Sun
Full sun, minimum 6-8 hrs, more sun means more and bigger fruit.
Water
Regular water, at least 1 inch per week. Apply over ground out to the drip line. Lack of water can cause fruit drop.
Soil
- PH of 6.5 is optimum
- Deep sandy loam to sandy clay loam.
- Avoid planting in a low lying frost area, low spring temps can kill blossoms.
Organic Fertilizer
Each year in the spring, apply a balanced organic fertilizer with trace elements according to manufacturers’ instructions. General rule is 1 lb. of 10-10-10 for every year of age up to 5-6 lbs, for mature trees. Broadcast over entire area around trunk out to the drip line. Addition of rock phosphate every 3 years will provide for good fruit production.
If putting together your own organic fertilizer, good sources are:
- Nitrogen – cottonseed meal, blood meal, sea or pond kelp (well rinsed of salt), fish emulsion
- Phosphorous – Phosphate rock-(only needed every 3-5 years)
- Potash – wood ashes (will raise pH), bone meal, greensand
Using mushroom compost, sometimes available in home improvement stores, helps to keep up beneficial fungal microorganisms to help battle disease. Every spring, work in manure and compost out to the drip line for added nutrients and soil improvement.
To revitalize a neglected tree, dig 6-8 holes spaced around the tree around 1 foot deep, fill with compost and fertilizer to help nutrients get down to the roots.
Trees grown in the lawn will need more fertilizer, almost double due to the needs of the lawn. Do a soil test to test fertility and adjust accordingly.
Observation of vegetative growth will indicate the fertility of the tree. Lateral, outward growth should be 12-18 inches per year.
Mulching with pine needles, bark or leaves will provide humus as it breaks down and help the soil to retain moisture. Apply 2-3 inches from a foot from the trunk out to the drip line.
Hardiness
Zones 3-9, depending on variety.
Apples need a winter chill, meaning 900 to 1200 hours of temps at or below 45 deg. In mild winter areas, look for low-chill varieties needing only 100 to 400 chill hours.
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Planting & Care
Varieties that you select should have more than one use, such as fresh eating and baking, to make good use to all that fruit!
Growing organically will take due diligence and we strongly recommend that you plant resistant varieties to help prevent disease. Diseased trees are also more vulnerable to insects.
Plan for more than one tree as almost all apple trees need to cross-pollinate with another variety that have the same bloom time. Harvest time may be different so as to stretch out the harvest, though. Some cultivars and heirloom varieties will be self-fruitful at maturity, but a pollinator nearby always helps increase yields.
Many sources are available on-line for bare root plants, 2-5 years old. Local nurseries will have varieties to grow in your area and carry larger, potted trees. Depending on your available space, select a size appropriate for your space:
- Dwarf – 6 to 10 feet in height and need support, good for small gardens, may be grown as a hedge or espaliered against a south facing wall of the house. They also bear 1-2 years earlier than semi-dwarf.
- Semi-dwarf – 10 to15 feet in height, more tree-like shape than dwarf, requires more water and fertilizer than standard, needs consistent pruning.
- Standard – 20 to 40 feet in height, huge bearer of fruit, too much fruit when mature for a family to use. Don’t use if mature height and spread will create too much shade. If you have deer, they can’t reach the ones you can get with a ladder!
Planting
Plant trees in the ornamental border where fruit drop will not be objectionable. If grown in the lawn, grow a late autumn variety so fruit drop will be minimal during time when the lawn needs mowing. Space between trees should be at least 6 ft. for dwarf, 15 ft. for semi-dwarf, and up to 40 ft. for standard. Avoid planting in a low lying frost area as low spring temps can kill blossoms.
Apple trees are long lived fruit trees. Giving a good foundation in the planting hole is very important for success, especially organically. A hole, 3 ft. by 3 ft. should be dug out to get a proper start. Mix existing soil with top soil and peat moss and phosphate rock for the bottom ½ of the hole. Make a mix of any or all of the following to make up the top ½; compost, manure, topsoil and fertilizer. Top off with 1-2 in. of compost and then 2-4 in. of mulch such as leaves or pine needles.
If drainage is a problem in your soil, place a pile of rocks in the bottom of the hole.
Bare rooted plants should be planted in the spring, March or April in cold climes and fall to early spring in warm climes. When they arrive, unpack immediately and place in water for up to 24 hrs., if planting immediately, or cover with soil temporarily and water till permanent site is ready.
