Do you taste licorice/anise?
In case anyone is interested in a tree-
nice.
Have you tried 39th parallels Mullins Golden Del. ?
I have been wondering if it is different than standard GDā¦ and how it is different if so.
He lists it in his scionsā¦so not sure if you have tried them.
As far as history goesā¦ i cannot find any difference in a Mullins GD versus a GD. They appear to be the same as far as words goā¦ not sure how different in real life.
I know some members on here have stated in the past that the āold cultivarā was much better than the ānew strainsā Im not sure how it was rebred or changed from the originalā¦ its curious.
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I dont want to speak for @39thparallel and as a forum admin i have to be a little cautious with how i answer that. I will say golden delicious in general is one of my favorites. It is rich and sweet and everything you wish most yellow apples were. Mullins golden delicious is grown for a reason. The many variations of GD are very good apples with slight variation.
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@clarkinks i didnt know if you kept your forum admin hat on while you tasted them. No worries. He doesnt describe them eitherā¦ its just (mullins) as far as a potential buyer reads. I live not far from Clay County WV where it was found originally.
I think other elder members have stated that many old cultivars have been improved and for a reason. So its hard to sayā¦ if a golden delicious tree bought at a box store is better than the old Mullins or the exact same.
I figured this forum was a place where we can find out such info.
I went to a big festival this past weekend and the Amish were selling apples. I bought two big bags of Golden Del. that were said to be No.1 apples. They were bigger than softballs! These were Michigan grown.
At my local grocery they are selling Golden Del. grown in WA state. They are all small the size of crabapples. Taste is underwhelming.
My local feed store sells Golden Del. That have blemishes and defectsā¦ for deer. They are fantastic flavored. I taste vanilla, nutmeg, and spices that i cannot describe.
My Golden Delā¦ are amazing but not as complex as the feed storeā¦ so that is what has me chasing whatever iteration the feed store apples areā¦ not sure if Stark version differs from mine. Whatever it is im interested.
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Ok i think i figured out āMullinsā and i now understand why nurseries dont want to describe it.
Stark Golden Delicious is Malus āMullinsā Stark Golden Delicious.
https://livingcollections.org/taxon/249546?tab=accessions
Someone 15 years ago talked about an āold strainā yellow deliciousā¦ but YD is the same as GDā¦ so there really is no YD. (on gardenweb). Also āMullinsā is mentioned.
Stark Golden Delicious, Golden Delicious, Yellow Delicious, āMullinsā and Early Goldenā¦ are all the same apple.
If there is better information that leads to the truthā¦ I am interested.
More likely than not the Apple that i am chasing from the feed storeā¦is probably grown by an orchard that has better growing conditions, more sunlight, better soilā¦ or perhaps picked at optimum ripenessā¦ or all of the above. Instead of chasing the cultivar i probably need to improve my growing skills.
I manage an orchard with some trees over 100 years old and 3 strains of golden delicious, one on a medium old tree (maybe about 60) is different than the other two in very positive ways. Mainly, it holds its texture on the tree for a very long time- the others had mushy apples when this one had crisp, delicious ones very late in the season for YD. Good enough that I took scion wood and am now growing it in my orchard along with another older variety. The other two in the orchard mentioned are on a very old tree and one only 25 years old or so.
The topic was started by someone asking about Gibson YD. I donāt consider that a very good one or any other newer varieties Iāve tried that bred out most of the potential for russet. I donāt think they have the richness of the original.
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Golden Delicious as i like them can be seen below. These are the old fashioned very crisp, juicy, still hanging on the trees now where i picked these. Exceptional in every way because they were grown all year in the hot Kansas sun and ripened in the these cold fall nights. This is a hard climate to grow things. It is also the right climate for flavorful fruit.
