Grimes Golden

Origin / History

Grimes Golden originated in Brooke County, (West) Virginia, on the farm of Thomas Grimes. Beach (1905) and Hedrick (1922) place the origin in West Virginia; earlier sources (Elliott 1865, Warder 1867, Downing 1900, Hansen 1902, Thomas 1903) cite Virginia, reflecting the pre-1863 boundary. Fruit from the original tree was reportedly sold to New Orleans traders as long ago as 1804 (Beach, citing Grimes, Horticulturist, 24:51, 1869). Downing notes the variety "originated many years since, on the farm of Thomas Grimes, Brooke Co., Va." Warder records that it was introduced to the State Pomological Society by S. B. Marshall of Massillon, Ohio, who obtained it from N. Wood of Belmont County. By Beach's account it had "become generally disseminated throughout the Ben Davis regions of the South, West and Southwest, where it is often planted for home use and is highly esteemed as a dessert apple," though not extensively grown in commercial orchards in many localities. Hedrick (1922) writes that "Grimes Golden originated in West Virginia more than a century ago; its culture is confined to the regions named, and Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri." In its native locality, per Downing, "it is highly prized for the peculiar hardihood of the tree, withstanding uninjured the most severe winters, and never breaking in its limbs. Also for its uniform regular annual productiveness." Hansen (1902) reports it is "not sufficiently hardy at the north," but that fine specimens were raised near Yankton and shown at the South Dakota State Fair, and at the Station orchard at Brookings a few were raised by top-grafting on Hibernal. In the West, per Hansen and Budd-Hansen, "this variety and Jonathan are the standard of high quality, nothing better is known." Beach observes that in New York it has been long known in scattering localities and old trees are found in some orchards, but it has not been generally planted, does not develop in size, color, or quality as well as in more southern latitudes, has a high percentage of loss from drops and culls, and "the indications are that it will never be grown in New York to any considerable extent."

Tree

Vigor is variously reported. Warder (1867), Downing (1900), Hansen (1902), and Budd-Hansen (1914) describe the tree as vigorous; Beach (1905) describes it as moderately vigorous; Hedrick (1922) calls it vigorous in one passage but writes that "the trees, too, are but moderately vigorous, and under most conditions must be classed with the 'unmanageables.'" The Central Experimental Farm catalogue (Agassiz BC, 1900) describes it as "a vigorous but spreading grower, and very productive."

Form: upright, spreading (Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Downing — Downing specifying "upright spreading"), or upright-spreading, drooping, dense (Hedrick); Beach gives "upright spreading or roundish, inclined to droop; rather dense." Warder calls it "spreading."

Branches: short, stout, curved, crooked (Beach, Hedrick). Downing notes a distinctive structural feature: "branches with peculiar knobs at the base of each, connecting it with the main limbs."

Young wood / shoots: Warder — "Shoots stout, dark." Downing — "Young wood dark dull red brown, grayish."

Twigs (Beach): short to long, straight, moderately stout; internodes short.

Bark (Beach): dull brownish, rather lightly mottled with scarf-skin; pubescent in spots and at tips.

Lenticels (Beach): scattering, small to large, roundish or oblong, not raised, rather inconspicuous.

Buds (Beach): medium, broad, obtuse to acute, free, varying from slightly pubescent to quite pubescent.

Foliage: Warder — "abundant, dark green."

Bearing habit: hardy (Downing), healthy (Warder), productive (Warder, Downing, Central Experimental Farm), very productive (Downing, Central Experimental Farm). Bears early (Warder); a good early annual bearer (Hansen, Budd-Hansen); Downing emphasizes "uniform regular annual productiveness." Beach reports the tree is "a biennial or sometimes an annual bearer and a good cropper."

Fruit

Size

Medium (Elliott 1865, Downing 1900, Central Experimental Farm 1900); full medium (Warder 1867); above medium (Thomas 1903, Hansen 1902, Budd-Hansen 1914); medium to large (Beach 1905, Hedrick 1922). Lowther (1914) codes size as M (medium).

Form

Reported variously and consistently:

• Elliott: "oblong flattened."
• Warder: "cylindrical, regular."
• Downing: "roundish oblate, slightly conical."
• Central Experimental Farm: "roundish oblong."
• Hansen / Budd-Hansen: "regular, cylindrical, sometimes roundish oblate."
• Thomas: "roundish, slightly oblong, regular."
• Beach: "roundish oblong, often flattened at the ends, sometimes inclined to conic, pretty regular, sometimes obscurely ribbed, sometimes oblique, symmetrical, uniform; sides often unequal."
• Hedrick: "round-oblong, often flattened at the ends, sometimes conic, regular, sometimes obscurely ribbed; sometimes oblique, symmetrical, uniform, sides often unequal."

Stem / Stalk

Warder — "long, curved." Downing — "rather short and slender." Thomas — "slender, in a deep cavity." Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "medium." Beach — "short to medium." Hedrick — "short." (Conflicting: Warder gives long and curved; most others give short to medium.)

Cavity

Warder — "wide, regular, green." Downing — "rather deep, sometimes slightly russeted." Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "regular, obtuse, slightly russeted." Thomas — "deep" (with slender stalk). Beach — "broad, deep, acute to acuminate, often russeted." Hedrick — "broad, deep, acute, often russeted."

Calyx / Eye

Warder — "Eye large, closed." Downing — "Calyx closed, or partially open." Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "calyx closed or half open; segments divergent." Beach — "Calyx rather large, closed; lobes long, reflexed, often separated at base." Hedrick — "calyx large, closed; lobes long, reflexed, often separated at base."