Potted plants can be planted anytime during the season as long as plenty of water is applied during the hot summer. Plant at the same depth as it was in container in soils that drain well, slightly higher in soils with poor drainage.
Pruning and Training
Essential for optimum fruit production.
Bare root plants need to be pruned upon arrival by cutting back the central leader to 24-28 in. so that laterals will form. All broken branches and roots should be trimmed off.
Container plants are usually 2-4 years old and are usually already pruned and shaped so just a little pruning would be necessary.
The mission in training is to create lateral branches that have a crotch angle of 50-60 deg. to provide sun to the fruit along the branches. Branches with a crotch angle of 50-60 deg. will have slow vegetative growth promoting lateral branches to form and allow the tree to initiate flower and produce fruit sooner. You can use splints to open up the angle or weights on the branches to achieve horizontal as close as possible. Remove after the season.
After 1-2 years, all lateral branches below 18 in. and limbs with a narrow crotch angle, less than 45 deg. should be removed.
Apple trees are trained to the central leader system which will allow 3-4 groups of four branches to develop for a standard size tree. The central leader is cut in early spring at 18-24 inches above the last group of limbs. A young tree needs limb spreading to achieve a tree that’s wide at the bottom and tapers towards the top.
Annual pruning should be done in early spring or winter, invigorating the tree to cause more growth and branching the following season. Summer pruning will devigorate the branches cut, causing them to grow less. Summer prune all undesirable branches that cross each other and suckers from the base. In June, cut back each new shoot by 2/3 that has fifteen or more leaves. Also, summer trim laterals back to two leaves, once in July and again in August. This will force more fruit to form the following year and may prevent the tree from biennial cropping (fruit every other year).
While the tree is growing, prune out all unwanted branches from the central leader and continue to spread limbs as necessary. Never allow an upper tier to shade out or grow larger than lower limbs; thus providing as much sun as possible on every apple. Fruit will ripen quicker, taste sweeter, and contain more vitamins.
Mature trees should be pruned annually in very early spring to keep vigorous and productive.
Pruning old neglected trees will require a couple of years to bring them back to good productivity. Remove only 2-3 major limbs at a time and all dead wood. When shaping, do not remove more than 1/3 of the tree in one year. Fertilize and spread a layer of mushroom compost (to bring competitive fungi a chance to help combat diseases. If mushroom compost not available then use any compost. Dig 1 foot deep holes all around the tree within the drip line and fill with compost mixed with fertilizer containing phosphate rock for blooms and fruit.
Indoor Growing
Apples are not good candidates for indoor growing due to their need for a chill period during dormancy. Although, grown in an unheated greenhouse may bring earlier fruit.
Fruiting
As trees approach bearing age, they develop short, stubby twigs with rounded cluster buds at their tips. These are called ‘fruit spurs’ and must not be broken or cut off because they will bear fruit for many years.
These spurs will produce numerous fruit at each flower cluster. Crowding may cause fruit drop in June, but you may thin out the cluster to the best specimen on the spur to create a larger fruit of better quality. The vigor of the tree will be maintained and consistent year to year harvests can be expected due to less stress.
Also remove any insect damaged apples to help prevent spread of disease.
Different varieties of apples fruit at different times of the season. Summer and early types ripen during several weeks and may be picked as they mature, but keeping qualities of these early types is short. Autumn types may be picked as soon as seeds are brown and left to ripen off the tree and stored in a cold cellar for months.
Apples may fail to fruit for the following reasons:
- Hasn’t reached bearing age
- Lack of compatible pollinators
- Absence of honeybees or bumblebees
- Not enough sun
- Bad weather
- Improper pruning
- Too much nitrogen applied
- Some cultivars produce heavy one year and not the next
If pollinator is the problem, you can graft another variety onto the tree or even place a bouquet of blossoms from a compatible pollinator in a can of water under the tree when in bloom.
Enemies, Pests & Diseases
Minor infestations should be left for nature to handle. Parasitic beneficials should come to the rescue if you have not been spraying on a regular basis. So be a little patient before going on the attack or simply remove a branch or two that are infected.
Unfortunately, Apple trees are commonly attacked by pests and disease. In the home orchard, though, enemies should be easily and quickly discovered before they get out of hand.
Pests
A dormant oil spray should be sprayed on apple trees during the dormant season just before green growth starts. It will suffocate any emerging insects that have hatched from the winter.
Keep mulch at least a foot away from trunk to discourage rodents and pests. Keep mice and rabbits from gnawing on the trunks with a wire mesh barrier or roofing paper around the trunks, loosening as the tree grows.
