Grocery store red Delicious apples pretty much made me hate apple for years growing up. Very thankful that there are many good apples available these days.
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Locally grown red delicious are wonderful but store bought red delicious are terrible. I suspect itās one apple that really is only grown well in certain locations. Those store bought red delicious are so bad I once bought a sack full took a bite and gave them to the chickens. The chickens refused them as well after one bite they were left on the ground. Weeks past and no possums or raccoons ate them. Whoever that grew and sold those apples should be ashamed!
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Yes Iām happy they are falling from favor. It still amazes me that Red Delicious are still so popular in stores.
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I have a RD that sadly just wonāt die. The deer rake it raw in places, and it just powers through.
But it does not matter how long I leave them on the tree, the fruit is tasteless. The most boring apple Iāve ever had. (My ex Son-In-Law was the only person I ever knew who actually liked them, but his judgment has proven to be flawedā¦)
I was talking to the local pick-ur-own orchard owner a few years ago and he told me that he about ran off all his RD customers due to allowing the harvest of RD before theyāre ready. He said if he left them on much longer they actually sweetened up. Iāve tried everything and my tree (in since 1991) just doesnāt make a good apple.
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One problem with RD is there are many really bad sports out there, the ones that have dark red skin but are glowing green just beneath the skin. Some of those may be hopeless for ever getting good apples off of. The original when well-grown is a perfectly decent sweet apple, not great but at least good.
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I wouldnāt mind trying a scion of original RD to see how it grows here
A small report: Dudley Winter ā had a nice moderate harvest, mostly the end of Aug., 1-2 wks earlier than usual. Several dozen left on tree for fresh eating (sauced and dried rest). A refreshing juicy tart/sweet large apple. I donāt spray and they generally do well (good year this year). Later ones stayed on tree nicely until a maurading flock of transient bluejays came in the end of Sept. and ate most before I realized what was going on. Nice spreading tree form. Black Oxford ā my first year for a crop! Medium/small size fruit, moderate harvest, low/moderate insect/disease problems. I really like this one. Thanks to the above mentioned jays I had to harvest them early, end of Sept. Iām pretty sure they should have gone longer on the tree. But even though green they were already sweet and nicely edible. On the dry side but pleasant. The half jay eaten ones lasted a good month in the still fairly warm root cellar. Not damaged ones are sweeting up as time goes on though Iām trying to keep enough to see how long theyāll last. This tree was late in bearing likely due to poor then recuperative pruning. More upright form. Planted in 2002 along with DW which had first harvest at 7 yrs old. I thinned fruit of both trees (about golf ball size) this year and I think they did better. No fruit on Haralson this year, likely due to NOT thinning last year. I will, i will, i will next time.
**it was a good year over all for my apples. Liberty came through as usual. Northern Spy my first year is a hit and I wish I had this tree in a better location.**Suncrisp is a wonderful apple and Iām looking forward to having more than just two off of my tree. I had a bad outbreak of whitefly which Iāll have to fix and change my spray for my trees. Goldrush and some Jonagolds are my last to be picked and they are showing my weak spray ing program.
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Iowa, I let my RD hang until they get a frost, changes them totally for me, but they were still bad enough that I grafted over one tree and cut the other one out.
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That thereās funny! Changes 'em totally - and stillā¦
I donāt know, I donāt think my tree is one of the many RD sports Scott mentioned but maybe it is?
Mine are often a darker red apple, but not as dark as my Empire for example, but theyāve not had the green beneath the skin thing.
So just like a CUBS fan, year in and year out I keep telling myself āā¦maybe next yearā. But next year rolls around and (like a CUBS fan) Iāve suffered disappointment.
But who knowsā¦ after this year.
Cubs Win!!! CUBS WIN!!! RD still not a good apple compared to others.
I have had Hawkeye Delicious and in a good year, you can tell why it became a popular apple. It has a very light sweet and floral aromatic flavor to it. That flavor definitely comes through in some of the offspring like Empire and Chieftain. So Iām looking forward to having some Kiddās Orange Red at some point. Hopefully next year.
It is interesting to see that some Red Delicious in the stores now, sometimes, are looking more like Hawkeye. But Iāve never actually put down money to taste them to see whether they are an improvement on the dark red strains.
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Thanks Scott. This is the point I was planning to make while skimming down this thread. There must be more sports of Red Delicious than any other apple. There are likely sports of sports of sports that are successively selected for the qualities that guarantee that the folks here wonāt like them.
Iāve had Red Delicious (30+ years ago) that are better than most commercially available apples around here.
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Americans are extremely visual consumers and RD is truly a beautiful apple. When I was a youngster in CA I liked them well enough until I tasted my first Newtown Pippin from near Santa Cruz.
Had ten friends over last night for apple and cider tasting. Newton Pippin and King David tied for favorite apple and the single varietal Newton Pippin cider from Foggy Ridge called āHandmade Ciderā won the cider poll.
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I need a King David scion.
King David is one that Iād like to try as well. Have many people tried it in the south or southeast?
Recently there was a discussion of its fireblight susceptibility - King David Apple and Fireblight: Beware . For me the combo of fireblight and lack of fruiting for many years has made me a non-fan. I do hope to finally get fruit this coming year as it did have a few blossoms this last spring.
Thanks @scottfsmith, thatās too bad. I lost a small multigraft apple this year to fireblight and lost quite a few varieties that I had grafted on it over the last two years. I might need to reconsider KD or at least prioritize others. Some of the ones you list above (like Rubinette, Hoopleās Antique Gold, and Ginger Gold) sound great and worth grafting for me next spring.
You, mālady, have Margil, Edelborsdorfer and CPP! Excellent! I think trying a close cousin to CPP, Court Pendu Rose, is worth trying. Derek Mills in Ohio reports it possesses a floral nose. Margil is something so few ever mention and I wonder if we can work up a fruit swap in a few years. Edelborsdorfer, well, we have already corresponded about that. Nice selection.