1. You don’t need an orchard!

Apple trees do not necessarily require acres to grow. Dwarf apple trees need as little as 4-8 ft and other full size varieties require about 15-20 ft. Dwarf apple trees lend themselves well to creating a practical hedgerow when grown flat against a lattice or even an existing fence, this is called an espalier. A note here that dwarf varieties are notorious for uprooting and actually need a sturdy something to support them. Just imagine, you could add a tasty and sightly natural fence in your yard!

You may already know but it’s fairly important to have more than one apple tree for pollination purposes. You may get lucky if you’ve chosen the right variety and/or your neighbor has some apple trees, but many varieties are sterile and those that aren’t will benefit from cross pollination. In addition to yielding more fruit, it’s a good idea to have several apple trees of different varieties for health reasons. This will help ensure that if one of your trees is afflicted by a disease or fungus, your other trees of a different species will be unaffected and able to survive.

3. Organic is hard, but worth it.

According to The Farmer’s Almanac, “many gardeners who swear off pesticides find they need to find, at minimum, an acceptable annual spray treatment for a decent crop.” As mentioned, pollination is an important part of our love affair with apples. Spraying apple blossoms with pesticides while relying on bees to grow said apples is both cruel and unusual. Although apples can be prone to disease, fungus, and pests, it is worth using the many tried and true natural methods to grow your fruit. It’s not only better for you and your neighbors but makes a remarkable difference in the health of our environment. To quote my 2 year old daughters favorite book, Bee and Me by Elle J. McGuiness:

“if it weren’t for us bees, why the plants would be gone. No more peaches. No cherries. No trees to climb on. There’d be no more apples, no flowers to smell. Still, you humans decide you don’t like us that well.”

Most local nurseries will have a variety of species to choose from but mail order sites are an option as well. If you plant an apple tree from seed, then it will likely take 8-10 years before you can taste the fruit of your efforts, so we recommend starting with a young tree from a nursery. All the planting techniques outlined in last months blog are applicable to fruit trees, so reference that and The Farmers Almanac when planting. You’ll need good, well-drained soil, at least 6 hours of sun, and a lot of water at first. I assure you though, this hard work will pay off when you’re kids and grandkids are out crunching apples next year and for years to come. Not to mention the pride you’ll feel when you show up to Thanksgiving with a homemade, home grown apple pie.