Apple tree: expert tips from A to Z

Apples are one of the most popular types of fruit worldwide - ideal if they grow in your own garden. We give important tips about the apple tree.

apples (penalty) are a fruit tree genus of immense importance. There is no fruit with a greater variety of varieties. Every spring, the apple trees can be recognized by their white to pink-red blossoms before they deliver the popular fruit in autumn. Ideally, you can harvest fresh apples from your own garden. Plantura summarizes everything you absolutely need to know about apples.

Apple tree: A brief profile

The widespread cultivated apple (Malus domestica) belongs to the rose family (Rosacea). Due to its popularity, which results from the variety, good storage properties and versatile uses, apples are one of the economically most important types of fruit. However, apple trees are not only grown for their fruit. Some species also serve only as ornamental plants, they do not bear tasty fruits, but because of their beautiful flowers and the much smaller but still very ornamental fruits are an eye-catcher in the garden.

The flowers of the apple tree are white or slightly pink and fragrant. Our apple tree blooms from the end of April. From the flower axis - a connection between the stalk and the actual flower organs - the apples develop as fruits. After fertilization by pollen, the carpels fuse together and the fruit develops. The carpels can then only be recognized in the fruit as the core housing, in which the apple seeds are located. In order for the trees to bear fruit, they need more than 900 hours a year below 7 °C. This internal clock is intended to minimize the risk of the apple tree being hit by late frost damage in spring. Once the threshold of this time has been reached, the apple tree has the full ability to blossom with rising temperatures. This mechanism is called vernalization. In large parts of the world, these demands on the climate are met, hence the wide distribution and popularity. The leaves of the tree are oval, round or elliptical and have a serrated edge. The trees can bear fruit for up to 50 years. However, it can take up to seven years before the first harvest. Also, the apple tree needs a pollinator variety, if there is no other apple variety nearby, the tree will not bear any apples.

There are apple trees as standard, half-stem and columnar. The different variations and growth forms are diverse and are suitable for meadow orchards, the home garden or small garden.

Apple tree blossom: when is blossoming time?

The flowering period of the apple tree begins at the end of April. Because the trees flower in early spring, when leaf budding is just beginning, they can be seen well into May. Thus, the apple blossom falls at a critical time when the entire harvest can be ruined. Severe late frosts can still occur in spring to mid-May. If the apple trees are caught unprotected in their blossom, they can freeze completely in the worst case. On cold nights when the apple blossoms, fruit growers try to avert crop failures due to frost damage with a variety of methods: This is how they irrigate their plantations, since the Freezing the water directly at the blossom releases energy in the form of heat (so-called antifreeze sprinkling), or you ignite controlled campfires that are pleasant for your trees heat up.

Due to their popularity and the widespread distribution in many gardens and meadows, apple trees are also an important factor for beekeepers. Your bees can feed on the nectar of the flowers in spring. They also help pollinate the flowers.

More interesting information about apple tree blossom can be found here in the special article.

Apple varieties: ripening time and taste

When choosing the right apple variety for your garden, consider your own needs and desires for the fruit. Many varieties available on the market require a lot of care and are not very suitable for private cultivation. However, there are some more robust varieties that come relatively close to them in terms of taste.

When choosing a suitable apple variety, you need to consider a number of things:

• How resistant is the variety to certain pathogens and/or pests?
• How maintenance-intensive is the variety?
• Which growth form is suitable for the location? Is there room for an expansive standard or just for a columnar shape?
• What taste should the apple have – sugary sweet or nice and sour?
• When should it be harvested and should the apple be storable? A distinction is made between ripeness for consumption and ripeness for picking, as well as early and late ripening varieties. Apples that are ready to be picked only develop their flavor after they have been stored for a few weeks, while varieties that are ready to be eaten can be eaten straight from the tree.

early varieties

Early apple varieties reach their final stage for consumption as early as August. Most early-ripening apple varieties are ready to eat right away and are less suitable for storage.

• 'discovery': Small to medium-sized fruits with a pleasant acidity

• 'Nella': Scab-resistant variety with bright red, medium-sized fruit; finely sour aroma, similar to 'Gala'
• 'Gravensteiner': Large apples with an aromatic taste
• ,Retina': Hardy variety with sweet and sour aroma (scab resistant)
• 'Elstar': Medium-sized yellow-red fruits with an intensely spicy aroma

autumn varieties

While early varieties are already ripe in August, autumn varieties do not reach this stage until September to October. Nevertheless, most autumn varieties are ready to eat immediately and can be stored until around Christmas.

