How to grow an apple tree

A variety of berries, shrubs and fruit trees can grow on a summer cottage and in one’s own garden, but an apple tree can probably be found on every farmer’s property. Having carried out competent planting and provided proper care, from year to year the apple tree will delight its owner and his household with a rich and healthy harvest. If you don’t have this beautiful tree on your property yet, this article is for you. Here we will look at what varieties of apple trees exist, which of them are popular and why, and consider the process of planting and subsequent care. 

Apple tree varieties

Scientists have managed to count more than 10 thousand varieties of apple trees, which is a very, very large number. Nevertheless, from this huge number over time, special favorites of gardeners have been identified, which are grown year after year and produce delicious fruits. The varieties presented below are divided into summer, autumn and winter:

• Summer ones ripen very early, approximately from July. Such apple trees produce very delicate fruits that cannot be stored for a long time. Therefore, the harvested crop must be consumed within a maximum of three weeks, otherwise the apples will spoil. But among the summer representatives there is a very wide variety of varieties, differing in both taste and structural characteristics.
• Autumn apple trees produce a harvest at the very beginning of autumn. Unlike summer ones, they are stored longer and can be in perfect condition until mid-winter. Perfect for preservation.
• “Long-livers” are winter varieties that ripen at the very end of autumn. Due to their strong structure, such fruits can be stored almost until summer.

Now let's look at the favorites from each category.

Summer varieties

Candy

Candy - the name itself suggests that apples have a very sweet taste. They have a very beautiful appearance with a characteristic blush of brown, yellow or reddish color. The shape of the fruit is smooth, round, the flesh is white, tender and juicy. Candy apples ripen around mid-August, and their shelf life does not exceed two weeks. They do not tolerate transportation well. These apple trees are unpretentious in care, have a strong immunity to diseases, tolerate winter well, and will delight you with the first fruits in four to five years.

Grushovka

Grushovka is a very old, but still popular variety that also ripens in August. The maximum shelf life of fruits is up to four weeks. The fruits are small to medium sized, round but slightly flattened. Color varies from pale green to pink. The pulp is very tender and loose, juicy with sourness and a very pleasant aroma. The tree is tall and winter-hardy. Grushovka gives a high yield and begins to bear fruit relatively quickly.

Mantet

The Mantet variety, originally from Canada, produces slightly elongated, rounded fruits that stand out with their bright colors. There is practically no acid in the fruits; they themselves are dense and juicy, with light creamy flesh. The shelf life of the fruit is two to three weeks. The tree bears fruit in the fourth or fifth autumn, i.e. soon enough. It has strong immunity to major diseases, but can withstand severe frosts not without problems.

Melba

Another Canadian apple variety that ripens in late summer is Melba. The fruits are medium, often large, slightly elongated. The color of the fruit is slightly yellowish with blush on one side. The flesh of these apples is snow-white, the taste is sweet and sour with a slight aroma of candy. Fruiting occurs on average in the fourth year, and tolerates frost well.

White filling

One of the most popular and beloved varieties by many is White filling. You can enjoy the fruits already in early July. An adult apple tree can reach a height of up to five meters. The fruits are round and greenish at first, but as they ripen they become yellow, almost white. White filling has very aromatic pulp, slightly loose and coarse-grained, moderately sour. To prevent the quality of apples from deteriorating, it is very important to pick the fruits on time, avoiding overripening. The harvested crops spoil very quickly, so they cannot be left for storage. Fruiting occurs approximately in the fifth year.

Autumn varieties

Zhigulevskie

A common autumn variety is Zhigulevskoe. The pulp of Zhiguli apples is coarse-grained, tender and colored in a pleasant creamy color. There is a slight sourness. Ripening occurs at the end of August - beginning of September. They retain their original appearance and taste until December. The Zhigulevsky variety pleases its owner with a bountiful annual harvest. It is resistant to diseases, but the tree is afraid of severe frosts.

Cinnamon Striped

A rather old apple variety is the cinnamon striped apple. Ripening mainly occurs in September. The apples are yellowish-green in color, with periodic stripes of red. The pulp is often yellowish, but there are also reddish veins, the taste is delicate, dessert. Special gourmets detect a light cinnamon aroma, which is where the name comes from. The harvested crop remains successfully until January and does not spoil. This variety of apple trees bears fruit from about the eighth autumn. It cannot be said that the tree’s yield is abundant, but it is not small either.

Mackintosh

Canadian McIntosh is characterized by medium-sized fruits that are yellowish-green in color and streaked with purple. It is very popular in commerce, which is due to its external beauty, taste, and good transportability. Among the disadvantages of this apple tree are weak immunity to disease and poor frost resistance.