In spring, remove all loose bark with a paint scraper, old hoe, or saw blade to destroy over-wintering eggs and larvae. Do not cut down to bare wood. Put a drop cloth around trunk to catch scrapings and dispose of with trash, do not put in compost pile. Cover scraped area with dormant oil spray.
Old decaying wounds and rotting black wood should be scraped out and painted with wound dressing made from roofing tar thinned with gasoline.
Beneficials to the Rescue!! To keep down armies of insects invading your fruit trees, you can purchase mercenaries who will be your army and fight your battle for you. When you have identified your enemy, be sure to match a beneficial that will attack your pest.
Most common pests attacking apples:
- Brown and yellow fly with numerous traverse lines
- Symptoms are chocolate colored sawdust on surface of apple
- Treat with ‘Surround Kaolin Spray’ applied a couple days after blossoms open
- May also treat with Rotenone at petal fall and follow up again 1 week later
- Yellow green tiny fly like pest trimmed with black
- Carries eggs on it’s back
- Symptoms are curled leaves, deformed fruit, black mold grows on it’s honeydew excretion
- Treat with dormant oil as green growth starts in spring
- Scraping of loose tree bark in spring will kill many eggs
- Remove suckers at base
- Plant hardy onions as a companion plant around base of trees
- Adult fly looks much like an ordinary house fly
- Maggots develop in flesh of the fruit
- Symptoms are brown tunnels inside the fruit and depressions on outside
- Treat by picking up fruit drop and perimeter trapping by mixing 1 part blackstrap molasses to 9 parts water , add some yeast to ferment and pour into wide mouth jars and place around tree
- Also may treat with ‘Entrust’ spray or Neem oil
- Another treatment is ‘Naturalis’ as a soil drench under trees when they pupate in the soil
- Grey-brown moth with fringed hind wings appears around June
- Caterpillar is white-tinged with a little pink and the one that does all the damage
- Most common worm in apples
- Symptoms are tunnels directly to the core of the apple, moths lay their eggs in blossom end of apples and work their way into the core.
- Cocoons in the crevices in the bark to over-winter
- Treatments include many ways to fight them, such as banding tree trunks in the spring with corrugated paper to draw larvae to spin their cocoons by wrapping paper around trunk several times and wire closed. Keep on till September to catch second generation. Remove bands and burn them or put out with the trash.
- Another way to fight is to spray with dormant oil spray or Neem oil ( a cold-pressed oil of neem seeds) applied in spring before green sprouts will kill many eggs. Soapy water mixed with fish oil can be used all during the season will make caterpillars fall to the ground to be gathered up.
- Release a predator, Trichogamma wasps, which are an egg parasite.
- Nasturtium planted as a companion plant around the trunk will help to repel
- Worms are colored green, brown, or black and may have a yellow stripe.
- Treatment consists of banding the trunk with paper lined with batting and applying a sticky compound in mid-October to snare the little buggers. ‘Tree Tanglefoot’ is a commercial product available or you can make a homemade concoction of pine tar and molasses or resin and oil mix. Roofing tar will also work. Replenish occasionally to keep sticky.
- Another treatment is to spray with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bacterial control, in April or May.
- A brown snout beetle and has 4 small humps on it’s back
- Symptoms are larvae causing fruit drop in June and also mummified fruit on the tree
- Treatment by spraying with ‘Surround Kaolin Spray’ or a garlic-neem oil spray when pests are present
Diseases
Your prime defense against disease is sanitation. Keep the area around the tree free of decaying leaves and fruit. Also, keep the tree well nourished and watered, healthy trees can fight off disease if their own immune system is strong, just like people.
- Universally destructive apple disease
- Appears as brown lesions on leaf surface and fruits
- Also, causes fruit drop with distortion and cracking
- Good sanitation needed to prevent, Keep leaves and dropped fruit picked up. Prune twigs in winter with symptoms, cut out cankers in the bark
- Plant resistant varieties
- Sulfur spray- 5 lbs. per 100 gal. of water, used as a fungicide and a natural element. It will lower pH of the soil and may be harmful to the good bacteria and fungi in the soil if overused.
- Concern for the middle zones of the country
- Bright orange spots on the foliage , less on the fruit
- Good sanitation needed to prevent, keep trees well nourished.
- Control weeds around the tree, place 3 inches of mulch or compost around the trunk out to drip line if possible. Keep a foot from the trunk.