• 'Red Alcmene': Small to medium-sized fruits; sweet fruity and aromatic, similar 'Cox Orange'

• 'Santa': scab resistant; particularly robust variety with a sweet taste, similar 'Elstar'
• 'Red Star Reinette': Small, flat-round fruits with a bright red skin; sweet-sour taste
• 'gold parmesan': Small to medium-sized fruits; sweet aroma
• 'Gerlinde': Small fruits with a sweet, slightly sour taste
• 'Rebelle': frost hardy; Resistant to apple scab, powdery mildew, fire blight

winter apples

All apple varieties that ripen after October are winter apples. Due to the risk of frost damage, they should be harvested ripe for picking, which entails storing them for a few weeks before they can be enjoyed. On the other hand, most winter apples are easy to store in comparison.

• 'Red Berlepsch': Small to medium-sized fruits with a delicate fruity aroma, similar to 'Braeburn', 'Fuji'
• 'Red Boskoop': Medium-sized to large fruits with a sour-tart aroma

• 'Topaz': scab resistant; medium-sized fruit with balanced acidity, similar to 'Pink Lady'
• 'winter banana': medium-sized, flattened fruits; particularly sweet and aromatic, similar to 'Jonagold'
• 'Rewena': Medium-sized, tall fruits with a tart-sour aroma (resistant to apple scab, powdery mildew, fire blight)
• 'Florina': Small to medium-sized, dark red colored fruit with a slightly sweet aroma (scab resistant)
• 'Golden Delicious': medium-sized, yellow fruits; very sweet and juicy

Traditional and well-tried apple varieties

The apple is one of the oldest cultivated varieties. Some of the old varieties have stood the test of time and are still very popular today. They are high in vitamin C and often resistant to rust and mildew. With the old varieties, you should use regional varieties. In terms of taste, they are unbeatable. Old varieties include:

• 'Boskoop': Winter apple, which is also ideal as a baked apple due to its cinnamon-fresh aroma

• 'Red Gravensteiner': From the 17th Century-old autumn apple with an intensely sweet and sour aroma; The downside is its sensitivity to pressure
• 'gold parmesan': Over 500 year old variety with red-golden yellow fruits; nutty taste; however susceptible to the dreaded fire blight
• ,Kaiser Willhelm': Named after the last German Emperor; large-fruited winter apple variety, which is well suited for juice production from orchards due to the juicy pulp

A detailed list of various apple varieties, where there is certainly something for every taste, can be found here.

Apple tree as a standard

The high trunk is a refined trunk form. Grafting takes place at a height of about 1.8 m, the base then forms the trunk. The comparatively high stem height of around 1.8 m requires more effort when picking the apples. So that the expansive crown can unfold, standard trees require more space. Standard trees are therefore less popular in private gardens. But they also have some advantages: the large crown and thus the higher yield compared to other growth forms speak in favor of the standard tree. The raised crown is particularly suitable for cultivation in cultivated meadows and fields. However, the exposed position of the crown makes it difficult to harvest the apples. If it is not possible to get the apples from the tree with a ladder, you can simply shake them off. The fallen fruit is then less suitable for storage, but all the better for extracting juice and must.

Half trunk apple tree

The half-stem is popular for home gardens and small gardens. The grafting point for half-stems is significantly lower than for high-stems. A half trunk is only grafted at a height of about 0.8 to 1.2 m. This makes harvesting the apples much easier compared to the standard tree. The half-stem, which stays smaller, also forms a luxuriant crown and can reach a height of 4 to a maximum of 6 m. Therefore, the half-stem should also be allowed sufficient space of about 6 to 7 m all around.

Column shaped apple tree

The columnar form of the apple tree is the smallest growth form. The columnar form is a slow-growing tree without a defined trunk. They can also be planted next to each other at a small distance of about 0.5 m. For example, you can plant them in rows to create a privacy screen that also produces delicious fruit. This growth form is also suitable for the balcony or terrace, all you need is a suitable bucket. Regular pruning care is required to maintain the columnar shape.

Apple tree as a trellis

Half-stems are best suited for forming trellises. Although it is possible to train standard trees to form a trellis, they will of course be tall and require more space. In addition, the training measures that are necessary to train a trellis quickly become tedious at the height of the standard tree. An apple trellis must be brought into shape and kept by regular, targeted cutting. Individual branches have to be straightened and tied in a targeted manner – so growing an apple tree as a trellis is something for real professionals.

