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Chieftain Apple Scionwood (Spring 2024)


A delicious cold-hardy cross of Jonathan and Delicious.

Chieftain is vigorous, cold hardy, and productive. This tree is generally disease resistant and particularly resistant to fireblight and scab. It is easy to grow and makes a great addition to the home orchard.

This lunchbox-sized apple is an attractive, deep rosy red with creamy flesh. A child of Jonathan and Delicious, Chieftain has the sweetness of Delicious balanced by the acid of Jonathan. The flesh is firm and juicy, and the fruit hangs well on the tree. Chieftain is an excellent, tasty apple for fresh eating or baking, and the kids will love it.

Developed in 1917 by Spencer Beach at Iowa State University, Chieftain was not released until 1966. Beach's goal was to create a cold-hardy apple. A statement by the Iowa State University Alumni Association reports that Chieftain gets rave reviews from students and staff all across campus. It is a superb apple that was never properly promoted in the industry.

Volume Pricing

Premiums are included in the following prices if applicable. These prices are for regular scion. Add $1 for clean scion.

Quantity Chieftain Apple Scion
1 $12.00
2-5 $7.00
6-10 $6.00
11-99 $5.00
100+ $4.00

Order Your Scions

Select clean or regular:

$13.00 ea.

This is the full retail price for orders of 1 scion. You can get these scion for as low as $4.00 each – see Volume Pricing above. More about Pricing & Grading.

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Clean vs. Regular

Our clean scion is harvested from trees grown on G.16, which is extremely sensitive to viruses. These trees would not have survived if the scion contained viruses. Our clean wood has not been lab tested. Regular = may contain one of the common latent viruses; this is not usually a problem and can be used with most rootstocks.

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Chieftain is vigorous, cold hardy, and productive. This tree is generally disease resistant and particularly resistant to fireblight and scab. It is easy to grow and makes a great addition to the home orchard.

This lunchbox-sized apple is an attractive, deep rosy red with creamy flesh. A child of Jonathan and Delicious, Chieftain has the sweetness of Delicious balanced by the acid of Jonathan. The flesh is firm and juicy, and the fruit hangs well on the tree. Chieftain is an excellent, tasty apple for fresh eating or baking, and the kids will love it.

Developed in 1917 by Spencer Beach at Iowa State University, Chieftain was not released until 1966. Beach's goal was to create a cold-hardy apple. A statement by the Iowa State University Alumni Association reports that Chieftain gets rave reviews from students and staff all across campus. It is a superb apple that was never properly promoted in the industry.


The Fruit

Fruit Type

Category: Apple
Subcategory: Disease-Resistant, Cold-Hardy, Hot-Climate

Fruit Uses & Storage

Uses: fresh eating, baking
Storage duration: one to three months (approximate, depending on storage conditions)

Fruit Appearance

Skin color: red
Flesh color: white

Fruit Origins

Parentage: Jonathan x Delicious
Origin: Iowa State University
Introduced in: 1966
Introduced by: Spencer Beach

The Environment

Calendar & Geography

USDA zones: 4 - 8
Chill hours: Not yet determined
Ripening date: Nov 03 (approximate, in New York State) + 49 days after McIntosh

Diseases & Pests

Apple Scab: Resistant
Fireblight: Resistant

Pollination

Pollination Factors

Bloom group: 4
Is it self-fertile? N
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid

Pollination Partners

This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Chieftain Apple. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.

Tree Ships Currently in Stock
Virginia Crab Apple 2024 0
Florina Apple 2024 0
Porter's Perfection Apple 2024 0
Elstar Apple 2024 0
Rubinette Apple 2024 0
St. Edmund's Russet Apple 2024 0
Spitzenburg Esopus Apple 2024 0
Liberty Apple 2024 0
Mother Apple 2024 0
Cripps Pink Apple 2024 0
Binet Rouge Apple 2024 0

See all pollination matches for Chieftain Apple






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