New Apple Cultivars: Goldrush

A hybrid of Golden Delicious X Coop 17 named in 1994 from the PRI program (Purdue/Rutgers/Illinois). The fruit is a green/yellow with a bronzed blush and lenticels may be russetted.

The fruit is medium in size with a thin, non-waxy skin and conspicuous russetted lenticels, making the finish somewhat rough. Fruit vary in attractiveness, maturing 3-4 weeks after Red Delicious, but are excellent in texture and storage ability. The flavour is a good, somewhat acid, complex spicy mixture with a high degree of sugar. This flavour mellows in storage. Storage is excellent with up to 7 months possible in air storage (0°C) and more than 10 months in C.A.. The flesh is firm, dry, and slightly coarse. The fruit stores well, but the moisture content needs to be regulated to prevent shrivelling.

The trees are heavily spurred, slightly upright and moderately vigorous with limited branching and a strong tendency to produce a central leader. Fruit thinning is required to adequately size fruit and biennial bearing has been noted. Fruit quality and firmness out of storage are excellent.

This cultivar has field immunity to apple scab, is susceptible to cedar apple rust, and has moderate resistance to fire blight but is susceptible to powdery mildew.

This cultivar should only be grown where adequate season length and heat unit accumulation are available.

Dr. S. Brown, New York Fruit Quarterly. Volume 7 Number 1, Spring 1999
Dr. J. Cline, Cultivar Trials Report, Horticulture Experiment Station, Simcoe. 1999

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