20 BULLETIN 1406, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Baldwin, Delicious, Grimes Golden, and Jonathan may be grouped 

 as more or less short-season varieties. Baldwin generally ranged 

 from 135 to 145 days ; Delicious had approximately the same length 

 of growing season ; Grimes Golden, except at Amherst, was generally 

 140 to 150 days, and Jonathan about the same. The length of the 

 growing season of these four varieties varied only slightly, depend- 

 ing upon the geographic location or climatic conditions prevailing. 

 With Winesap and Ben Davis very different conditions prevailed. 

 Winesap in the northeastern districts had a total growing season of 

 140 to 150 days. In the earlier blooming districts, however, the fruit 

 did not reach optimum picking condition until 160 to 170 days fol- 

 lowing blooming. 



The growing season for Ben Davis similarly ranged from 145 

 to 150 days in the northeastern districts and from about 160 to 170 

 days in the districts having a longer growing season. Phillips (16) 

 pointed out that under certain conditions varieties in the Northern 

 States seemed to be ready for picking following a shorter growing- 

 season than the same variety grown in the warmer southern districts 

 and suggested that the result might be due to the longer days in the 

 northern districts. That theory does not hold in the present case, 

 however, for the season for these varieties was about as long at 

 Wenatchee as at Rosslyn. Wenatchee, being farther north, has 

 longer days during the growing season than any of the eastern apple- 

 growing districts here studied. It appears rather that varieties like 

 Winesap and Ben Davis require a long growing season to develop 

 proper maturity. In the northeastern districts cold weather usually 

 comes on before this condition is reached. With the advent of cold 

 weather color development goes on rapidly and the fruit softens to 

 a considerable extent, but apples of such varieties in sections with 

 a short growing season do not generally have the quality that they 

 attain in regions having growing seasons of greater length. 



Varieties like Baldwin, Delicious, and Jonathan, which ripen in 

 September, and are really fall or early-winter varieties in districts 

 with a long growing season, do not ripen until well into October in 

 districts having shorter growing seasons, and consequently become 

 good midwinter or later winter storage varieties there. 



It is particularly interesting in this connection to point out the 

 apparent outstanding influence of the length of growing season on 

 variety distribution. The different sections of the United States 

 which have approximately the same length of growing season are 

 peculiarly adapted to the same varieties. Varieties of apples which 

 are well adapted to Virginia, southern Ohio and Missouri, and the 

 country to the southward are equally well adapted to the Pacific 

 Northwest, although soil, moisture, humidity, and temperature con- 

 ditions are very different. On the other hand, an entirely different 

 group of varieties is well adapted to conditions where the total 

 available growing season is shorter. Thus varieties adapted to the 

 Northeast differ from those adapted to Virginia and the Pacific 

 Northwest. Varieties such as York Imperial, Winesap, Arkansas 

 (Mammoth Black Twig), Yellow Newtown, Stayman Winesap, Ar- 

 kansas Black, and Rome Beauty require a fairly long growing season 

 to reach good condition and high quality, and nearly all appear to re- 

 quire more days to reach proper maturity than are usually available 

 in districts with short growing seasons. Other varieties, such as 



