Chapter 7 – Fruit trees

Apples

Apples are the back bone of most homesteading orchards. They are versatile, flavorful, healthy and when put up properly can be kept for a long time through the winter.

Apples will grow in zones 3 through 8. In general you find more crisp apples which keep longer if you are in the northern growing zones from 5b to 4a. This is a product of the apple’s relationship to cold weather. The apple tree itself needs a certain minimum number of chill hours for the tree to ready again to grow vigorously and produce fruit the next year.

Technically chill hours are supposed to be determined by the number of hours a tree spends at 45 degrees or colder. I would personally argue that the measure should be defined at 39 degrees, which is the temperature at which water begins to make the chemical change towards expanding into ice.

Also when apples are ripening on the tree, the fruit develops more flavor and longer keeping starch if the fall weather has cool nights and warm days. If you are thumbing through a fruit tree catalog and you see a cultivar you like that is rated for growing zone 4 to 6, the tree will actually produce stronger fruit which will put up longer in zone 4 than it will zone 6. In this way apples are sort of the opposite of grapes when it comes to the growing zone limit.

Apple trees need full sun and prefer well drained soil. If you don’t have a location that gets full sun all day long it is best to choose a location that in the fall gets good light in the morning through early afternoon. This will give the apple the best chance to ripen its fruit properly by capturing sunlight right away. Apples trees that have poor morning light and good sun in the afternoon often struggle to get their fruit completely ripe in the waning days of fall.

Well drained soil is an even more important factor for apple trees. While the roots do not like drying out they also need aeration and room to grow. Clay rich soils are death traps for apple trees. Sandy soil with a thick layer of mulch out to the drip edge is a much easier scenario to deal with.

Growing zone: 3 to 8

Time to maturity: 3 to 5 years

Pollination needs: All apple trees require cross pollination by a select few cultivars. A quality retailer will have this information readily available.

Pruning/Thinning: Once established after 3 years an apple tree will require pruning every spring to cut back unproductive growth and improve ventilation. An apple that is initially planted too deep or whose crown is covered for too long with mulch can sprout suckers from the base of the trunk. These suckers must be pruned in the dormant season as it will greatly sap the strength of the rest of the tree.

Harvest time: While there are some apples that will come ripe as early as late July or early August, most come ripe between mid-September and late October.

Apples must be trained to a central leader. Meaning a firm, tall stake is placed near the trunk at the time of planting and the sapling is tied to it with loose cotton twine. As the trunk of the tree thickens with age you will need to retie it. The goal of training the tree to a central leader is to develop a strong trunk which the tree can rely on like a spine for a lifetime of supporting a large volume of heavy fruit.

After the first year of growth you will want to prune the tree back to 4 primary limbs. The goal is for these four limbs to have an angle of less than 45 degrees from the ground. Meaning they should be closer to parallel to the ground than parallel to the central trunk. If they are at an angle more vertical than this you will need to use guywires to hold the limbs down.

Once the tree is firmly established to the point where the lowest branches emerging from the central trunk are 2 to 3 feet above ground level you can thin the tree again of superfluous branches to improve ventilation and tree balance. You may need to add limb spreaders for branches that are too close together.

As you prune the tree over the years be mindful to prune in equal balance. The tree is designed by the forces of nature to balance the wind blowing through it. So long as the volume of leaves and weight of the branches is balanced on all sides the tree will be able to withstand all but the most severe of storms.

If you live in zone 5 or colder it is a good idea to paint the lower trunk of the tree with a 1:1 mixture of paint diluted with water. This creates an additional skin that will help resist splitting in the cold. This is in addition to using a plastic wrap as protection against rabbits and other rodents.

Apples are pretty picky about their cross pollination needs. Most reputable dealers will tell you the best pollination partners for the trees you want to plant. Unfortunately dealers can run out of the partner trees you want. In this case there is a fall back in the form of the crab apple tree.  Crab apples, metaphorically speaking are the promiscuous cheerleader of the apple world. They flower for a long time in the spring, bees love their pollen and they easily cross pollinate with most apple trees. The disadvantage is that any apple which is cross pollinated by a crab apple are going to produce seeds that are invalid for starting and grafting your own trees in the future.

Long term storage options: While apples ripen best during fall days where cool nights are followed by warm sun, once they are picked they need to be kept cold. They should be placed and kept in temperatures between 35 and 45 degrees, in 80 to 90 percent humidity. While there is some forgiveness in the humidity, especially during the driest depths of winter, the cold requirements are absolutely critical.

Kept in optimum conditions I have seen crisp apples last up to 8 months. However once apples are allowed to warm up to around 55 degrees for even a day, it causes the fruit to release ethylene compounds which starts the process of the apple spoiling. Even if the apple is chilled down again after this the total life in storage will be diminished.

This means once it is picked it needs to go into cold storage as fast as possible and stay in cold storage without exception until shortly before it is used or eaten.

Apple wine is the back bone of many fruit blend wines. It is often crisp, clean and bright. It takes well to blending with sweet additions like strawberry or sweet cherry. If you use dry or tart additions like elderberry or gooseberry then you may need to amend with extra sugar in order to keep the brewer’s yeast alive long enough for maximum sugar to alcohol conversion.