Looking after apple trees

How to Choose & Look After Your Apple Trees

Written by Hannah Collis

Posted on 21 October 2016

Today, 21st October, apple lovers all over the country are coming together to celebrate Apple Day. Garden and cookery writer Madeleine Cardozo has joined us as a guest blogger today to offer her juicy fruity advice on growing apple trees.

Growing Apple Trees

Plant from October to March Harvest from July to November Prune January to February

Choosing Apple Trees

I have noticed that we get the most amazing apples from our two apple trees. This is because they are two trees of the same type; they blossom at the same time and pollinate each other. These are the ideal circumstances for apple trees, two of each. There is a lot that I could write about apple trees but I shall try to keep it simple. It may seem that I am contradicting myself on occasions too, that is because there are loads of rules you can break. What kind of apple tree would you like? A cooking apple tree or an eating apple tree? Really you should have at least two apple trees within 30m of each other, they need to blossom at the same time and therefore pollinate each other in order to produce fruit. You can get varieties that are self pollinating but they are not so reliable e.g. Chiver’s Delight or Worcester Pearmain. As you can imagine they come in all shapes and sizes.

Option 1:

Why not choose an early harvesting variety for eating e.g. Discovery , these are rubbish for storing, but you can pick them off the tree for a good couple of months. You could then have a late harvesting variety for eating that you can store for the winter e.g. Ashmead’s Kernel. Lastly a cooking apple tree e.g. Bramley’s seedling, for making chutneys and apple crumbles. Make sure that their blossoming time overlaps to cross pollinate.

Option 2:

There is an apple tree that has been developed called a family tree, providing a way that you can have only one apple tree. A number of stems of different apple varieties have been grafted onto the ‘root stock’ (trunk). This apple tree will pollinate itself, but it may be slightly lopsided as the different varieties will grow to different sizes. This may be fun experimenting with if you don’t have much space. Option Three: Buy a variety like the James Grieve or Blenheim Orange, which bears a fruit that will taste sweet but is a good cooking apple as well. You will need two of these trees.

Planting

Depending on the size of the tree and what you want to do with it will determine how far apart you plant them. Full sized, free standing trees will need to be about 5m 15ft apart. If you are growing ‘trained’ trees such as espaliers they can be 50cm 1½ ft apart. A hole needs to be dug, larger than the roots and the earth that will surround the roots needs to be loosened. Put some manure into the hole, place your tree roots in and cover with earth. Make the ground firm on top. Add a good lot of manure or compost to suppress the weeds and keep it moist. Hammer a large supporting stake next to it to stop it blowing over and tie the tree to it. Lastly water it well. It will take approximately three years for the tree to establish itself.

Bad things that can Happen to your Apple Trees

Maggots – when your lovely looking apples get holes in them. You can buy codling moth traps and hang them in the tree from May to August. Mildew – When the young shoots and flower buds have a dusting of grey powder. Ignore if it is not too bad, if it is a medium attack cut off the affected branches, or for a heavy attack you will need to spray on a fungicide. Aphids – cause leaf curling, not much you can do and it doesn’t affect the fruit really. Canker – causes the bark to shrink back and flake usually in rings, the first signs are little black rounds, then holes in the leaves. If you can, cut off affected branches further than you have to. There is no cure. Fireblight – Makes leaves and shoots look as though they have been burnt – This is a bacterial disease and can affect many trees and roses. Cut off any branches that are affected, cutting 2ft, 60cm further back than you need to. All tools need to be disinfected and if the tree is badly infected dig it up and burn it. There is no cure.

Looking After your Tree’s and Pruning

When in drought – water small trees. Large trees should be able to look after themselves. Every spring add organic fertiliser (manure) around the base of the tree. Keep the tree weed and grass free for the first few years, this will help the nutrients from the soil get to the tree. After it is established you can have grass growing all the way up to the trunk, roses entwined and sheep grazing. The pruning for apple trees mainly gets done in the winter, November to March. Cut off the branches where they are crowded, maintain a good shape for the tree, cut off dead, damaged or diseased wood and trim down to the ‘spurs’ (short stubby twiggy bits). Your next harvest of apples will grow from these. Some apple trees are tip-bearing, which means that they grow on the ends of the branches, so if yours is like that don’t lob off the tips! Cut off any spindly shoots that sprout from the ground around the foot of the tree. Summer pruning is usually done in July and only on ‘trained’ trees. Here you are training the tree to grow in the direction that you want it to grow, cutting off any extra shoots and taking the tips out of the main stem to halt the upward growth.

