Niagara†

This variety was selected in New York from a cross of Carlton x McIntosh. It is a promising McIntosh type, ripening just before Jonathan when a superior variety that colors well and ships satisfactorily is needed. It resembles McIntosh in growth habit, productiveness, appearance, and flavor. The flesh is firm, white, crisp, and flavorful. The tree is moderately vigorous with well developed limbs. The leaves are very resistant to mildew infection. The fruit has a slight tendency to drop with approaching maturity. It is a diploid type with fertile pollen. Niagara's full bloom coincides with McIntosh, Gravenstein, and other early flowering varieties, and it should be a good pollinizer. Further evaluation is needed in Oregon.

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

Niagara

Origin. Niagara originated from the cross, Carlton x McIntosh, made in 1939 (see Carlton). Niagara is a reciprocal sister of Redhook (see Redhook). The breeding record number was 39201, and the seedling number was N.Y. 50-2. It was selected in 1950 from a population of 16 seedlings. After 12 years of observations on second test, it was introduced in 1962 (Table 2), at the same time Wayne and Spigold were named. It was named for Niagara County, New York.

The introductory description of Niagara was published in 1962 by Klein, et al (131, 132). It was briefly described in the Register of New Fruit and Nut Varieties (39) and also by Brooks in 1963 (30). It was described for the New York State Horticultural Society in 1963 (224) and again in 1967 (220).

Winter Hardiness. Following a severe freeze in British Columbia in 1966 (143), fruit spurs of Niagara were found to be only moderately hardy, while McIntosh was very hardy.

Tree. The tree characteristics of Niagara are summarized in Table 5. Ten characteristics of Niagara trees have been listed by Way (221). The tree is large, vigorous, upright, tall, dense, with many fine branches, and round-topped. Trees are productive, though somewhat biennial in their bearing habit (Table 5). They are susceptible to fire blight.

Pollination. Niagara blossoms early (Table 6) to midseason (98), more than 2 days before Delicious. It is diploid (Table 4), and the pollen is viable.

Fruit. Niagara fruits are illustrated in Figure 21. They were also illustrated in Farm Research (131). The fruit characteristics are summarized in Table 8. Ten fruit characteristics of Niagara have been listed by Way (221). The average ripening date at Geneva is September 12, 4 weeks before Delicious and 10 days before McIntosh (Table 7) (213). The average number of days between full bloom and harvest is 119, 26 fewer than Delicious.

Niagara was introduced as a McIntosh type but ripening before McIntosh. Many commercial growers often attempt to take advantage of the early market high prices by harvesting their McIntosh while they are still immature. Niagara was introduced to fill the need for a McIntosh type ripening before McIntosh and which could be harvested after it became fully mature. A few years of testing showed that growers did not appear to accept Niagara to fill this need because Niagara has the fault of too large dots.

After ripening, Niagara fruits have somewhat of a tendency to drop from the tree. The fruits are medium sized to large, mostly 2¾ inches and sometimes up to 3¼ inches in diameter. They are roundish and somewhat irregular in shape like McIntosh, and sometimes slightly oblique. The stems are short and thick. The cavity is acute, medium sized, narrow, and usually symmetrical. Cavities on about half of the fruits are somewhat russeted and on about 10 per cent of the fruits, lipped. The calyx is medium sized and almost closed. The calyx lobes are medium sized, broad, and acute. The basin is medium in depth, narrow, abrupt, almost symmetrical, and slightly furrowed.

The skin is medium in thickness, tough, slightly rough, somewhat dull, and covered with heavy bloom. The skin color is 90 per cent dark red, and the color pattern is somewhat striped. The dots are numerous, large, and conspicuous. Dots are of two kinds, small russeted lenticels, and large whitish dots, up to ¼ inch in diameter. The whitish dots apparently develop more conspicuously in humid regions than they do in less humid areas. These conspicuous dots have caused growers to reject the cultivar. If fruits are held in cold storage until April, the dots develop into depressed areas in the skin.

The calyx tube is very short, narrow, and conic. The stamens are usually median but sometimes marginal. The core is medium sized to small and nearly closed. The carpels are ovate. The seeds are rather large, wide, plump, and acute.

The flesh color is whitish cream, with a greenish tinge in immature fruits. The flesh is more yellow than McIntosh. The flesh texture is semifirm to somewhat soft. The flesh is medium grained, tender, somewhat juicy, subacid, and aromatic. The eating quality is fair to good, similar but slightly inferior to McIntosh quality. The keeping quality is fair; at 31°F fruits will store about 70 days (Table 10). It is a dessert type and is not suited for processing.

Commercial Usefulness. Nursery trees of Niagara were sold by the New York State Fruit Testing Association for 12 years, 1957-68 (Table 2). It was sold for 5 years before it was introduced. In the 1960-68 period, it was sold by 10 commercial nurseries (Table 3). This illustrates that it was commercially accepted very quickly.

In 1968 (184), Niagara was tested at experiment stations in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington. In 1967, Niagara was one of the 12 cultivars recommended for planting in New York (176). In an evaluation by a commercial New York grower (141), Niagara was attractive, excellent eating, high yielding, bore at a young age, bore annually, was large fruited, and hung well to the tree. In 1966 (231), it was recommended as a new cultivar for trial in Massachusetts.

In summary: Niagara is a very good, well colored cultivar ripening in early September, but because many commercial growers have rejected it, it is recommended only for those growers who have been favorably impressed with its fruiting performance.

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

20. Niagara is an early fall apple, introduced by the Geneva Station in 1962. It is a McIntosh type. In western New York, it ripens at the end of August, about 3 weeks before McIntosh. The fruits are medium-large and almost fully red. In areas of high humidity near large bodies of water, the skin lenticels grow abnormally large, causing unattractive russet dots. The flesh is greenish until fruits are fully ripe; after ripening, the flesh is more yellowish than McIntosh. Trees are strong growing and tend to be alternate in cropping.

— Roger D. Way, Apple Varieties Grown in New York State (1979)