Dorsett Golden

type: Dessert, Eating, Pie, Sauce

synonyms: Golden Dorsett

identification: Medium size, but smaller if the fruit set is not thinned. Round and slightly oblong. Pale yellow skin blushed pink about 10% of the surface, occasionally to 40% during seasons when the nights are cool during the last month before harvest. There are a few lenticels, but they are generally faint.

characteristics: Medium firm, crisp. Mildly sweet.

uses: Fresh eating apple. Generally too soft for pies but can be used for sauce.

origins: The variety was named for Irene Dorset who apparently brought a Golden Delicious apple with her from a trip to New York and planted the seeds in the garden of her home in Nassau, New Providence Islands (Bahamas) in 1953. One of the seeds sprouted and, six years later, bore fruit. The tree came to the attention of William Whitman, a Florida (U.S.A.) realtor and founder of Rare Fruit Council International, who took cuttings back to Florida in 1961. Several thousand trees were propagated and sold by Newcomb Nursery through the 1960s. It was subsequently obtained by the University of Florida's Horticultural Farm in Gainesville from two different sources in 1973 and 1974 for rigorous testing. The outcome was that the cultivar did indeed show signs of being exceptionally well adapted to subtropical climates, but that its presumed Golden Delicious heritage was genetically unlikely. A more probable candidate might have been the look-alike variety Ein Shemer which carries the low-chilling characteristics found in the Golden Dorsett.

cultivation: Medium height, upright, semi-spreading. Very precocious, tending to flower on two-year rootstock. At maturity, it is a vigorous, upright tree that sets fruit mainly on spurs but also on vigorous whips. Well suited for subtropical climates with almost no winter chill (Zones 8B to 10) since they require only 100 to 250 hours of chill (7 degrees Celsius or less) to induce sufficient dormancy. Dorsett Golden will grow evergreen, but production is sparse and the fruit misshapen. Tolerates Hardiness Zones 5 to 9, but may not set fruit at the lower end of the scale. Well suited to trellis training.

cold storage: Will keep for about two weeks in refrigeration.

harvest: Ripens a month before the first period and, in mild climates, it may produce a second crop for the fourth period after which yet another set of flowers will develop, though these have minimal chance of setting fruit.