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Varieties of Apple Trees

The Spruce / Kara Riley

Who says that only ornamentals can be used in landscape design? Apple trees (Malus spp.) are as lovely in bloom as any strictly ornamental flowering tree, and the blooms are also fragrant. But unlike ornamentals, they will give you a delicious harvest of fruit.

Nor are the landscaping uses for apple trees limited to their blooming periods. A row of apple trees can act as an attractive privacy screen all summer and fall, while fully leafed out. Perhaps you already have a privacy fence, but it looks too bare, and you’d like to dress it up. Dwarf varieties of the apple can serve as the “clothing,” trained along your fence in an art form known as espalier. Dwarf varieties (5 to 8 feet tall) and semi-dwarf varieties (12 to 16 feet tall) are better plants for espalier than are standard apples (20 to 30 feet tall).

Don’t depend on dwarf varieties to be as hardy as semi-dwarf varieties and standards. For a homeowner living in planting zone 3, for instance, it’s probably safest to restrict your selection to standards. Those of you, however, who live in a climate suitable for dwarf varieties should take advantage: You won’t have to wait as long for a mature yield of fruit (a couple of years) after planting as with standards (five or six years).

Note that in addition to apple tree variety, the other factors discussed throughout this article have an impact on how long it will take for the branches of your new apples to start straining under the burden of a bumper crop.

Selection by Climate and Taste

Beyond the consideration of dwarf vs. standard varieties, the first thing you should do to decide on the varieties of apple trees you’ll be growing is to ensure that you select the varieties that grow best in your region. Your local county extension office can provide you with this information. The following are examples of varieties that can be grown in zones 3 to 8, which covers most of the continental U.S., except for the southernmost states (apples are plants of the North by nature since they have chilling requirements):

• Golden delicious
• Cortland
• Haralred
• Honeycrisp

After you know what varieties of apple trees you can grow, the question becomes which of those you’d prefer to grow. For this part of the apple tree selection process, you get to rely at least in part on your good old taste buds. Sample fruit from varieties of apple trees you think you might want before you commit to planting.

Consider both taste—that is, sweetness or tartness—and texture (some of us care more about the crispness of the fruit than the taste). It also matters how you’ll be eating them. If you’re thinking in terms of pie, that may mean selecting varieties different from what you’d choose for fresh snacking:

• For a sweet fruit, grow Honeycrisp.
• For a tart fruit, grow Granny Smith.
• For a crisp fruit, grow Macoun.
• For pie-making, grow Northern Spy, Liberty, and Golden Delicious.

Varieties Resistant to Disease

Not all of us will want to let our taste buds alone make the decision for us. Growing plants that are low-maintenance may be a priority. Disease-resistant varieties of apple trees may carry the day over varieties that require spraying. Four diseases commonly attack apple trees: fire blight, apple scab, cedar apple rust, and powdery mildew. The following are varieties of apple trees that offer at least some resistance to these diseases, reducing the need to spray:

• Enterprise
• Liberty
• Freedom
• Redfree

Staggering

Part of the pleasure of growing apple trees on your property comes from biting into the freshly-plucked fruit. So getting a bumper crop from your orchard in fall, eating a few of the fresh fruits, and storing the rest away somewhat defeats the purpose of growing the delicious fruit. There’s a better approach: staggering your crop.

By «staggering» your crop, what is meant is growing apple trees that are early-season bloomers, mid-season bloomers, and late-season bloomers. By taking this approach with your crop, it’s less likely you’ll be forced into storing away most of your produce. Instead of having an excess of fresh fruit all at once, your harvesting will be spread out over three periods, with a more manageable amount to consume fresh at each harvest.

Growing apple trees using the staggered approach also aids your landscape design efforts: Just as the blossoms of one group fade, another will take up the torch, adding color to your yard. Let’s look at examples of varieties based on blooming season:

The following types bloom early:

• Beacon
• Ginger Gold
• Paulared
• State Fair

The following types bloom mid-season:

• Cortland
• Gala
• Honeycrisp
• Liberty
• McIntosh

The following types bloom late:

• Golden Delicious
• Haralred
• Northern Spy
• Rome

The Pollination Issue

Even if you do decide to use the staggered approach, you still must plant two or more varieties that bloom at the same time in each apple planting. Why? Well, don’t forget «the birds and the bees.» Yes, we’re talking about sex: pollination.

