Red Delicious#Sports (mutations)

The Red Delicious originated at an orchard in 1872 as "a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness" by chance seedling.{{cite book|author=Susan Dolan|title=Fruitful Legacy: A Historic Context of Orchards in the United States, with Technical Information for Registering Orchards in the National Register of Historic Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8lVgsLqzVYC&pg=PA76|year=2009|publisher=National Park Service, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Pacific West Regional Office, Cultural Resources, Park Historic Structures and Cultural Landscapes Program|isbn=978-0-16-082127-1|page=76}} Stark Nurseries held a competition in 1892 to find an apple to replace the Ben Davis apple.{{cite web |first=Lee|last=Jackson|title=Delicious Apples and Their History |url=http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com/uploadedfiles/Delicious%20Apples%20and%20Their%20History.pdf |access-date=2009-10-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713012721/http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com/uploadedfiles/Delicious%20Apples%20and%20Their%20History.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-13 }}, Apples, Apples Everywhere—Favorite Recipes From America's Orchards. {{ISBN|0-930643-11-9}}. Images Unlimited Publishing.

Maryville, MO.

The winner was a red and yellow striped apple sent by Jesse Hiatt, a farmer in Peru, Iowa, who called it "Hawkeye" in honor of his home state. 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.

{{cite news |first= Glenn|last= Mulcaster|title=History of a Golden Opportunity. |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/epicure/history-of-a-golden-opportunity/2009/11/02/1257010139525.html|quote=The myth-making in US horticulture that consigned Johnny Appleseed to caricature has coloured the background of the 20th century’s most enduring apple. | work=THE AGE Epicure |date=November 3, 2009 }} In 1914, the 'Delicious' became the 'Red Delicious' as a retronym.

File:Äpfel P1260372.jpg, Italy]]

The Red Delicious originally became popular thanks to not just its visual appeal but also its durability in storage,{{Cite news |last=CBC Radio |date=August 29, 2018 |title=Red (not so) Delicious apple no longer the most popular |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.4803065/red-not-so-delicious-apple-no-longer-the-most-popular-1.4803810 |access-date=February 21, 2025 |work=CBC News}} making transportation easy. Starting in the 1950s, changes in grocery buying habits led to consumers prioritizing visual appearance. "We started eating with our eyes and not our mouths," observed the pomologist and apple historian Tom Burford. As a result, commercial growers increasingly selected for longer storage and cosmetic appeal rather than flavor.{{Cite web|date=2018-08-22|title=Red Delicious Apples Didn't Always Suck. Here's What Happened.|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/red-delicious-apples-suck_n_5b630199e4b0b15abaa061af|access-date=2021-05-11|website=HuffPost|language=en}} Consumers at that time associated redness with ripeness. But 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. Breeding for uniformity and long shelf life favored a thicker skin.