Basin

Warder — "abrupt, folded." Downing — "abrupt, uneven." Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "deep, abrupt, uneven, somewhat wrinkled." Thomas — "deep, slightly wrinkled." Beach — "abrupt, deep or moderately deep, rather wide, somewhat furrowed." Hedrick — "abrupt, deep, wide, furrowed."

Skin / Surface

Color: rich golden yellow (Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Central Experimental Farm, Hedrick); golden yellow (Elliott); yellow, vein-russeted (Warder); rich golden yellow, sprinkled moderately with small gray and bright dots (Downing — "Skin uneven"); yellow with large russet dots (Thomas); clear deep yellow (Beach); deep yellow (Hedrick). Hedrick summarizes the surface as "beautiful rich golden color, well-moulded form." Skin texture: Beach — "tough, somewhat rough"; Hedrick — "tough."

Russet net-veining: Hansen and Budd-Hansen note the surface is "sometimes with thin open net-veining of russet."

Dots: Warder — "numerous, minute"; Downing — "small gray and bright dots, sprinkled moderately"; Central Experimental Farm — "small gray dots"; Thomas — "large russet dots"; Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "obscure, many, white, minute, with a few russet dots"; Beach — "scattering pale yellow or russet dots"; Hedrick — "scattering pale yellow or russet dots."

Flesh

Color: yellow (Warder, Downing, Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Beach, Hedrick, Central Experimental Farm); yellowish white (Elliott, Thomas).

Texture: firm (Warder, Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Central Experimental Farm, Hedrick); compact (Warder — "firm, breaking, very fine-grained"; Hansen, Budd-Hansen — "firm, compact"); crisp (Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Central Experimental Farm, Beach, Hedrick); tender (Downing, Beach, Hedrick); breaking, very fine-grained (Warder); moderately coarse (Beach); coarse (Hedrick); juicy (Warder, Downing, Central Experimental Farm, Hedrick); moderately juicy (Beach).

Hedrick summarizes: "firm but crisp and tender flesh, pleasantly acidulous flavor, and most pleasant aroma."

Flavor

• Elliott: "sub-acid."
• Warder: "sub-acid, aromatic, spicy, rich, refreshing."
• Downing: "rich, sprightly, spicy subacid, peculiar aroma."
• Hansen / Budd-Hansen: "aromatic, rich, spicy subacid."
• Thomas: "mild sub-acid, agreeable, very good flavor."
• Central Experimental Farm: "rich pleasant flavour."
• Beach: "subacid, rich, aromatic, sprightly."
• Hedrick: "subacid, rich, aromatic, sprightly; ... pleasantly acidulous flavor, and most pleasant aroma."

Quality

"Very good" (Elliott, Thomas, Central Experimental Farm); "very best" (Warder); "very good to best" (Downing, Beach, Hedrick); "best" (Hansen, Budd-Hansen); Lowther codes quality as VG.

Core / Seeds

Warder — "Core small, pyriform, closed, meeting the eye; Seeds numerous, plump, brown." Downing — "Core rather small." Hansen / Budd-Hansen — "Core small, slightly open, pyriform, meeting; cells obovate; tube conical; stamens basal; seeds many, short, plump." Beach — "Calyx tube yellow, very broad at the top, conical, deep. Stamens basal. Core medium to rather small, somewhat abaxile; cells usually pretty symmetrical, closed or somewhat open; core lines meeting or somewhat clasping. Carpels roundish, emarginate, concave. Seeds numerous, medium or below, somewhat tufted, plump, acute to obtuse." Hedrick — "calyx-tube yellow, very broad at the top, conical, deep; stamens basal; core small, abaxile; cells symmetrical, closed or open; core-lines meeting; cells roundish, emarginate, concave; seeds numerous, tufted, plump, acute."

Season

December to March (Elliott, Hansen, Budd-Hansen, Downing, Central Experimental Farm); January to March (Warder); November (Thomas); November to January or February (Beach, Hedrick); commercial limit December or January (Beach). Beach notes it "is in season about with Hubbardston." It is not a good keeper and is apt to scald in storage (Beach); Hedrick concurs: "wherever grown, they scald badly in storage."

Uses

Dessert (Warder — "Use, dessert, too good for aught else"; Beach — "excellent either for dessert or culinary use"). Excellent for cooking, per those who have tried it (Warder). Thomas — "Unexcelled for home use." Highly esteemed as a dessert apple in the South, West, and Southwest (Beach). Beach observes "it can hardly be called a standard market variety but in some markets it sells well"; some New York fruit growers consider it a fairly profitable variety, but generally it is regarded less favorably and has failed to become a standard apple either in home or commercial orchards of New York.

Subtypes / Variants

Not described in source.

Other

Lowther (1914), Encyclopedia of Practical Horticulture, presents the variety as a single coded row of variety-characteristic abbreviations:

Grimes' Golden............... M | rob | gy | VG | f | W | 3* | 20* | 2*

Beach's reference list cites the variety across the major nineteenth- and early twentieth-century pomological literature, including Magazine of Horticulture (Hovey, 1856), Downing (1857), Hooper (1857), The Horticulturist (Hanford 1863, Grimes 1869), Warder (1867), the American Pomological Society Catalogue (1869), Barry (1883), Thomas (1885), Michigan Horticultural Society Report (Lyon, 1890), Wickson (1891), Bailey's Annals of Horticulture (1892), American Gardening (1898; Brackett 1901), Virginia Station Bulletin (Alwood, 1901), Missouri Fruit Station Bulletin (Stinson, 1902), South Dakota Station Bulletin (Hansen, 1902), Budd-Hansen (1903), U.S. Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin (Powell and Fulton, 1903), and New York Station Bulletin (Beach and Clark, 1904).