- Avoid weed whacking too close to the trunk as damage to the cambium layer will hinder uptake of water and food and provide a way in for disease.
- Plant resistant varieties
- Blossoms and leaves wilt and collapse, leaves turn brown. Inner bark of older branches becomes reddish brown. Milky ooze may appear on affected bark and turn brown.
- Prune trees every year so cuts remain small. In winter, cut all infectious areas.
- Cut out infected twigs as soon as seen in summer, cutting 12 inches below evidence of darkening bark.
- Disinfect your cutting tool after every cut so you don’t spread it to good tissue.
- Plant resistant varieties if prone in your area, ‘Delicious’, ‘McIntosh’, ‘Northern Spy’
Harvest & Storage
Apples will ripen during the season at different times depending on the variety. The tree will hold its’ fruit generally between 2 weeks to one month, depending on variety.
Apples are ripe when their skin color changes, seeds turn dark and flesh turns from green to blush. Fruit will pull from the tree with a twist of the wrist. Take a bite, it should be crisp and juicy. You’ll develop a preference of just the ripeness you prefer.
Storing
Place out of the sun as soon as picked and place in a cold cellar as soon as possible for longest storage.
Store preferably at 32 deg. or at least refrigerated. If you have too many to store in your refrigerator, use your basement or root cellar. Store apples in a single layer on some soft material, such as newspaper or fabric, without touching them to each other.
Cover with a cloth or towel to keep in moisture. Keep separate from vegetables which will spoil them due to gas emitted by the apples.
Late season apples tend to store longer, like ‘Goldrush’ that will last till the following June.
In the Kitchen
The apple is the most versatile fruit in the kitchen. From apple juice to applesauce to apple pie, apples may also be used in savory dishes with pork and sage. Also used in stuffing, salads, and even in sandwiches!
Many varieties are for eating fresh only. We have only recommended varieties with at least a dual purpose. After all, at maturity you’ll have plenty of fruit all at once. Dual purpose varieties have less acidity than a cooking only apple. They tend to keep their shape during cooking. Use them early in their season since acidity will be higher, and later for fresh eating when flesh has mellowed and sweeter.
- Early season varieties ripening in summer have a short shelf life and best eaten fresh from the tree.
- Mid-season varieties, ready in the fall, will keep longer up to even December.
- Late season varieties store for several months.
Flavorings that complement apples in desserts and applesauce are cinnamon, allspice and cloves.
In savory dishes, sage and fennel are nice complements.
As far as liquor complements, Brandy and Southern Comfort are great for deglazing sweet or savory dishes. A sweet wine, such as a Riesling, works well with apples.
Apples can handle some strong additions in flavor, and some unlikely ones, such as apples and cheddar cheese for a simple and elegant appetizer.
They can be smashed, fried, baked, juiced, and grilled. Just as good cold or hot.
Check out our Recipes page for great recipes using apples.
Nutritional Facts
1 Apple with skin, 2 ½ inch, contains the following:
- Calories 65-100
- Total Fat .2 g
- Saturated fat 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Sodium 1 mg
- Total carbs 14.6 g
- Dietary Fiber 2.5 g
- Sugars 11 g
- Protein .3 g
- Calcium 6.4 g
- Phosphorus 12 mg
- Potassium 113.9 mg
- Vitamin C 15-20 mg
- Vitamin A 90 mg
** Apples are a lower carb choice compared to other fruits.
Resources
Trees of Antiquity – Heirloom varieties, certified organic, ‘Stayman Winesap’, ‘Anna’, ‘Liberty’, ‘McIntosh’, and ‘Golden Delicious’
Willis Orchard Co. – All heights available 2- 8 ft., prices start at under $10, Good selections includes ‘Fuji’, ‘Anna’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘McIntosh’, & ‘Winesap’
Grandpa’s Orchard – Many great old heirloom varieties, ‘McIntosh’, ‘Pristine’, ‘Enterprise’, ‘Fuji’, ‘Jonafree’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Stayman’ & ‘Liberty’.
Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden – Organic trees like ‘Golden Delicious’
Adams County Nursery – Many varieties, listed according to ripening dates for the northeast. Trees under $30, 3 or more receive FREE shipping. Includes ‘Enterprise’
Stark Bros. – Many varieties and hybrids. Lots of 2 on1’s and dwarfs, ‘Jonafree’, ‘Goldrush’, ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Golden Delicious’
Jung Seed Company – Have columnar varieties that are great for containers and small spaces, ‘Pristine’, ‘Enterprise’, ‘Liberty’