Idared

IDARED

Origin	Idaho, 1942.
Parentage	Jonathan x Wagener.
Availability	Harvest early October; best from December to March or later.
Source	Available from most commercial nurseries.
Quality	Mild aromatic, sub-acid, moderately sweet; firm, crisp and juicy.

Fruit:

Size	Medium, may be smaller or larger depending on the crop load.
Surface	Somewhat ribbed, fairly smooth and glossy.
Ground Colour	Pale greenish-yellow becoming cream with maturity.
Over Colour	Relatively bright red blush covering much of the apple.
Flesh Colour	Cream to creamy-white.
Pressure	15.5 - 16.0.
Harvest Season	Mid October, not too critical. Immature fruits may develop scald unless treated.
Storage	Cold storage to March, Controlled Atmosphere storage thereafter.
Strains	A redder strain, Marquis™ is available.

Tree:

Vigour	Only moderately vigourous.
Habit	Upright, rather spurry.
Precocity	Comes into bearing at a young age.
Fruit Placement	Primarily on spurs, fruits may be somewhat clustered especially if unthinned.
Bloom Period	Early, about with Gravenstein.
Pollination	In spite of its early bloom there have been few problems in mixed cultivar orchards.
Nutrition	Normal practices appear to be satisfactory. Lack of shoot growth and excessive spur development should be avoided by judicious pruning plus, sometimes, extra Nitrogen.
Crop	Heavy bearing on a per tree basis; some tendency to become biennial.
Synchrony	Spot picking is seldom practiced though on larger trees the inner fruits are of poorer quality.
Adaptation	Well adapted to cooler apple climates both Maritime and continental; not as hardy as McIntosh.
Disease Reaction	Susceptible to scab, powdery mildew, fire blight and cankers; in storage may develop Jonathan spot, slightly subject to moldy core.
Insect Reaction	Sensitive to woolly apple aphids, resistant to apple maggot.
Rootstock	In mixed cultivar plantings, Idared must be on a more vigourous stock than the others if the Idared trees are to be of equal size otherwise spacing between trees should be reduced. Idared on dwarfing stock tends to runt out; have done well on Beautiful Arcade seedlings.

Comments:

Idared has proven to be a useful cultivar, primarily for processing and for the late winter-spring market. While not an outstanding cultivar, Idared has few faults and is a relatively easy apple to grow.

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