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Golden Delicious apple trees

Pick: Late-season    Flowering group: 4       Uses: Eat fresh | Cookery 
RHS AGM for Golden Delicious
Golden Delicious apple tree

Golden Delicious is increasingly sought out by apple enthusiasts for growing in home orchards as word spreads that if you look beyond the bland reputation of the supermarket examples, this is an apple that truely merits its name.

Home-grown Golden Delicious is a very different proposition from the supermarket apples you may be used to. It is a very sweet apple of course, but the the sweetness is more like that of raw cane sugar than the bland sweetness you might be expecting. The trick is to pick the apples when they are fully ripe, at which point the familiar pale green skin turns to a green-gold hue.

There are many commercial sports or variants of Golden Delicious with slightly different qualities. Gibson is a sport which is less prone to russeting.

Whilst the flavor will be better, home grown Golden Delicious still apples retain the advantages of commercially grown examples - versatile for eating fresh or using in the kitchen, and can be kept for several months in a cold shed or in the fridge.

Provisional availability for delivery fall 2013 (warmer zones) or spring 2014.

Golden Delicious apple trees for sale

Mature height*Supplied asPriceQuantity
required
Small (6ft - 9ft)1-year - Bare-root - G.11 rootstock  (dwarf)
Gibson		$29.00
Medium (8ft - 12ft)1-year - Bare-root - Semi-dwarf rootstock  (semi-dwarf)$29.00

Delivery discounts. Prices are for individual trees excluding delivery. There is no minimum quantity but it is cost effective to order in multiples of 4 trees.

Delivery period: Trees are delivered in March and April. However it is best to order as soon as you can to ensure items are reserved for you. If you live in a warm zone (e.g. Southern California, Alabama etc.) Fall delivery is possible. More details on our spring shipping schedule by state.

*Mature heights: Height shown is the approximate height of the tree when mature (after 5-10 years), not the height when supplied. Actual mature heights may vary considerably dependent on your local conditions and training and pruning regime - see our Tree Height Calculator.

Fruit tree guarantee

Stock availability: Items showing as 'sold out' will probably be available again next season. Click here to be notified when we get more trees of this variety.



Summary features of Golden Delicious

Growing

Uses

Identification

  • Country of origin: United States
  • Period of origin: 1850 - 1899
  • Fruit colour: Green / Yellow
  • Blossom colour: White
  • Leaf colour: Green
  • Popular variety

Climate

  • Frost resistance: Good resistance(explain)
  • Warm climates
  • Temperate climates
  • Tolerates cold winters
  • Low-chill requirement
  • USDA Zone 5: Yes
  • USDA Zone 6: Yes
  • USDA Zone 7: Yes
  • USDA Zone 8: Yes
  • Cold hardiness: -20F / -29C(explain)


Pollination guide for Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious is in flowering group 4. Golden Delicious is partially self-fertile, but fruiting will be improved if there is a compatible tree of a different variety nearby.



How to grow Golden Delicious apple trees

Golden Delicious is easy to grow, and very productive across a wide range of climate zones.

It is potentially a good pollinator for many other apple varieties, particularly varieties descended from (Red) Delicious, McIntosh, and Cox, because it flowers over a long period in the mid-season and produces larger quantities of pollen than most other varieties.



Varieties with similar picking times to Golden Delicious

<== Pick slightly earlierAbout the same timePick slightly later ==>
Egremont Russet
Honeycrisp
Red Delicious

Black Oxford
Bramley's Seedling
Empire
Fameuse
Freedom
Golden Russet
Grimes Golden
Jonathan
Karmijn de Sonnaville
Lady (Api)
Margil
Newtown Pippin
Rhode Island Greening
Rubinette
Spitzenburg

Baldwin
Calville Blanc
Chieftain
Claygate Pearmain
Cornish Gilliflower
Court Pendu Plat
Elstar
Florina
Freyberg
Hubbardston Nonsuch
Jonagold
Kidd's Orange Red
King of Tompkins County
Orleans Reinette
Roxbury Russet
Tydeman's Late Orange
Zabergau Reinette



Historical details

West Virginia, USA 1890s. Golden Delicious is almost certainly a seedling of an old American variety called Grimes Golden. The original tree survived until the 1950s, by which time Golden Delicious was firmly established as one of the most widely-planted of all apples.



Botanical name

Malus domestica Golden Delicious




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