| Malus domestica Ben Davis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cultivar | Ben Davis |
| Origin | unknown, USA, approx. 1800 [1] |
| Malus domestica Ben Davis | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Cultivar | Ben Davis |
| Origin | unknown, USA, approx. 1800 [1] |
is an apple cultivar. Typical size: width 74-80 mm, height 63-75 mm, stalk 19-23 mm. [2] [3] [4]
During the 19th century and early 20th century it was a popular commercial apple [1] 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. [5] 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. By mid-twentieth century it 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.
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 and Virginia) in the 1880s. They are said to be either seedlings of, or bud-mutation of Ben Davis, but the exact relationship is unknown. [1] [6] 
Black Ben Davis 
Gano
Pomology is a branch of botany that studies fruits and their cultivation. Someone who researches and practices the science of pomology is called a pomologist. The term fruticulture is also used to describe the agricultural practice of growing fruits in orchards.
Gravenstein is a triploid apple cultivar that originated in the 17th century or earlier. The fruit has a tart flavor, and it is heavily used as a cooking apple, especially for apple sauce and apple cider. It does not keep well, and it is available only in season. This is in part because neither cold storage, nor regular controlled atmosphere keeps the apples' distinctive aroma, although the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association states that "recently however, low oxygen CA storage has shown promise in retaining this harvest-time quality".
The Baldwin apple is a bright red winter apple, very good in quality, and easily shipped. It was for many years the most popular apple in New England, New York, and for export from the United States of America. No apple in the vicinity of Boston was so popular as Baldwin. It has also been known as 'Calville Butter', 'Felch', 'Late Baldwin', 'Pecker', 'Red Baldwin's Pippin', 'Steele's Red Winter', and 'Woodpecker'.
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem. In grafting, it refers to a plant, sometimes just a stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, onto which a cutting or a bud from another plant is grafted. In some cases, such as vines of grapes and other berries, cuttings may be used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out. The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion. The scion is the plant that has the properties that propagator desires above ground, including the photosynthetic activity and the fruit or decorative properties. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals, and resisting the relevant pests and diseases. After a few weeks, the tissues of the two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant. After some years, it may be difficult to detect the site of the graft although the product always contains the components of two genetically different plants.
Antonovka is a group of late-fall or early-winter apple cultivars with a strong acid flavor that have been popular in Russia as well as in Poland and Belarus. The most popular Russian variety is Common Antonovka, from which other cultivars derive. It was developed by pioneer Russian naturalist and plant breeder Ivan V. Michurin at his experimental orchard in the Tambov Oblast and introduced in 1888.
The 'Roxbury Russet' is an apple cultivar, believed to be the oldest apple cultivar bred in the United States, having first been discovered and named in the mid-17th century in the former Town of Roxbury, part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony southwest of Boston. It is known by several other names including 'Boston Russet', 'Putnam Russet', and 'Sylvan Russet'.
Winesap is an old apple cultivar of unknown origin, dating at least to American colonial times. Its apples are sweet with a tangy finish. They are used for eating, cooking, and are especially prized for making cider.
A pearmain, also formerly spelled "permain", is a type of apple. The name may once have been applied to a particular variety of apple that kept well, although in more modern times its inclusion in varietal names was, like the term 'Pippin', "largely decoration" rather than indicating any shared qualities.
The Newtown Pippin, also known as Albemarle Pippin, is an American apple that originated in the late 17th or early 18th century and is still cultivated on a small scale. At one time, there were two very similar apple cultivars known as the 'Yellow Newtown' and 'Green Newtown', one of which perhaps originated as a sport of the other.
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition.
The Arkansas Black is an apple cultivar that originated in the mid-19th Century in Benton County, Arkansas. It is not the same as the cultivar 'Arkansas' or 'Arkansas Black Twig'.
White Transparent is an early-season cultivar of apple which is usually used for cooking due to its sharp taste. It is sometimes said to be the same as 'Yellow Transparent', but 'Yellow Transparent' is sometimes described differently, with fine rather than coarse flesh, and a sub-acid rather than acid flavour. Weight 75 g,
'Duchess of Oldenburg' is an old Russian cultivar of cultivated apple which has attractive streaks of yellow and red. It was commonly but not universally known in America simply as 'Oldenburg' after the American Pomological Society listed that as the official name, a name also used for the 'Geheimrat Dr. Oldenburg' cultivar. The skin of the apple is more prominently striped than that of 'Geheimrat Dr. Oldenburg'.
Reinette du Canada or Canadian Reinette is, despite its name, an old French cultivar of domesticated apple. It is a reinette type of golden apple, with much russeting, which keeps shape in cooking and is mainly used for that purpose especially in apple strudel.
Dumelow's Seedling is a cultivar of domesticated apple that originated at Shackerstone in Leicestershire where it was grown by Richard Dumeller in 1800. It is known by many other names including 'Dumelow's Crab', 'Wellington', 'Doncklaer', 'Beauty', and 'Belle de Vennes'. The fruit is not ready for harvest until October, being one of the last of the season, and keeps well into the next year. Though inferior for use as a dessert apple it cooks well and in early-20th century England was one of the most valuable varieties of cooking apple.
The Tolman Sweet is a cultivar of apple with a butter yellow color, with faint russet dots and a "suture line" along one side of the fruit from top to bottom.
The Wagener is a cultivar of the domesticated apple. It was first farmed in 1791 in New York, and is the parent of the Idared and, possibly, the Northern Spy. Despite the early popularity of the Wagener, it is no longer widely grown.
