Red sports of delicious apple: Reversion to striped fruit can be minimized by selecting red sports and using scion wood from nonreverted trees

Abstract

The red sport of the Delicious apple most commonly planted in California is Starking. Richared Delicious has been planted on only a limited acreage since it colors later than Starking. The popularity of Starking has declined, however, because many trees or parts of trees have reverted toward the parent Delicious type and produce fruit less highly colored. Reverted fruit appears distinctly striped. Though lighter red, the stripes are prominent on reverted fruit because of the lack of the characteristic red background of the normal Starking. The reverted Starking is often called Stripes, or Common Delicious, as opposed to Double-red for well-colored fruit.