Delicious (Excellent)

American variety, winter ripening. Approved and widely grown in the North Caucasus and Astrakhan region.

Tree is vigorous, large, pyramidal in youth, broadly rounded and often dense in fruiting, branches grow from the trunk at a sharp angle, slightly curved at the base, with dark gray bark of medium thickness. Fruit bearing is mixed, with predominance of spur and fruiting shoots.

Shoots of medium length and thickness, moderately curved, with dark red hue (dark brown in nurseries), slightly hairy, with numerous small and very small dotted stipules, grouped near the base. Leaves are broadly oval, occasionally elongated-oval with rounded base and moderately elongated apex and tapering tip, doubly serrated edges, slightly curved and medium-serrated, finely hairy in the middle. Hairs are sparse, light green in lower part. Color is dark green, upper surface slightly glossy. Leaf forms acute angle with stem. Petiole is long, with red stripe at base on underside, sometimes colored throughout length, stipules medium, lanceolate.

Flowers large, cup-shaped, pink. Buds red. Style of pistil long, hairy, stigmas located below or at level of anthers.

Fruits (fig.) large, elongated-conical, distinctly ribbed along entire length and five sharply raised bumps around calyx. Cross-sectional diameters of fruit are unequal and located below fruit center. Skin is rough, very dense, smooth with whitish, large, blurred subcutaneous spots and gray spots on surface, visible on shaded side. Main color is light green, turns yellow upon full ripening.

Fruits half or more covered with red streaks over faint pink blush, which turns to intense orange-red during ripening, with slight waxy coating. Calyx is wide and deep, internally covered with grayish or greenish coating. Fruit stalk thick and long, thickened at tip. Calyx is large-ribbed, wide and deep. Calyx is closed or slightly open over wide, conical or funnel-shaped tube. Seed chambers connected with central cavity by narrow slits.

Flesh is greenish-white upon picking, cream-colored in storage, yellowish tint, sweet with spicy aroma, dense, very juicy — outstanding by international quality standard. However, crushed fruits (due to drought, poor agrotechnology or prematurely picked) have flat-sweet, bitter taste. Fruits contain: dry matter — 14%, sugars — 11%, titratable acids — 0.25%, ascorbic acid — 4.2 mg/100g, P-active substances — 140 mg/100g.

Fruit harvest in late September, stored until March–April.

Fruit bearing starts at 9–10 years. Average yield in central Kuban — 190 centners/ha, in steppe — 130 centners/ha. Fruit bearing is irregularly periodic.

Fruits and leaves affected by scab.

Advantages of variety: high yield, fruit quality and marketability.

Disadvantages of variety: low winter and drought resistance of trees, scab infection on leaves and fruits, late fruiting onset and irregular periodicity.

Variety is valuable in breeding for dessert quality and fruit marketability in combination and clone breeding. Numerous clones of this variety have been selected worldwide, including using induced mutagenesis method — Delicious spur, which replaced the main apple variety in the North Caucasus assortment. Combination breeding involving this variety created world-famous varieties: Fuji, Jonadell, Kidds Orange Red, Kinrei, Medina, Melrose, Murasaki, Orleans; and domestic varieties — Southern, Sochi Ananas, Giant and others.