Red Wealthy Apple

Overview

Red Wealthy is a cold-climate American apple with bright, classic “old orchard” flavor, known for its hardiness and for ripening early enough to succeed in a shorter growing season (may still not be short enough for some growers in AK). A good mid season apples (in Missoula, MT), ‘Wealthy’ was planted all over Montana over 100 years ago.

Origin and History

Wealthy was developed in Minnesota by horticulturalist Peter M. Gideon, with the cultivar first grown/introduced in 1868 after years of failed attempts to grow standard apples in Minnesota’s winters. (Minnesota Historical Society) It became an important milestone apple for the Upper Midwest because it proved that quality dessert and cooking apples could be grown reliably in cold continental climates. “Red Wealthy” is a sport of selected for improved red coloration and later keeping. Recent genetic fingerprinting has revealed that it’s actually a cross between ‘Duchess of Oldenburg’ and ‘Jonathan’, which makes sense given its look-a-like with ‘Duchess’.

Fruit & Uses

Red Wealthy is a medium-sized, bright red apple with juicy flesh and a lively sweet–tart balance, making it a strong dual-purpose apple for fresh eating and kitchen use (sauce, pies, baking). This is the same “Wealthy-style” profile long associated with the original cultivar in cold-region orchards. 

Wealthy is a mid-season apple in Missoula, MT. in 2025, Farmer Fred at Green Bench Orchard had Wealthy on the trees and ready to be picked from Sept. 4th-Sept. 18th. This window shifts on a year to year basis, but this was pretty early for them in 2025. We wouldn't say this is a late apple for us, though, in Missoula. Curious if Wealthy could ripen in time in places like Anchorage (if any growers in Anchorage are reading this, let us know).

Growth Habit & Spacing

Wealthy is widely grown in heritage orchards as a reasonably vigorous, durable tree. Spacing on Dolgo (what we currently offer) is in the 18-20 ft. range. Tighter spacing could be applied for a more intensive pruning regiment.

Pollination

Red Wealthy (like Wealthy) is not self-fertile and needs a different apple variety nearby for reliable fruit set. As a diploid apple, it also provides viable pollen to other diploid apples when bloom overlaps. Examples we offer of what to plant with Red Wealthy for cross pollination include: McIntosh, Kerr, Honeycrisp, Haralson, Frostbite, Freedom, and Chestnut

Cold Hardiness

Going off of Wealthy's hardiness, Red wealthy is a solid zone 3 apple and should survive at least down to -40F. From our Montana observations and grower reports: Bruce Benson’s Red/Wealthy-type trees reportedly withstood -30°F-range events in Missoula back in the 1980s without winter injury and are still going strong today. There are also reports from the coldest parts of the Bitterroot (colder microclimates around Stevensville and Hamilton) of Wealthy-type trees seeing near -40°F and appearing fine afterward. That said, we do not yet have solid, well-documented evidence in our network of this variety surviving cleanly well into the -40s or -50s (it may be capable, but we’re not going to claim this without better documentation). Zone 3.