3578	Starkrimson	Hilltop	spur	stripe	"earlier"	deeper, brighter	US plant patent 3578
Nov. 29, 1977	Silvers	Silverspur	Hi Early	McCormick	spur	stripe	2 wk. before Hi Early	bright	US plant patent 4159
Jan 30, 1979	Craig		Oregon Spur		spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker, heavier	US plant patent 4372
Aug 12, 1980	Perleberg	Ace	Starkrimson or Oregon Red		spur	stripe	18 d.	bright but deep	US plant patent 4587
Jan 19, 1982	Garretson		Starking	Carlton	<spur / dwarf	blush		bright	US plant patent 4801
Feb 2, 1982	Green	Oregon Spur II6190	Oregon Spur	Wells & Wade	spur	stripe	10 d.	dark	US plant patent 4819
Apr 20, 1982	Evans et al.	Scarlet Spur6190	Oregon Spur	Van Well	spur	blush	2 wk.	red stem	US plant patent 4839
Nov 9, 1982	Coke&Smith	Super Clone4926M	Starking	McCormick, Bountiful Ridge	spur, dwarfing	stripe	no change, late bloom	light	US plant patent 4926
Nov 13, 1984	Kemp	Top Spur5334	Starkrimson	C&O	spur	stripe	5-7 d.	deeper, brighter	US plant patent 5334
Mar 26, 1985	Hanners	Eve's Delight	Spokane Beauty		stripe			light	US plant patent 5421
May 21, 1985	Jenkins	Jenred,5472 Starkspur,5472 Ultrastripe5472	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	stripe	15 d.	more consistent	US plant patent 5472
Sep 3, 1985	Hare	Hared,5547 Dixiered,5547 Starkspur5547	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	blush	15-20 d.	dark	US plant patent 5547
Oct 8, 1985	Gonzalez	Rico7237	Sharp Red	Merleley & al.	standard	stripe	20 d.		US plant patent 5569
May 31, 1988	Sandidge	Super Chief	Red Chief		spur	stripe	18 d.	red stem	US plant patent 6190
Mar 28, 1989	Valle	Vallee Spur6702	Red Chief		spur	blush	2 wk.	dark red with bloom	US plant patent 6702
May 29, 1990	Sali	Sali7237	Redspur		semi-spur	blush	"earliest"	purple tinge	US plant patent 7237
Aug 4, 1992	Winkel	AW-164,7928	Redchief	Inter-Plant Patent Marketing	spur	blush	5-10 d.	brighter	US plant patent 7928
Mar 23, 1999	Deutscher	Cumberland Spur10,832	Oregon Spur		spur	blush	10-14 d.	complete	US plant patent 10832
May 4, 2004	Burchinal	Adams Apple, Burchinal Red Delicious14,757	Oregon Spur II		spur	blush	immediately	more uniform, deeper, purple, bloom	US plant patent 14757

Unpatented sports

Well-known but unpatented sports include:

• 'Chelan Red', which has been described as having oxblood red fruit
• 'Hi Early'
• 'Houser'
• 'Mood²⁴³³' or 'Starking', which colors about 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.