Fruit color : With the exception of Rogers Red, which is a tree 

 sport found in Massachusetts, the color characteristics of the 

 strains have been described by others since our study was initiated. 

 Most fruits of Red Prince were striped whereas descriptions from 

 other areas vary from prominently striped, to slightly red striped 

 during early period of coloration, to solid red. 



Rogers Red has blush-type fruits with color intensity similar 

 to Royal Red in most years. Red color on Turner Red lacks some- 

 what in uniformity and is less intense than on Starkrimson, Royal 

 Red, Sturdeespur, and Rogers Red. J.E. Swales, Summerland, B.C. 

 stated (personal communication) that Turner Red has proven very 

 stable in Okanagan Valley of British Columbia and no lack of uni- 

 formity of color has been observed where the fruit is well exposed 

 to sunlight. Like ourselves. Dr. Marshall Ritter in Pennsylvania 

 reported that color of Turner Red was quite variable. 



The fruits of Jardine Red are blush with some striping but 

 lack intensity of red to meet present standards for color. Sturdee- 

 spur, Starkrimson, Royal Red, and Rogers Red have consistently been 

 rated high for color by our orchard personnel and pomology students 

 because of their intense red color. In good coloring years, however, 

 some individuals considered these strains too dark and preferred 

 the bright red blushed fruit of Gardiner Red and Richared. 



F ruit Weight and Shape 



We measured fruit weight and fruit shape in 1978, 1979 and 

 1980 because some early evaluators of Delicious sports reported 

 some mutants produced longer fruits. Starkrimson fruits were 

 smaller than Royal Red, Richared and Rogers Red in 1978 but there 

 were no differences among strains in 1979 and 1980. The fruits of 

 Starkrimson (spur strain) and Gardiner Red (standard strain) were 

 longer than those of Jardine Red in each of the 3 years, otherwise 

 there was no consistent difference among strains in fruit length. 

 Thus, our data on fruit length appear to differ somewhat from those 

 of researchers in Washington and British Columbia. Ketchie and 

 Olsen in Washington found no specific trend in fruit circumference, 

 weight or shape. These workers concluded that there may be more 

 variability in fruit size and shape among years and locations than 

 differences among strains themselves. Meheriuk et al. in British 

 Columbia showed that the fruits of spur strains were longer than 

 those from standard strains but in our study Sturdeespur was not 

 longer than the standard strains. 



Watercore 



Fewer Starkrimson fruits had watercore in 3 of the 4 data years 

 but many fruits were as severely affected with the disorder as some 

 other strains. The severity of watercore at harvest is of more 

 concern than the presence of the disorder. Watercore will disappear 



