Ben Davis is an
apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
cultivar
A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...
. Typical size: width 74-80 mm, height 63-75 mm, stalk 19-23 mm.
History
During the 19th century and early 20th century it was a popular commercial apple
due to the ruggedness and keeping qualities of the fruit. As packing and transportation techniques improved, the cultivar fell out of favor, replaced by others considered to have better flavor. It was known to fruit growers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a "mortgage lifter" because it was a reliable producer and the fruit would not drop from the trees until very late in the season.
Stark Nurseries held a competition in 1892 to find an apple to replace the Ben Davis apple. The winner was a red and yellow striped apple sent by Jesse Hiatt, a farmer in
Peru, Iowa, who called it "Hawkeye" in honor of
his home state.
Stark Nurseries bought the rights from Hiatt, renamed the variety "Stark Delicious", and began
propagating it. Another apple tree, later named the '
Golden Delicious
Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple. It is one of the 15 most popular apple cultivars in the United States. It is not closely related to Red Delicious.
History
Golden Delicious arose from a chance seedling, possibly a hybrid of Grimes ...
', was also marketed by Stark Nurseries after it was purchased from a farmer in
Clay County, West Virginia.
[
] In 1914, the 'Delicious' became the '
Red Delicious
Red Delicious is a variety of apple with a red exterior and sweet taste. Known as "the Reds" in the industry, this variety is the result of a chance seedling. It was first recognized in Madison County, Iowa, in 1872. Despite its name, it is not r ...
' as a
retronym
A retronym is a newer name for something that differentiates it from something else that is newer, similar, or seen in everyday life; thus, avoiding confusion between the two.
Etymology
The term ''retronym'', a neologism composed of the combi ...
.
By mid-twentieth century the Ben Davis was mostly used as a process apple rather than a table apple, and orchards were replacing it with more popular varieties.
The cultivar is now very rare to nonexistent in the commercial trade. It is still grown in parts of California, Maine, and Pennsylvania.
Related apples
The Ben Davis was crossbred with the
'McIntosh' to create the
Cortland, which has been a very successful pie apple.
Similar cultivars known as Gano or Black Ben Davis (a.k.a. Black Ben) appeared in parts of the American South (notably
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
) in the 1880s. They are said to be either seedlings of, or bud-mutation of Ben Davis, but the exact relationship is unknown.
[U.P. Hedrick, Systematic Pomology, 1925]
Gallery
File:Pomological Watercolor POM00001246.jpg, Ben Davis
File:Pomological Watercolor POM00002227.jpg, Black Ben Davis
File:Pomological Watercolor POM00002186.jpg, Gano
References
External links
Practically Edible Food Encyclopedia
{{Apples, state=collapsed
Apple cultivars
American apples