As described
" Golden Delicious arose from a chance seedling, possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden[4] and Golden Reinette.[5] The original tree was found on the family farm of J. M. Mullins in Clay County, West Virginia, and was locally known as Mullinsā Yellow Seedling. Mullins sold the tree and propagation rights to Stark Brothers Nurseries for $5000, which first marketed it as a companion of their Red Delicious in 1914.[6]
In 1943, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York developed the Jonagold apple by cross-breeding Golden Delicious and Jonathan trees. The cultivar was officially released in 1968 and went on to become the leading apple cultivar in Europe.[7] According to the USApple Association website, as of 2008, Golden Delicious, along with its descendent cultivars Gala, Ginger Gold, Honeycrisp, and Jonagold, were among the fifteen most popular apple cultivars in the United States.[8]
Golden Delicious was designated the official state fruit of West Virginia by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1995.[9] Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.
In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the Golden Delicious apple.[10] It had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.
Golden Delicious was one of four apples honored by the United States Postal Service in a 2013 set of four 33Ā¢ stamps commemorating historic strains, joined by Northern Spy, Baldwin, and Granny Smith."
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Interesting selectionā¦ I would not have expected an Australian selection to be honored. Iāve read that it is a completely different apple as grown on its native continent and country. Not a tart at all when allowed to properly ripen. Here it can get quite good by mid-Nov. into mid-Dec.
From Chat, āThe Granny Smith apple was discovered in Australia in 1868. It was named after Maria Ann (Granny) Smith, who found the first tree growing as a chance seedling on her farm in Eastwood, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. According to historical accounts, she had been growing French crab apples for cooking and noticed a seedling sprouting near a creek on her property. This seedling produced a new variety of apple, which became known for its green skin, crisp texture, and tart flavor.ā
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Thats how i like them also.
The āAmishā ones i just got from the festival which are the size of softballsā¦ seem to me like Gibson Golden as they are near kermit green and the skin seems smoother. Not sure if regular GD gets as big as these.
The only āstrainā of GD that i like so far is Opalā¦ its a GD crossed with Topaz.
I think its only grown at one farm in WA stateā¦ and i buy them every year. Some years they are amazing and some years they are ok. Im sure alot of folks have bought the ok tasting ones and probably never bought them again. Im also sure that there are some folks who bought some amazing ones and look forward to them being in season again.
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Mr Mullins described it as āDelishousā.
I couldnt agree more.
I too am enjoying Golden Delishous Apple Butter on a daily basisā¦ although mine has Shugar.
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I have 3 Golden Delicious from 39th Parallel, Golden Delicious, Golden Delicious Spur Type, and Mullins Golden Delicious. The Golden Delicious and Golden Delicious Spur Type have similar fruit, both are Russetteād, and I like them both. The Mullins has not fruited for me. What I note of the Mullins is it is not as cold hardy as the other two, Mullins has significant winter kill each year. With our 23-24 winter being so mild the trees were able to put on above average growth this summer with little winter kill from the past winter. Iāve left the Mullins trees(only 2 of them), but if the Mullins sees significant winter kill for 24-25 Iāll probably graft them over to one of the other GD varieties I have. Itās not much, but the significant difference Iām seeing is cold hardiness.
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This study was done on GD and its sportsā¦ from the USDA-ARS Malus germplasm collection in Geneva, NY.
GD had little russeting whereas the sports had mild and high russeting.
Seems that the mild one āSergentā had the highest levels of Phloridzin which is anti-cancer, anti-diabetes and all kinds of good stuff.
Some (many) sites say that GD is mostly non russeted
Some say that GD Russet is sweeter and stronger than GD
Many sites say that GD is highly susceptible to russeting.
A mostly non russeting apple that is also susceptible to russeting in various climates that also has sports that are russeted. 
We have old strains of Yellow Delicious that are better than new strains but Yellow Delicious is not used any more. We have rare strains of āMullinsā only sold by one nurseryā¦ and we have Stark that supposedly is selling the same original Golden Delicious for 110 years.
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Looks like my golden delicious from my walmart clearance purchase. My Tractor Supply and Stark Bros have not fruited yetā¦ likely all the same.
Im calling mine Golden Yellow Old Strain Mullins Delishious
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Some times those purchases work out fine. You never know what you will get from them. I used to like to buy from burgess because they were cheap and every time it was a surprise. I didnāt buy anything i cared about from them.
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Kris, interesting parentage for āOpalā, even more āYellow Deliciousā genes from the āTopazā side. Iād like the extra ātangā.
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