Maybe cross with a very early disease resistant apple like Monark?
Maybe galarina for a tasty and disease resistant apple?
2 Likes
I was thinking of Co-Op 32 / Pristine
2 Likes
Cross it with clarks crabapple.
1 Like
Yes I think Pristine, Liberty, and Enterprise for that matter are all great options
āYellow Ingestrieā, āCelestiaā, or āGolden Pippinā.
Gibson Golden/Smoothee gets blushā¦ GD doesnt he says (?)
OPās apples appear to be Gibson/Smoothee/Improved GD
2 Likes
Was following your question last year about GD variations. Iād be interested to know if the GD trees I have are the originals or not. Starks bought the original tree, so I assume theirs is the real one. My trees do not produce any or much russet. Is that the sign of the original?
GD does not get the respect it deserves because itās old, but IMO itās still one of the best out there.
2 Likes
I am not sure but it seems like golden delicious must pass more of its genes on. There is a lot of known varieties that have some GD in their family.
Golden Delicious is unique in being self-fertile. This gives a major advantage in the game of reproduction. Add in that Golden Delicious carries some very impressive traits that make it an outstanding choice for making crosses.
1 Like
Tough question.
If you follow Adams County Nursery description- then the Gibson is the most widely planted apples in the world.
Grandpas orchard (catalog not available right now)ā¦ says that they sell the Original Strain Mullins which is less russet resistant.
An internet search will say that GD is highly susceptible to russet from various sources over many years.
Does Stark still sell the original (Mullins) strain? Or when did they stopā¦then start selling Gibson?
A member on here stated that the trees that they received from Stark Bros said (Gibson).
So unless someone on here has the original Mullins strain from the very few sources of itā¦ then likely those stating that they have the ārealā Golden Delicious are actually growing Gibson/Smoothee
A possible truer story of the Golden Delicious apple from a man in a town about 15 miles from me.
-Stark paid the Mullinsā $50 not $5000.
-Stark improved their apple but kept the name the same. (Gibson likely).
https://web.archive.org/web/20080528160552/http://www.wvculture.org/HISTORY/goldendelicious02.html
To get the original strain of āMullinsā one also needs to look into Annit, Early Golden and Golden Supreme as well as Mullinsā Yellow Seedling.
If true then Golden Delicious is Gibson/Smoothee and has been for awhile.
Cummins goes out of their way to say that the difference in Gibson and Golden Delicious is that Gibson bears a blush when ripe.
However the internet has taken over and does not know the difference any more of the Mullins and Gibson strainsā¦ as all GD are now seemingly Gibsonā¦ and all descriptions seem to be regurgitated Gibson.
Interesting stuffā¦ that will probably not matter to most.
2 Likes
There are lots of 100 year old Golden Delicious trees that still russet like the original. My father had a tree 60 years ago that produced russet fruit. @Alan has mentioned some very old GD trees that are the original.
1 Like
39th Parallel Nursery lists 3 Golden Delicious cultivars-
Mullins has no description. other than what Mike has posted here-
In their database their Golden Delicious is verbatim of Mullins.
If his database is correct then his Golden Delicious and āMullinsā are the sameā¦ and he does not have Gibson cv. which ripens a couple of weeks earlierā¦ some sources even say later.
The description and history under the listing of GD would also say that it is also Mullinsā¦ As both apples have the exact same history.
Stark Golden Delicious was āMullinsā but is now Gibson as far as we know.
The ripening dates of GD is all over the place as well.
Cummins says ripe on Sept 8 in NY.
Mike says harvest date Sept 23 in KS.
Here- the best local apples of GD are the first and second and beyond weeks of October.
Im not sure if CHAT could sort all of this outā¦ but there is still alot of confusion and not much real consensus.
They arenāt. But you can use them for cooking then-no variety of GD is ripe by then even further down state. However, Ginger Gold pretty much fills the bill.
Same here. But they can also often be harvested laterā¦ they hold well on the tree.
Where does Cummins say thatā¦ in their catalogue? It is so blatantly false Iād like to let them know of the mistake. I feel certain that Jim knows better, but I donāt know if heās still active in running the nursery.
From the point of sale on their website-
Adams county ripening chart-
Open to interpretation but probably Cummins means beginning of ripening.
Even in the ACN listing which tends to be based on earlier ripening areas than even where I am the starting line is about Sept. 23. Where Cummins is, there are no ripe common strain YD in early Sept. If you call them, I doubt anyone will contradict that statement. Thatās just my very strong opinion based on 3+ decades of managing several strains of YD at many sites. It is an exceedingly common apple here and I bring tons of its fruit to maturity every year. Those giant old trees are fruit factories that provide a lot of apples for foodbanks in my region.
GD are peak in October here.