Chautauqua

Origin. Chautauqua originated from the cross, Esopus x Ben Davis, made in 1898. The breeding record number was 3169 and the seedling number was 122. It was selected in 1912 from a population of 36 seedlings. It was propagated because fruit from the 1911 harvest stored well late in the spring of 1912. It was introduced in 1915 (Table 2) without the benefit of a second test. It was named for Chautauqua County, New York.

Chautauqua was described by Hedrick, and trees of it were distributed to fruit growers in 1915 (88).

Tree. The tree characteristics of Chautauqua are summarized in Table 5. Chautauqua trees are large, medium in vigor, upright, tall, medium dense, and round-topped. They are medium in productivity, and they bear biennially (Table 5). The trunk is medium stocky. The trunk bark is brownish gray and medium shaggy.

Chautauqua blooms late, one day later than Delicious (Table 6). It is diploid (Table 4), and the pollen is viable.

Fruit. Chautauqua fruits are illustrated in Figure 3. Their characteristics are summarized in Table 8. The average ripening date at Geneva is October 21, 1½ weeks after Delicious (Table 7). The average number of days from full bloom to harvest is 155, 10 more than Delicious. Chautauqua fruits hang well to the tree after they have become harvest ripe. The fruits are medium sized to large, up to 3 inches in diameter, roundish, and somewhat irregular in shape. The stem is medium in length, thick, and flaring to very thick at its base. The cavity is obtuse, shallow, medium in width, almost symmetrical, and usually russeted. The calyx is somewhat open and medium sized. The calyx lobes are medium in length, narrow, and acute. The basin is medium in depth and width, abrupt, and furrowed.

The skin is thick, tough, smooth, and greasy when fully ripe. The skin color is 90 per cent dark red, with a striped color pattern and a greenish ground color. The dots are numerous, small, brown or white, and obscure. The calyx tube is long to short (13 to 7 mm), narrow (7 mm), and conical to funnel-shaped. The stamens are located in a basal position. The core is medium sized (23 mm wide) and closed. The carpels are cordate. The seeds are large, wide, and plump.

The flesh of Chautauqua fruits is cream colored, very firm, coarse, crisp, tough, and subacid. The eating quality is fair. The keeping quality is good, having a storage life of 180 days when held at 31°F (Table 10). Fruits borne on young trees sometimes have bitter pit.

Chautauqua contains less than 10 mg ascorbic acid per 100 gm fruit, which compares with 37 for Calville Blanc and 4 for McIntosh (105).

Commercial Usefulness. Nursery trees of Chautauqua were sold only one year, 1920, by the New York State Fruit Testing Association (Table 2). Trees were never sold by commercial nurseries.

In 1963 and 1968, surveys of apple clones in the United States showed that Chautauqua was then tested at no experiment stations, except Geneva (79, 184).

Chautauqua has never been planted on a commercial scale and has no prospect of becoming important. It is not recommended for planting.

— Roger D. Way, Apple Cultivars Introduced by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, 1914–1968 (1971)