Apple tree: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
How to plant an apple tree?
Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil and enough space for the rootstock. Plant a bare-root apple tree while dormant, from late autumn to early spring according to your climate, avoiding frost and waterlogged ground. A container-grown tree can be planted at other times if you provide water and avoid extreme heat.
Dig a hole wide enough to spread the roots without bending them. Keep the original planting depth and the graft union above ground. Backfill with soil, firm gently to remove air pockets and water. Stake if the rootstock or exposure requires it. Mulch while keeping the trunk clear and check for a compatible pollinating variety if needed.
How do you prune an apple tree?
Adapt pruning to the apple tree's form and variety. Free-standing trees are usually pruned in winter while dormant, avoiding frost. Trained forms such as cordons and espaliers may need specific summer pruning.
Remove dead, diseased or broken wood, then branches that cross or crowd the centre, without removing too much wood at once. Many varieties fruit on short spurs on wood two or more years old; others bear fruit at shoot tips. Do not routinely remove older branches or all shoot tips. Use clean, sharp tools and disinfect them after cutting diseased wood.
How to care for this plant
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Maintain the mulch
Check the ground cover around the base. If the mulch has thinned, top it up on moist, well-drained soil after removing competing weeds. Keep the trunk, crown and graft union clear; add nothing if the existing layer is sufficient.
When should apples be harvested?
Harvest time depends on variety and climate, from summer to autumn. Test a few fruits: lift an apple in your palm and gently twist it. A ready apple comes away easily with its stalk, without pulling. Some late varieties reach eating ripeness after harvesting.
Handle fruit without bruising it. Use windfalls, damaged apples and early varieties promptly. For storage, choose a suitable variety and healthy, undamaged fruit. Store somewhere cool, airy and frost-free and check regularly. Not all apples keep for several months; remove any that rot.
Apple tree
- Type : Fruit trees
- Botanical Family : Rosaceae
Characteristics
- Exposure : Full Sun
- Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
- Mature height : 400 cm
Maintenance
- Maintenance : Moderate
- Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
- Soil Type : Humus-rich
- Soil pH Preference : Neutral
- Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
- Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
- Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
- Pollination : Insect-pollinated
- Propagation : Cutting