Most apples aren’t keen on incest, requiring trees of a different apple variety for pollination (even with the exceptions, pollination is still superior when it comes from another variety). Apples don’t look down their noses at crabapples, as if the latter somehow weren’t «real» apples. No, apples are sometimes quite willing to be pollinated by their ornamental cousins. This fact gives you more leeway in terms of plant choices.

A couple of warnings, though, before leaving the issue of pollination:

• The pollen of some apple varieties is sterile, so don’t rely on these as your pollinators. Examples are Jonagold, Mutsu, Stayman, and Winesap.
• The transfer of pollen from one apple blossom to another is largely the work of bees. So be careful not to apply insecticides during the blooming period, or else you’ll kill the bees and lose your best means of pollination.

Planting

The best spot for planting apple trees is an area with rich, well-drained soil and plenty of sun. Planting them where they’ll get early morning sun helps reduce the chances of getting powdery mildew disease, as does locate them in a spot with good air circulation.

Early spring is a good time for planting apple trees in the North. In the South, fall is perhaps the best time for planting: The roots will already have been established when next spring rolls around, giving your apple trees a head start.

In preparation, remove weeds and grass to form a bare circle for each transplant, about 4 feet in diameter. Your first challenge in apple tree care after bringing your plants home from the nursery will be keeping their roots moist, both before and after putting them in the ground. Soaking their roots in water for 30 minutes before planting is a good first step. If the roots look dried out, extend that soaking period to about 24 hours to revive them.

When you make the trip to your local nursery to buy the plants, look for bare-root stock, one-year-old. Although it may seem that you’d be getting a good deal (because the plants are bigger), avoid planting apple trees that are more than three years old. Younger trees are easier to get established.

Installing Your Plant

Begin digging a hole about twice the diameter of the root system, and about a foot deeper. When you think you have the depth of the hole about right, spread out the roots in the hole and check the level of the bud union (the bud union is where the scion meets the rootstock as a result of grafting). The goal will be to have the bud union raised about two inches above ground level.

You don’t want the bud union at too low a level, for two reasons. First of all, that would invite crown rot. Secondly, if you are growing a dwarf or semi-dwarf variety, you don’t want the scion to root and become dominant. You want the rootstock to remain the dominant partner since it controls tree size.

Apply water as you fill the hole back in with soil, to remove air pockets. Add soil amendments at the same time. This is also the time to install a vole guard around the trunk of your apple trees, letting it stick up about 10 inches above ground level. Water well again after the transplant is complete. To help retain some of that moisture (and also keep the weeds and grass from growing back), mulch around the plant to a depth of two to three inches.

Pruning

In pruning your plants to try to give them an ideal shape and structure, you’re essentially focusing on the leader and on establishing good scaffold branches (the primary limbs growing out of the sides of the trunk). A prime goal in pruning them is to ensure good aeration. That is, if air circulates freely through all of the branches, there’s less chance of a problem with powdery mildew disease. Pruning also restricts their vertical growth, making it easy for you to get at them to care for them.

The branches should be trained to form angles that will help them radiate out away from the trunk while keeping enough strength to bear heavy fruit loads. This process is called «spreading.» And speaking of loads, believe it or not, there can be such a thing as «too many apples.» While you’re waiting for your young tree to produce any fruit at all, this might not seem like a problem. But a problem it is, and it’s dealt with through a process known as «thinning.»

Thinning promotes larger fruit size, improves next year’s blooming, and reduces the likelihood of limbs snapping off. Thinning works on two levels: the blossom level and the branch level. Apple blossoms form a cluster, made up of five or six potential fruits. You’ll want to thin these down to one fruit, once the baby apples have reached about the size of a marble. At the branch level, remove enough fruit so that the remaining apples are spaced about four to six feet apart.

Even if you have disease-resistant varieties, you still have to worry about insect pests. To combat scales, mites, and aphids, spray horticultural oil on apple trees just after full bloom is over. After that, spray every 10 to 14 days throughout the summer. For apple maggots, codling moths, green fruitworms, and plum curculios check with your local county extension office for the best pesticide to apply in your area. Some apple tree growers are experimenting with neem oil as an organic alternative for curculio control.

Voles are the next greatest enemy for apple trees after disease and insects.

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