Our Variety Assessment

Its strengths, growing requirements and the conditions in which it performs best.

Golden Delicious can produce an outstanding apple when grown in a garden and allowed to ripen properly. The flesh then becomes crisp, juicy, richly sweet and aromatic, very different from typical supermarket fruit. The productive tree is also a useful pollinator. We recommend a warm, sunny position, as heavy cropping or dull, wet conditions can reduce fruit quality.

Golden Delicious

Price range: 26,50 € through 59,75 €

The flavour of home-grown Golden Delicious is far better than its supermarket reputation.

Pre-orders are open

No payment today. You are reserving your trees before the inventory in early August.

After inventory, we will confirm the available trees and send you a payment link.

Dispatch generally takes place from late November to February, depending on the weather and the progress of lifting the trees.

Choose your tree form

1 year old grafted tree – approx. 1–2 m

Half-standard – 1 to 1.5 m stem

Low-stem tree – approx. 60 cm stem

Standard tree – 1.8 m stem and over

Apple rootstock options

Bittenfelder – approx. 6 m mature height

EM9 – approx. 2.5 m mature height

M116 – approx. 4 m mature height

MM111 – approx. 4 m mature height

Clear

Tree size guide

Tree Establishment Guarantee — We support you if your tree fails to establish. View the conditions

SKU: 4316 Categories: Apple trees, Eating apple trees

Description

Golden Delicious is a popular supermarket apple variety with a reputation for a bland flavour. However, when home-grown in good conditions, and allowed to ripen on the tree is a very different proposition – a handsomely-shaped apple with a golden-green skin, crisp juicy flesh, and a rich sweet flavour, reminscent of raw cane sugar. If you like crisp sweet apples then it is hard to beat a home-grown Golden Delicious, picked late in the autumn when properly ripe.

Home-grown Golden Delicious apples still retain the advantages of commercially grown examples – they are versatile for eating fresh or using in the kitchen, and of course they are one of the best apples for long-term storage, retaining flavour and crispness for several months in a cold shed or in the fridge.

Variety characteristics

Variety origin

Chance seedling discovered in West Virginia, United States, around the late 19th century and introduced commercially by Stark Brothers in 1916.

Origin

Period of origin

USDA zone

Flowering

Harvest period

Eating / keeping period

3 month

Use

Cooking, Fresh eating, Juice

Sweetness / acidity

Disease resistance

Pollinator value

Ploidy

Origin and identity

Parentage

Probable seedling of Grimes Golden

Synonyms

Yellow Delicious, Golden, Reinders, Lysgolden, Mullins's Yellow Seedling

Growth and adaptation

Vigour and habit

Medium vigour, semi-upright habit, heavy and regular production

Disease behaviour

Scab

Very susceptible

Powdery mildew

Susceptible to moderately susceptible

Canker

Fairly resistant

Pollination

Compatible pollinating varieties

These varieties flower at a compatible time and are the most relevant matches in the catalogue. Flowering period: 3 - mid season.

Wolf River View this variety Jonathan View this variety

Luche View this variety

Monty’s Surprise View this variety Queen Cox View this variety

Reinette Abry View this variety

Harvest calendar

Extend your harvest season

Discover varieties from the same category harvested just before, at the same time or just after.

At the same time

September 15-30

Belle Fleur Rouge View this variety Honeycrisp View this variety

Peasgood’s Nonsuch View this variety

Additional variety information for Golden Delicious is provided in partnership with Orange Pippin.