Kendall†

This variety originated at the New York Experiment Station as a cross of McIntosh x Zusoff and was introduced commercially for trial in 1932. The tree is similar in many respects to McIntosh. Fruit is large, uniform in shape, handsome, with a smooth finish. The skin is thin, tender, dark red, becoming very dark at full picking maturity, with a rich bloom. This variety ripens about 7 to 10 days after McIntosh, or about September 15 to 25, at Corvallis but keeps a little longer in cold storage. It has the same whitish, fine-grained flesh as McIntosh when properly ripened. Fruit hangs on the tree better than McIntosh but not as well at Cortland. This variety has not become popular in Oregon, probably because the color in most districts may become too dark. Quality is high, and in cool areas, where it develops best, it is a desirable variety. For home orchards and roadside stands, it merits further grower trials in western Oregon.

KENDALL ripens in mid-September. It has a high quality and in cool areas is a desirable apple.

— Quentin B. Zielinski, Apple Varieties for Oregon (1964)

Kendall

Origin. Kendall originated from a cross made in 1912, Zusoff x McIntosh. Kendall is a sister seedling of Ogden (see Ogden). The breeding record number was 12581, and the seedling number was Station 3616. It was selected in 1927 from a population of 24 seedlings. After 5 years in second test, it was introduced in 1932 (Table 2). It was named for the village of Kendall in Orleans County, New York. At the time of its introduction, Kendall was comprehensively described by Howe (101). It was also briefly described in the Register of New Fruit and Nut Varieties (31) and in British Columbia (156).

Winter Hardiness. Electrolytic tests (77) have shown that Kendall trees are medium in winter hardiness. However, in New York following the severe winter of 1933-34, Kendall, like its parent McIntosh, survived without injury (2, 3). After the severe freeze in Kansas in November 1940, the behavior of 200 apple cultivars was studied. Trees of Kendall were very hardy, showing 90 per cent recovery (179).

Tree. The tree characteristics of Kendall are summarized in Table 5. The tree is large, vigorous, upright, tall, and dense. The tree is similar to McIntosh but with larger main limbs and fewer lenticels on 2-year-old branches. The tree trunk is stocky, and the trunk bark is shaggy. The bark of young branches is nearly black.

Trees are productive but biennial (Table 5). The fruit is borne closely along the limbs, mostly on short spurs. In northern New York, Burrell (45) found that Kendall trees had very wide crotch angles. They yielded heavy crops, were biennial in their bearing habit, and started bearing crops at a late age, 10 years old, compared with 8 years for McIntosh.

Pollination. Kendall trees bloom in midseason, about half a day before Delicious (Table 6). It is diploid (Table 4), and the pollen is viable (238). Pollination experiments (152) showed that Kendall pollen produced satisfactory fruit sets but not so good as Delicious. Kendall pollen on McIntosh flowers gave satisfactory fruit sets (46). In British Columbia (156), Kendall was among the most blossom hardy of cultivars in the severe spring frost of 1951.

Fruit. Kendall fruits are illustrated in Figure 13. They were also illustrated by Howe (101). The characteristics of Kendall fruits are summarized in Table 8.

The average ripening date for Kendall at Geneva is October 3, 1 week earlier than Delicious (Table 7). The average number of days from full bloom to harvest is 138, 7 fewer than Delicious. Kendall fruits hang well on the tree after they have ripened.

Kendall fruits are large, mostly about 3 inches in diameter. Burrell (45) found them to be very large. They are uniform in size, and their shape is similar to McIntosh, but they are more oblate and more symmetrical. The stem is short and medium in thickness. The cavity is acute, rather shallow, medium in width, and sometimes lipped; 60 per cent of the cavities are slightly russeted. The calyx is rather small and slightly open. The calyx lobes are medium in length, narrow, acute, and pubescent. The basin is rather shallow, narrow, abrupt, symmetrical, and very slightly furrowed.

The skin is thick, medium in toughness, smooth, slightly dull, and with heavy bloom. The color is 90 per cent dark red, attractively blushed. Dayton (60) found that in the skin of Kendall fruits, 60 per cent of the epidermal cells and 91 per cent of the outer hypodermal cells contained red pigment. The dots are small, gray, conspicuous, and numerous, being most numerous near the calyx end.

The calyx tube is medium in length, medium in width (5 mm), and conic. The stamens are in a median location. The core is small to medium sized (22 mm wide) and nearly closed. The carpels are round and not tufted. The seeds are large, wide, long, somewhat flat, and acute.

The flesh is nearly white when fully mature but distinctly greenish when immature. It is firm, medium grained, crisp, juicy, subacid, with McIntosh-like aroma, and with fair eating quality. Burrell (45) found the flavor was only medium. The greenish flesh of immature Kendall fruits has been one of its most serious commercial faults.

