RED DELICIOUS SPORTS 



William J. Lord 

 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



The Extension Pomologist had the privilege of participating in a 

 panel discussion on Red Delicious sports at the Annual Meeting of the 

 State Horticulture Association of Pennsylvania in February, 1965. The 

 following are the comments of the other participants on the performance 

 of Red Delicious sports in Pennsylvania and West Virginia as taken from 

 the February, 1965, issue of Pennsylvania Fruit News . 



C. M. Ritter 

 Department of Horticulture 

 The Penna. State University 



"For the past five years studies of some 25-30 Delicious color 

 sports of the Delicious apple variety have been under study at Univer- 

 sity Park. 



The vast array of these sports - over 60 named so far - are very 

 confusing to most growers. The question of which one (s) to plant is al- 

 most impossible to answer because of the varying responses of the sever- 

 al sports to diverse soil and environmental conditions. For this reason 

 we have assembled at University Park a continually increasing number of 

 these sports, both standard and spur types, in order that their fruit 

 characteristics may be observed under a single set of cultural and envi- 

 ronmental conditions. 



"The following is a thumbnail sketch of the appearance and skin 

 color of 15 Delcious sports as grown in the College Orchards at Univer- 

 sity Park. 



"In the following summaries the 'standard' for color comparison is 

 regular Delicious except where otherwise noted. 



"BRIDGHAM RED: 



A color sport of regular Delicious with a light red color of about 

 the same intensity of the parent type. It usually is solid red over 

 more than 80% of the fruit although this varies widely. The type is 

 poor and the sport is little or no better than the parent type. 



"GARDNER: 



The fruit color is good to excellent. It is solid red washed and 

 of a brighter red intensity than the parent. However, it lacks 

 typiness and carries a definitely greenish ground color. 



