Both of mine are fruiting this year. I agree with you, both are great apples.
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Yellow Delicious never seems to get much love but some seasons it is very very good… but it has to be old strain- one that gets a bit of russet. I ate one the other day that was so sweet and crunchy with enough acid to make it interesting. Seems the cool fall we have been happening favors it here in S. NY.
I believe that newer, blander, more reliably smooth skinned strains turned people off to this apple, but given how easy it is to grow, prune and get to bear annually I think it belongs in any orchard around here- at least some.
I like a wide range of apples from tart to sweet and about my favorite heirloom is Spitz, but after this season I’m beginning to suspect it isn’t reliably annual.
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Yellow Delicious is a fine apple. But, picked in July and for sale at the supermarket 10 or 12 months later, it’s not going to win at any taste tests. Once Opal sits in a cold room with no oxygen for 6 to 13 months, I don’t think it’ll be any better.
So far Fuji or EverCrisp are the best at holding on for over 6 months and still tasting refreshing of the supermarket fare. Maybe some Gala.
There are a lot of very very good apples if you get a good specimen at it’s peak flavor.
And most of the time that peak comes from tree ripening.
Not picking 10 or 15 or more days before it’s actually ripe.
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My best keeping apple is Early Pink Lady based on the season before this one. Apples were still good out of the fridge in mid-summer when even Goldrush was about done.
That would likely be a completely different tasting apple, even off the tree, given the different ripening conditions. Yellow Delicious is harvested in Oct. here- at least when picked at full ripeness. It is an apple that can be used for culinary purposes long before it is ripe.
Apparently the apple was a sensation in France and became it’s standard culinary apple, replacing Calville, I guess.
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Yellow delicious was honestly my best tasting apple last year. The russet reminded me of a dollop of warm caramel encircling the stem. I ate them fresh off the tree for several weeks. What a different animal than that apple you find at grocery stores under the same name.
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Good point about Opal. I’ve been getting a poorer hit rate on them the last couple of years, but it is still a good bet. And sometimes outstanding.
Back in the 70s when I was a kid in Yakima Valley, I had good Red Delicious and great Yellow Delicious. I’ve been meaning to grow some russeted sports of Yellow Delicious, I think I still have at least one, but haven’t managed any apples yet, I don’t think.
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I’ve got some Fuji apples from last year still in my fridge. They are still very good, even after being in the fridge that long. A great tasting and keeping apple.
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Is there a particular name for this original strain?
The original apple was found on the Mullins farm in West Virginia, I believe, and I’ve seen older GD strains with more russet around the stem described as “Mullins strain”.
I inherited one with my current property, in fact. It’s probably fifty or sixty years old.
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I don’t get to know the strains of old apple trees I manage- I believe YD is one of the apples that have been so widely planted for so long there may be several old strains going around, but Jerry’s suggestion sounds good.
I have one site that has several huge Yellow Delicious that have to be a hundred years old, but a younger tree, maybe 50 years old, that had apples that held on later in the season than those on the older trees and got insanely sweet while sustaining a great texture. I took some wood from it and plan to evaluate it more closely in the next few years.
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You’re probably right that not many are picked in July…but they are often picked late August and early September here in Kentucky…so by naming “July” I intended to emphasize premature harvest.
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Thank you for the info. I have a few " Gibson" strain, I believe. I bought them from Stark Brother’s to use a pollinators for my orchard.
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Gala, nice juiciness to it, nice soft but chewy skin - and tolerable sugar content, seeds are soft but bearable to eat, and stem not to inconvenient to rip off/twist off. Though in my limited experience, rot tends to come about on the bottom of the apple, as well as pests like earwigs and other bugs.
I believe the Gibson strain is a very common commercial variety and is a lesser quality apple than earlier strains. What do you think? It’s been a couple decades since I’ve sampled one I knew to be Gibson.
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The gala I ate yesterday is nice and crispy, juicy, but not as sweet as the ones that I bought from the local store in California.
Gala here is pretty much like Red Delicious should be and a perfect kid’s apple- hell, I’ll eat a few from the tree when I feel like something sweet and simple. It’s a very reliable, easy to manage, annual cropper but a squirrel favorite.
I think it may be the most produced apple in the Hudson Valley.
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I have Golden Delicious - Mullins as well as Golden Delicious - Spur Type, both from 39th Parallel. The Mullins fruited last year, and I was pleased with the fruit (first year fruiting). It has a rough skin and some russet at the stem. The Spur Type hasn’t yet fruited.
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Thank you for letting us know where you got the Mullins Golden Delicious version. I believe I will get one of those for my orchard next spring. What rootstock did you put it on?
I have Mullins on M.111 and it still had fruit in year 3 or 4. The Spur Type is on M.106 and was severely deer pruned one season, but recovering well now.
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I just ate a Cortland, I was told it’s a cooking apple, it’s pretty tasty, not as juicy, the skin is a bit thicker than all the varieties I had so far.
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