Between 1945 and 1955, Kendall was produced in commercial quantities in the Hudson Valley, New York. Apple buyers became acquainted with the cultivar. Because McIntosh was the most widely known cultivar in that area, buyers and growers alike wanted to attach some kind of McIntosh name to Kendall. The appearance of Kendall fruits was enough like that of McIntosh fruits that the nondiscriminating customer could view them as identical. Consequently, Kendall was given the nickname, K-McIntosh. Kendall develops beautiful skin color a week before McIntosh is ready to harvest, but the proper harvest date for Kendall is after McIntosh. Because of this early coloring, Kendall was commonly harvested and marketed before McIntosh. The fruit flesh of most apple cultivars tends to be distinctly greenish during the week before the fruit ripens; this is more than commonly true for Kendall. Furthermore, Kendall fruits have only mediocre quality at best, and when they were harvested 2 weeks before they ripened, the eating quality was very poor. Thus, immature Kendall fruits under the label, K-McIntosh, quickly gained a bad reputation. Because of this bad management by growers and buyers, Kendall was dubbed a poor cultivar, and the Station was criticized for naming it. Unfortunately, it was not possible for the Station to have predicted that Kendall would be mishandled in such a deplorable manner.

Kendall contains 7 mg ascorbic acid per 100 mg fruit, which compares with 37 mg for Calville Blanc and 4 mg for McIntosh (105); oranges contain about 40 mg.

Kendall fruits have good storage characteristics (156). The storage life is better than McIntosh; at 31°F it is estimated to be 100 days (Table 10). Bitter pit often increases in storage, but in Ohio (44), Kendall fruits developed bitter pit spots even before they ripened.

Insects and Diseases. In a study comparing the preference of Japanese beetles for different apple cultivars (142), Kendall was very attractive to the insect, resulting in severe injury. In a German study of the susceptibility of apple cultivars to powdery mildew (189), Kendall was severely attacked, while Lodi was resistant. In Ohio (44), Kendall trees were quite subject to fire blight.

Commercial Usefulness. Trees of Kendall were sold by the New York State Fruit Testing Association for 29 years, 1932-60 (Table 2). In the 1960-68 period, Kendall trees were sold by six commercial nurseries (Table 3). This is evidence of considerable commercial interest in the cultivar.

In 1954 (186), Kendall was tested at experiment stations in Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Ottawa, and West Virginia. In 1963, a survey of apple clones in the United States (79) showed that it was tested in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In 1968 (184), it was tested at stations in Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ontario, and Pennsylvania.

Kendall is said to be one of the New York Station introductions which has found greatest favor with American fruit growers (241). However, as observed in 1952 by trueness-to-name nursery inspectors, Kendall was one of the less popular cultivars being propagated for northern growers (185).

In a 1941 circular about apple growing in New York (103), Kendall was described as one of the best and most important cultivars. In an evaluation by a New York commercial grower (141), Kendall was attractive, excellent eating, high yielding, bore young, bore biennially, bore large fruits, and hung well on the tree. In 1956 (10), Kendall was one of the apple cultivars recommended for planting in New York, but after 1960, it was no longer recommended. Figure 41 shows that Kendall ranked 19th among the 20 most important apple cultivars in New York in 1966.

In Massachusetts (81), Kendall trees had a moderately good growth habit, required 10 years to bear 1 bushel of fruit, yielded good crops, and bore biennially. Because of biennial flowering, Kendall was a poor pollinator for McIntosh. Kendall fruits were very large, excellent in color, poor in quality, susceptible to scab and bitter pit, had only a medium amount of preharvest drop, and a short cold storage life. In a Massachusetts survey made in 1946 (226), only 5 of 22 growers questioned said that they would plant Kendall in the future, while 16 said they would discard Kendall; 58 of 76 would plant McIntosh.

In Iowa (62), Kendall trees produced heavy yields and ripened 3 weeks before Jonathan; fruits were medium sized and dark red; it was useful for both the fresh and processing markets; and it had good commercial value.

In British Columbia (155), Kendall ripened 2 weeks later than McIntosh, and in 1951, it was sufficiently promising for commercial trial.

In Pennsylvania in 1955 (50), Kendall was recommended for planting.

In summary, because of its large, attractive fruits, Kendall has good commercial characteristics. It is recommended for planting by those growers who are competent in the use of chemical thinners so that biennial bearing can be prevented and by growers who are willing to allow the fruits to become sufficiently ripe before harvesting, so that some of the greenish flesh will have disappeared before marketing.

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