Glory to the winners

By crossing the varieties McIntosh and Belyi naliv, the variety Glory to the Winners was obtained. The fruits ripen at the very beginning of autumn, and the harvested crop retains all its characteristics right up to mid-winter. The fruits of Slav to the Winners are quite large, oblong with a greenish color and a red blush. These apples have an interesting, pleasant aroma. They handle transportation well. If you create ideal conditions for the apple tree and provide proper care, the first fruits can be harvested in the second year. Otherwise, everything is postponed to the fourth or fifth winter. It bears fruit abundantly and is very frost-resistant, but does not survive drought well.

Streifling

The result of folk selection that came from the Baltic states was Streifling. This apple tree has large yellow-green fruits with brown stripes. They can taste like raspberries, very juicy and sweet and sour. Harvest in early autumn and store cool until the first month of winter. Fruiting occurs on average in the eighth autumn.

Winter varieties

Sinap Orlovsky

Sinap Orlovsky is characterized by golden, relatively large, slightly sour fruits. The apple tree bears fruit in the fourth autumn and continues almost every year.

Welsey

The winter representative of the Welsey apple trees was bred in the USA. These are medium-sized and round-shaped fruits, seriously flattened. Wellsie has a pleasant subtle aroma. Interestingly, the taste of apples taken from the same tree can vary from year to year. The fruits ripen at the beginning of autumn and lie quietly until February. The first fruits begin to appear in the fourth autumn and in fairly abundant quantities. It has excellent resistance to almost all diseases and survives frosts well.

Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious apples can also be picked in September and stored until March. The apple tree often produces large fruits, with a slightly elongated conical shape. The inside of the apples is dense and amazingly juicy. If you consume them some time after collection, you will notice a delicate taste. The Golden Delicious variety has American roots and regularly begins to bear fruit on average in the seventh autumn. It survives frosts normally, but droughts are problematic.

Pepin Saffron

Pepin Saffron - apples of domestic origin. The fruits are yellow-green in color with an attractive red blush. The taste is reminiscent of grapes, sweet, spicy and has a unique aroma that is unique to it. The fruits ripen closer to October, and can be stored until March-April. It bears fruit in abundance, starting from the fifth autumn. The apple tree requires regular pruning. In persistent severe frosts, the tree may freeze slightly, but it often recovers well on its own.

Jonathan

Jonathan is a very popular variety, originally from the USA, endowed with a lot of advantages. The fruits are often large or medium-sized, yellow-green in color with a burgundy blush. They are characterized by very strong, crispy, dessert pulp. The first harvest can be harvested in the fifth autumn. It is also worth noting that the apple tree bears fruit very abundantly. They begin to ripen in October, and the harvested crop is stored until April. Immunity to disease and frost resistance are average.

Antonovka

Let’s complete our selection with all the familiar and beloved Antonovka apples. Beautiful golden-yellowish fruits with a unique and unlike anything else aroma. The flesh of these apples is white, very crisp, with a slight sourness. The apple tree begins to bear fruit on average in the seventh year. The great advantage of this tree is that even young seedlings can easily withstand severe frosts, and it is also resistant to diseases and very unpretentious in care.

Apple tree planting

The best period for planting an apple tree is spring and autumn. Each of the mentioned periods has its pros and cons, let's look a little more closely.

Autumn planting gives the seedling time to develop. Over the winter it grows well into the soil, strengthens itself with roots, and by spring begins to actively bloom. Speaking of the month, it is better to select the beginning of October for this activity. But it is better to do autumn planting in the southern regions of the country, or in the black soil. The soil for an apple tree should be loose and allow air and water to pass through without any problems. And now step by step:

1. It is advisable to prepare a hole for the apple tree a month before planting. Create a recess 70 cm in diameter and about a meter in diameter.
2. Place a stake in the center of the hole so that it protrudes 35 centimeters above the ground level. To prevent the bottom of the stake from rotting, first burn it.
3. Prepare a mixture for the tree, which will include a fertile layer of soil (at the time of digging a hole - the very top of the soil), fertilizers and organic matter. Place all this tightly in the hole.
4. When October arrives, start planting - create a small hole, sprinkle some black soil on the bottom and place the seedling. The peg must be located from the south of the trunk.  The seedling should be buried so that the root collar of the trunk looks about five centimeters above ground level.
5. Tie the seedling close to the stake so that it does not settle.
6. Pour 3/4 of a bucket of water into the hole and cover it with soil.

