The first Gala apple tree was one of many seedlings resulting from a cross between a
Golden Delicious and a
Kidd's Orange Red planted in
Greytown,
Wairarapa,
New Zealand in the 1930s by orchardist
J.H. Kidd. Selected in 1939, introduced in 1960. Donald W. McKenzie, an employee of Stark Bros Nursery, obtained a US plant patent for the cultivar on October 15, 1974. It is a relatively new introduction to the UK, first planted in commercial volumes during the 1980s. The variety now represents about 20% of the total volume of the commercial production of eating apples grown in the UK, often replacing
Cox's Orange Pippin. During the 2000s the provincial government of
Nova Scotia, Canada, subsidized apple producers to replace older trees, mainly the
McIntosh, with newer higher-return varieties of apples, including the Gala. Elsewhere in Canada, apple orchardists made the switch as well. By the 2020s, the Gala has become one of the top apple varieties in Canada, alongside the
Ambrosia and
Honeycrisp. During the 1980s, American wholesalers began searching for new apple varieties, and one they picked was the Gala. In 2018, the Gala surpassed
Red Delicious as the apple cultivar with the highest production in the United States, according to the
US Apple Association. It was the first time in over 50 years that any cultivar was produced more than Red Delicious. The majority of American Gala apples are harvested in Washington State, Michigan, and New York State.
Sports (mutations) Many
sports of Gala have been selected, mostly for increased red color, including the popular
Royal Gala. The original cultivar produced fruit with orange stripes and a partial orange blush over a yellow background. Since then, several un-patented sports have been recognized. Additionally, more than twenty sports have received US plant patents:
Unpatented varieties , Italy, with protected-origin (
PDO) sticker.
Descendant cultivars == Season ==