Rows of trees under hail netsRipe Red Delicious are uniformly red
Red Delicious is a type of apple with a red exterior and sweet taste that was first recognized in Madison County, Iowa, in 1872. Today, the name Red Delicious comprises more than 50 cultivars. It was the most produced cultivar in the United States from 1968 to 2018, when it was surpassed by Gala.[1][2][3]
History
Stark Nurseries held a competition in 1892[6] to find an apple to replace the 'Black 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,[7] in 1914; the 'Delicious' became the 'Red Delicious' as a retronym.[5]
Selective breeding and decline in demand
The apple became a victim of its own popularity. As consumers began to purchase more of their food from large supermarkets, the apple's popularity encouraged commercial growers to increasingly select for longer storage and cosmetic appeal rather than flavor and palatability, which resulted in a less palatable fruit.[5][8][2] In particular the selection of redder fruit caused deselection of flavor, and the genes that produced the yellow stripes on the original fruit were on the same chromosomes as those for the flavor-producing compounds.[2] Breeding for uniformity and storability favored a thicker skin.[2] Later, as other cultivars entered supermarkets, demand for the 'Red Delicious' declined.[8][9]
In the 1940s the apple was the most popular in the US.[10] In the 1980s, 'Red Delicious' represented three-quarters of the harvest in Washington state, but the selection of beauty and long storage over taste was making the apples less popular, and demand was declining as supermarkets started carrying other varieties.[10] By the 1990s, reliance on the now-unwanted 'Red Delicious' had helped to push Washington state's apple industry "to the edge" of collapse.[5] 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.[9]
Farmers began to replace their orchards with other cultivars such as
Fuji, and Honeycrisp.[2] 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.[5][10] By 2014 the Washington Apple Commission was recommending growers plan to export 60% or more of production.[10] In 2018 the Gala apple overtook US sales of the Red Delicious for the first time.[2] Through 2020 production continued to decline.[11] The COVID-19 pandemic was expected to further continue decline in demand as many cafeterias and other typical sales points for the apple were closed.[11]
Sports (mutations)
Over the years many propagable mutations, or sports, have been identified in 'Red Delicious' apple trees.
Patented
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:
about two-thirds size of a typical Starking Delicious
Dieterich Delicious
1950/1960
California, US
skin solid red
Evarts Delicious
/ c. 1950
Hardibrite Red Delicious
1970/1975
Oregon, US
'Hi Early'
Houser Red Delicious
1953 / 1958
Hubbs Delicious
1950/1950
Oregon, US
colors earlier and darker than parent
Huebner Starking
1957/1962
British Columbia, Canada
striped
Maehara Starking
1954/1955
British Columbia, Canada
red overcolor 10 days before than of parent.
'Mood2433' or 'Starking'
which colors about 2 weeks before "standard Delicious"1411
Morgan Spur Delicious
1957/1969
Washington, US
Morspur
1959/
Washington, US
Nured Royal Delicious
1966/1976
Washington, US
Parrish Delicious
1934 / 1946
Pittman Red Delicious
1948 / 1956
Red Stark
/ 1927
Redwin
1925 / 1928
'Richared'
/ 1926
brighter red than standard, blush, not stripe 1278
'Ryan'
'Sharp Red Delicious'
1963/1969
Washington, US
'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.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Red Delicious.
^ abcdeHiggins, Adrian (August 5, 2005). "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core". The Washington Post. 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.
^
Mulcaster, Glenn (November 3, 2009). "History of a Golden Opportunity". THE AGE Epicure. The myth-making in US horticulture that consigned Johnny Appleseed to caricature has coloured the background of the 20th century's most enduring apple.
^ abEgan, Timothy (November 4, 2000). "'Perfect' Apple Pushed Growers Into Debt". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-08-24. 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.