A significant bonus of planting in the spring is that by winter the apple tree will already be stronger and will be able to survive the cold well. In this case, it is better to plant either at the beginning of May or at the end of April. A distinctive feature of spring planting is abundant watering to avoid drying out of the root system. You need to prepare the hole about a week before the crucial moment. With high-quality soil, it is enough to go 60 cm deep; with poor quality soil, it is better to dig 70 centimeters, and the diameter in both cases is from 60 to 80 cm. Before spring planting, be sure to thoroughly moisten the roots of the seedling, leaving it in water for a day.

Apple tree care

Apple tree propagation

Apple trees can be propagated by seeds or cuttings. The first method is used exclusively by nurseries, because for gardeners it is problematic and time-consuming. To propagate an apple tree by cuttings, it is important to find a rootstock, which can be an apple tree grown from a seed or simply a wild one. A cutting of the variety that ultimately needs to be obtained is grafted onto its root system. The seed of success lies precisely in the correctly chosen rootstock, so be careful that your efforts do not go down the drain, but bring a satisfactory result.

Apple tree transplant

If your site does not have black soil, then it is better to replant in the spring. A similar transplant time should be chosen if the autumn was dry and cold. In spring, it is better to replant an apple tree on a cloudy day. On black soil, or if the autumn is warm, then replanting can be done in the fall.

Apple tree transplantation is carried out as follows:

1. Prepare the necessary tools that will be needed in the process: ropes, garden supplies, guy ropes, water, etc.
2. Prepare a hole in the place where you want to transplant the apple tree. Expand the volume of the pit by one and a half times relative to the earthen coma of the tree being processed. Thoroughly clear the pit of weeds. Treat the entire surface of the pit with organic matter and limestone if the soil has a high level of acidity.
3. Prepare the pegs to which you will tie the apple trees, and there should be three or more of them.
4. Mark the sides of the horizon with paint.
5. If possible, the tree should be dug up with the main roots and an impressive lump of earth. Do not shake off the soil from the roots.
6. Before digging up an apple tree, cover its trunk with a soft cloth, this will prevent damage to the trunk. It is also better to place the lump of earth near the tree in a net. Carefully bend the skeletal branches to the trunk. Don’t forget, the less time passes between digging and replanting, the better, so it’s better to do all the manipulations right away.
7. When installing an apple tree in a new location, make sure that the root collar rises above the ground.
8. Cover everything with fertile soil so that there are no gaps.
9. In a new location, the apple tree needs to be thoroughly watered.
10. Tie the tree to stakes.

Apple tree pruning

It is problematic to describe in words such a process as pruning apple trees, so we invite you to watch an educational video in which everything is clear and understandable.

Apple tree diseases

Powdery mildew

In spring, a dangerous parasite activates its work - powdery mildew, which destroys the apple tree with powdery mildew. It affects the bark, leaves, buds, and shoots of the apple tree, regardless of its age. The main reason for the appearance of the parasite is said to be excessive humidity in the air and soil. At the affected sites, a coating from dirty white to gray forms. Over time, the plaque may change color and numerous black specks may additionally appear. At the very beginning of the disease, removing plaque will not be difficult, but the further you go, the denser it becomes. Under the influence of the progression of the fungus, the foliage of the affected apple tree begins to turn yellow, curl and dry out, and new shoots are inhibited in development. The productivity of the affected tree is reduced by up to 50%. Even a harsh winter does not kill the parasite, it simply reduces its activity, which returns to normal with the arrival of warmth. But the apple tree itself with such a disease may not survive the winter.

The fight against powdery mildew is protracted, and no one guarantees the absence of relapse. To prevent the disease, it is useful to treat gardens with Topaz fungicide; it is also used in the initial stage of infection. When the harvest is harvested, the apple trees are treated with 1% Bordeaux mixture. You can dissolve a couple of tablespoons of copper sulfate and a large spoon of soap in a bucket of water and spray the mixture on the apple trees. In spring and autumn, be sure to cut and destroy branches and leaves that are affected by the fungus.

