GOLDEN RUSSET
| Origin | England, 1800s. |
| Parentage | Unknown. |
| Availability | Mid October to April or later. |
| Source | Only in limited quantities from certain nurseries. |
| Quality | Rich, aromatic, distinctive; moderately juicy and crisp. |
| Fruit: |
| Size | Below medium, fairly uniform in size. |
| Surface | Partly or fully covered with fine smooth russeting. |
| Ground Colour | Medium green to golden depending on culture, season and maturity. |
| Over Colour | Usually none. May have a tinge of dull red on the exposed cheek. |
| Flesh Colour | Creamy yellow. |
| Harvest Season | Mid October. One of the last cultivars harvested. |
| Storage | Keeps very well in cold storage; high, but slightly less than 100%, humidity is necessary to prevent shriveling. This can be overdone as fruit in fully sealed polyethylene lined bins with freely visible water will become mealy and may develop soft scald-like symptoms. |
| Strains | A spur type was discovered in 1982 in Connecticut. Untested in Nova Scotia. |
| Tree: |
| Vigour | Moderately vigourous. Older trees become quite large. |
| Habit | Spreading. With its thin willowy shoots the trees tend to develop an umbrella form with excessive blind wood, complicating pruning. |
| Precocity | Somewhat slow to bear full crops. |
| Fruit Placement | On laterals, some spurs and terminals. |
| Bloom Period | Early. |
| Pollination | Pollinated by other diploids with overlapping blossom periods; a good pollinator. |
| Nutrition | Requires average to above average feeding. |
| Crop | Only a moderate cropper and may be somewhat irregular. |
| Synchrony | Good. |
| Adaptation | Seems to like cool growing seasons. Only moderately hardy. |
| Disease Reaction | Leaves are susceptible to scab, fruit are fairly resistant. Moderately resistant to mildew. Resistant to canker. |
| Insect Reaction | Somewhat susceptible to leaf rollers and budmoth. |
| Rootstock | Minor trials with size-controlling stocks have neither shown any problems nor a solution to the low cropping problem; fruit size may have been improved. Good canopy volume appears necessary for adequate crop volumes. |
| Comments: |
| Golden Russet is a cultivar of long standing, noted for its high eating quality. Its distinct appearance gives it a special market niche. In early settlement days it was favoured for its ability to retain full flavour and juiciness (even though somewhat shriveled) in unheated cellar storage. Highly valued as a sweet cider apple since as little as 10% will provide a distinctive flavour to the juice. |
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