How to Grow Apple Trees

The favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans, apples and its more than 7,500+ cultivars, makes this fruit a favorite among many people. Apple is perhaps the only fruit that has countless myths and folklores surrounding it. The apple is a pomaceous (a fruit produced by a flowering tree) fruit of the apple tree, belonging to the rose family Rosaceae. Cultivated from its wild ancestor the crabapple tree, over 55 million tons of apples are grown annually. If you are keen to add to this statistics, you will find the information about how to grow apple trees given below very useful.

How to Grow Apple Trees

The apple is a deciduous tree that, depending upon its cultivar, will grow anywhere between 10 to 40 feet tall. The crown is usually dense and foliage a dark bright green. The apple blossoms appear in large clusters simultaneously with budding leaves in spring. The pinkish white five petaled flowers need to be cross pollinated with flowers of other apple trees; same or another variety. Most commercial growers resort to external or mechanical pollination facilitators to develop fruit. Apple season is from late summer to early winter, however, they are available throughout the year due to cold storage facilities. This information on how to grow apple trees is meant for home growing, for commercial cultivation requires extensive research.

Propagation: Apple trees can be started through seeds as well as rootstock (cuttings). Collect numerous seeds from a few apples, and dry them in shade. Sow them in a moist sowing medium, and keep moist until they germinate. This more or less covers the basics of how to grow apple trees from seeds. Experts advise the use of rootstock grafting or developing cuttings as a much better way to clone the mother apple tree. One can simply hop into a plant nursery and pick a desirable cultivar. It is important to always choose disease resistant varieties.

Planting and After Care: A home grower should grow two apple trees to facilitate cross-pollination. Apple trees require full sun, or a minimum six hours of sunlight each day for the indoor ones. Apple trees do not like soggy soil, so ensure well draining soil by amending it. They fruit well in sandy loam to sandy clay loam soil with a pH maintained or altered to 6.0 to 6.5. Space the trees some 25 inches apart, dig holes to a depth of 110 to 115 cm (depending upon the size of the apple tree being planted). The roots should be well spread out, with the stem knot or graft union just above the soil level. Build a berm around it and fill it with water. The tree gets well established after the second year, until then it cannot withstand drought, so water it well and as per requirement. Mulch around the tree for a couple of years. Dwarf apple trees have weak root systems and may require staking. Most fertilizing requirements are apple tree variety specific, get this information while purchasing the rootstock.

Pruning Apple Tree: The concept of 'central leader system' is a commonly applied pruning technique for apple trees. Here the trunk is treated as a central leader with just four to five main lateral branches. This is done to ensure light and air movement reaches every part of the tree, to prevent diseases and ripen fruit. This method of pruning is generally done within the first couple of years to shape the tree. Once established it would be damaging to the tree to change its basic shape. After shaping, an annual prune to maintain shape, remove dead, broken or diseased branches, or any other new growth in the middle or upper part of the tree can be done.

Diseases and Pests: We aren't the only ones who enjoy the apple tree and its fruits. Apple trees are prone to many pests. The worm in the apple being a common one; curculio beetle, apple maggot and codling moth are others. Most of these worms, actually worm their way into the apple from the flowers. Early detection is the only way to ensure that your harvest is not laid to waste. Scab, cider apple rust and powdery mildew, etc are the types of fungus that can infect the tree. There are specific pesticides available to deal with them. It would be best to find organic or natural alternative to deal with them, you don't want your apple to taste like pesticide!

Though most people think that growing apple trees is a difficult task, after reading the information above on how to grow apple trees, one can see that this is not the case. Patience and taking care of the apple tree once planted, will ensure that you enjoy its fruit in the years to come!