While the Red Delicious had enjoyed moderate success in the market place, its popularity only took off in the mid-twentieth century.{{Cite news |last=Chokshi |first=Niraj |date=August 29, 2018 |title=The Long, Monstrous Reign of the Red Delicious Apple Is Ending |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/business/red-delicious-apple.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200424115811/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/business/red-delicious-apple.html |archive-date=April 24, 2020 |access-date=February 23, 2025 |work=The New York Times}} It became the most popular apple in the United States during the 1940s. Up until the 1970s, there were only a small number of apple varieties available for purchase at American supermarkets; these were the Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious apples.{{Cite news |last=Bomey |first=Nathan |date=August 26, 2018 |title=Gala apple passes Red Delicious as America's favorite |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/08/26/red-delicious-apples-gala/1103768002/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250304021644/https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/08/26/red-delicious-apples-gala/1103768002/ |archive-date=March 4, 2025 |access-date=March 20, 2025 |work=USA Today}} But according to Tom Burford, it was the Red Delicious that was the most heavily promoted by Washington farmers. By the 1980s, Red Delicious represented three-quarters of the harvest in Washington State. Nevertheless, the selection for beauty and long storage over taste was not popular among consumers. Wholesalers began searching for other apple varieties, such as the Fuji from Japan and the Braeburn and Gala from New Zealand. As these competing cultivars entered supermarkets, demand for the Red Delicious declined. In the early twenty-first century, while consumers are shifting their attention towards healthier food choices, this does not necessarily bode well for well-established apple varieties.{{Cite news |last=Bjerga |first=Alan |date=August 24, 2018 |title=America’s Top Apple Is Now the Gala |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-23/red-delicious-apple-cedes-top-spot-to-gala-after-50-year-reign |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210607232615/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-23/red-delicious-apple-cedes-top-spot-to-gala-after-50-year-reign |archive-date=June 7, 2021 |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=Bloomberg}} Modern North American consumers tend to prefer sweeter and crunchier varieties. By the 1990s, heavy reliance on the increasingly unpopular Red Delicious had been a factor driving Washington state's apple industry to the brink of collapse. In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill bailing out the apple industry, after apple growers had lost $760 million since 1997.{{cite news |first= Timothy|last= Egan|title='Perfect' Apple Pushed Growers Into Debt |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E5DF1439F937A35752C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |quote=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. |work=The New York Times |date=November 4, 2000 |access-date=2008-08-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824070017/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/04/us/perfect-apple-pushed-growers-into-debt.html|archive-date=2018-08-24}}File:MalusDSC1422.jpgAmerican farmers began to replace the Red Delicious in their orchards with other cultivars such as Gala, Fuji, and Honeycrisp. By 2000, the Red Delicious made up less than one half of the Washington state output, and in 2003, the crop fell to 37% 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.{{cite news |first= Adrian|last= Higgins|title=Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080402194.html |quote=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. | newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 5, 2005 |access-date=2008-07-27 }}{{cite news |author= Sarah Yager |title=The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/the-evil-reign-of-the-red-delicious/379892/ | work=The Atlantic |date=September 10, 2014 |access-date=September 10, 2014 }} By 2014 the Washington Apple Commission was recommending growers plan to export 60% or more of production. In 2018, the Gala overtook the Red Delicious in U.S. sales for the first time. According to the U.S. Apple Association, production of the Gala grew 5.8% in 2018 compared to the previous year, whereas that of the Red Delicious fell 11%. However, exporting the Red Delicious was still a viable option because other countries still had high demand for the apple. In fact, the Red Delicious accounted for around half of all the apples exported by the United States in 2018. However, the COVID-19 pandemic was projected to continue reducing domestic demand for the Red Delicious as many cafeterias and other typical sales points for the apple were closed.{{Cite web |date=13 November 2020 |title=Will the pandemic kill off more red delicious apples? – Produce Blue Book |url=https://www.producebluebook.com/2020/11/13/will-the-pandemic-kill-off-more-red-delicious-apples/ |access-date=2021-05-11 |language=en-US}} By 2021, the Red Delicious accounted for only 15% of the output of Washington state.{{Cite news |last=Hoang |first=Mai |date=October 27, 2021 |title=WA apple growers bank on new varieties to boost consumption |url=https://www.cascadepbs.org/news/2021/10/wa-apple-growers-bank-new-varieties-boost-consumption |access-date=March 20, 2025 |work=Cascade PBS}} Despite these challenges, during the mid-2020s, the Red Delicious remained one of the most produced apples in the United States.{{Cite news |last=Hoang |first=Mai |date=December 26, 2024 |title=After 5 years, has Cosmic Crisp paid off for Washington growers? |url=https://www.cascadepbs.org/news/2024/12/after-5-years-has-cosmic-crisp-paid-washington-growers |access-date=February 21, 2025 |work=Cascade PBS}} In 2024, the Red Delicious accounted for 12.3% of the American apple market, behind only the Gala (17%).{{Cite web |date=August 22, 2024 |title=2024-25 Apple Production Will Reach Nearly 260 Million Bushels |url=https://usapple.org/news-resources/2024-25-apple-production-will-reach-nearly-260-million-bushels |access-date=March 30, 2025 |website=US Apple Association}} However, by this time, most American-harvested Red Delicious apples were for export rather than domestic consumption. Internationally, the top markets for the Red Delicious are Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in the top apple-growing provinces of Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec), farmers have switched to the Ambrosia, Honeycrisp, and Gala.

Over the years many propagable mutations, or sports, have been identified in 'Red Delicious' apple trees.

In addition to those propagated without any patent applications (or cut out because they were seen as inferior), 42 sports have been patented in the United States:

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.

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• Ambrosia: Golden Delicious × Starking Delicious (suspected){{cite web |title=Patent USPP10789 - Apple tree named 'Ambrosia' |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/USPP10789 |work=google.com}}
• Empire: McIntosh × Red Delicious{{cite web |last=McCandless |first=Linda |year=1996 |title=Experiment Station's successful Empire apple has its 30th birthday |url=http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/96/9.19.96/empire_apple.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814094744/http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/96/9.19.96/empire_apple.html |archive-date=2007-08-14 |access-date=2007-10-13 |work=Cornell Chronicle |publisher=Cornell University}}
• Fuji: Ralls Janet × Red Delicious
• Kidd's Orange Red: Cox's Orange Pippin × Red Delicious (a parent of Gala)
• Melrose: Jonathan × Red Delicious

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{{Apples|state=collapsed}}

Category:Apple cultivars with patented mutants

Category:American apples

Category:Apple cultivars