Scab

Another, no less rare disease that often affects pear and apple trees is scab. Its spread occurs by spores through drops of water; comfortable conditions for the formation of the disease are a long rainy spring. Obvious signs of the presence of the disease can be called a brown-olive coating on the leaves of the tree, and then the fruits themselves are affected, on which numerous cracks and dark gray spots appear. A variety of infections penetrate into the fruits through cracks, causing fruit rotting. The peculiarity of the parasite is that it does not in any way affect the rate of development of the tree; the latter continues to develop as before and is exploited by the fungus. The main measure to combat scab is prevention. Be sure to clean crumbling  leaves, dead branches and fruits, and before flowering, use appropriate liquids, such as Bordeaux or Fitosporin M. To combat existing scab, fingucides are used by spraying trees before and after flowering.

milky shine

The basidiomycete fungus, which causes milky shine, destroys the leaves and twigs of the apple tree. If you do not resist the pest, the tree will inevitably slowly die. A clear symptom of the disease is that the areas become gray and milky in color with a pearlescent sheen. The affected branches stop producing fruit, and those that exist develop poorly, the branches dry out and fall off. The infection begins on the branches, gradually moving towards the trunk, which gradually kills the entire tree. The main reason for the appearance of the sore is a deficiency of minerals, improper watering and freezing of the bark. Never plant seedlings in areas that are located in lowlands.

Cytosporosis

Cytosporosis is a fungus that attacks the bark of a tree. The reasons why a tree can get sick are watering errors, poor soil. Damage occurs, as a rule, on weak trees or on those that have defects in the bark. A clear symptom of the presence of the disease is the formation of dark ulcers on the branches and trunk. Over time, there is a progression of the formed ulcers, the lesions deepen and move further. Ignoring the disease leads to the death of the tree. Therefore, you need to ensure that the tree trunks are undamaged, and after pruning, be sure to treat the wounds with clean drying oil or garden varnish.

Bacteriosis

Bacterial burn, also known as bacteriosis, is activated by the influence of gram-negative bacteria. Trees of all ages can be affected, and the spread begins from the top, moving downwards. In most cases, the infection “arrives” in the garden along with new seedlings and cuttings. Factors that push for development are warm rains and high temperatures. Signs of damage appear in the form of dark, watery spots, causing the foliage to appear charred and burnt. Moreover, despite their appearance, the leaves do not leave the branches of the tree. But the affected flowers turn dark brown and fall off. Affected fruits take on a dark, unhealthy appearance and are stunted in growth. To protect your garden from infection, when purchasing new seedlings, pay attention to their quality to make sure they are healthy.

Moniliosis

At the end of August, when the period of fruit flowering comes, there is a risk of moniliosis. For it to appear, it will be enough that the apple tree is infected with scab or stalk. The spread of infection occurs from a sick fetus to a healthy one through contact. Initially, you can notice a small spot on the fruit, which begins to grow very quickly, and the apple itself begins to darken and become soft. Such fruits cannot be eaten!

Dwarf apple trees

Dwarf trees are an ideal option for those who do not have the opportunity to allocate enough space for a full-fledged garden. Such mini-apple trees are formed by grafting the desired variety onto a special rootstock. Dwarf babies reach a height of no more than four meters, and the fruits from them can be reaped as early as 2-3 autumns. Needless to say, harvesting from them is very convenient and pleasant.

How long does an apple tree bear fruit?

It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally. This factor depends on many nuances: the variety of apple tree, how high-quality and competent the tree will be cared for, in what climate it will grow, the presence of diseases, etc. As practice shows, with positive development, fruiting of apple trees reaches 40-50 years, and for some even longer. Therefore, love your apple trees, provide them with proper care, and then they will delight you with a rich and tasty harvest.

Why doesn't the apple tree bear fruit?

There can be many reasons why an apple tree does not bear fruit; let’s consider some of them.

• Lack of fruiting may occur due to the young age of the apple tree itself. Not all varieties can boast of early fruits; on average, the first harvest comes only in the 7th autumn, or even later. If you don’t know the planting time or have planted a tree relatively recently, study the apple tree variety and find out the characteristics of the tree, you may be in a hurry.
• If you are sure that the apple tree has reached maturity, but there are still no fruits, then the cause may be incorrect planting or, more likely, incorrect pruning or lack thereof.
• If the apple tree is mature, blooms, but does not produce fruit, the problem may be a lack of pollination. The apple tree needs cross-pollination, so if there are no other apple tree plantings nearby, there may be no fruits, but this rarely happens.
• Flower buds do not ripen enough. Weak flowers have a short life cycle, which is not enough for sufficient pollination. Owners of southern varieties of apple trees who plant in the northern zone face such problems. A similar problem with flowers occurs due to excess nitrogen fertilizers. The flowers can be eaten by a flower beetle, which also acts as an obstacle.
• If you notice that despite decent fruiting, the taste and overall quality of apples are getting worse from year to year, the reason for this may be improper pruning. Learn how to properly care for an apple tree and do everything according to the instructions. The tree should receive enough light and therefore should not have a dense crown.