Propagating apple trees: cuttings, lowering and Co.

Grafting is not the only way to propagate an apple tree. Of course, you can also multiply them, for example, using cuttings and sinkers - in many cases even true to the variety.

Sow the apple tree: the variety is not preserved

The core of an apple can easily be used to sow an apple tree. However, you need a lot of patience until the first harvest. This will not happen until many years later. You should be aware that you cannot be sure which strain it is. Apple trees always need a pollinator variety since they are self-sterile. Genetic information from the pollinator variety, which you draw from your own seeds, always finds its way into the next generation of apples.

Propagating apple trees vegetatively

When propagating apple trees, a distinction is made between generative and vegetative propagation: Sowing counts as part of generative propagation. In vegetative propagation, a genetic image of the mother plant with the same characteristics is created. There are several methods of vegetative propagation:

• Propagating apple trees by cuttings
  • Main vegetative propagation method
  • Take cuttings from young, green shoots
  • After new growth, when the shoots are still fresh and as unwoody as possible
  • Possible, but of no economic importance
• Propagate apple tree by sinkers
  • Cover shoots close to the ground with soil at one point
  • A new root forms there
  • Genetically identical plant emerges
  • Optimal for half-stems, because of the closeness to the ground
  • Possible, but of no economic importance

Vegetative propagation plays no role in apple cultivation. Here one resorts to the grafting of the trees.

Grafting Apple Trees: Grafting Instructions

The tree is grafted for true-to-variety propagation of an apple tree. It is the simplest form and produces much faster yields compared to the other forms of propagation. There are different methods of refinement. What they all have in common, however, is that the special properties of a certain variety - the noble variety - should be preserved. With apples, this would not be possible via seed propagation due to cross-pollination. When grafting, small parts, such as individual buds or parts of shoots, are usually taken from the noble variety and connected to an already more developed plant - the so-called rootstock. Essentially, four different grafting techniques are used for the apple tree. These differ in the time at which they are carried out: some during the rest period in winter, others in summer.

Dormant Grafts: Winter Grafts

The scions of the variety to be propagated are harvested in December or January. Winter grafting can then be carried out even under frosty temperatures, but a heated or at least frost-free greenhouse should be available for this. Alternatively, the scions can be stored first. However, the grafting should be carried out by the end of March to the beginning of April at the latest, so that scion and rootstock can grow together to some extent before the large budding. In general, the sooner the scions are grafted after cutting, the better.

• copulation
  

• Scion and rootstock have the same diameter.
• Mating cut: Oblique cut on scion and rootstock. Caution: The base and scion should fit together perfectly after cutting. Make sure the scion is cut from the right side.
• Joining: Both parts are placed on top of each other and fixed with raffia and coated with wax or tree wound closure at the interface.

Goosefoot Method

• Root is about twice as thick in diameter as the scion.
• Cut: Two oblique cuts from top to bottom so that a 3 - 4 cm long wedge (buck's foot) is cut out. Shape the scion into a corresponding counter wedge with two diagonal cuts.
• Joining: There should be as little space as possible when joining scion and base; Secure the connection point with raffia and coat with wax or tree wound closure.
  

Graft

• The rootstock is significantly larger in diameter than the scion
• Split plug: A vertical slit is cut in the center of the rootstock, the scion is sharpened to fit into the slit in the rootstock.
• Assembling: Significantly thinner scion is inserted into the grafting slit of the base, tied with raffia and coated with wax or tree miracle closure.

Grafting in the growth phase: summer grafts

The summer grafts are much more filigree: In order to bring the noble variety to the rootstock and thus propagate it, the bark of the substrate must come off and the counterpart of the noble variety is pushed sensitively under the bark. However, since the bark only comes off particularly well in the months of July and August, summer is the time for these grafts.

• oculation
  

• Noble eye instead of scion: The scion - i.e. a single vegetation bud - is removed from the scion. It is best to use a special budding knife for this.
• T-cut in the grafting pad: Clean the area beforehand with a cloth, then cut once across and then vertically downwards so that the bark comes off. Remove the woody parts, exposing the cambium.
• Inserting the eye: It is best to hold the noble eye with the back of a knife so as not to contaminate it. Using a knife, carefully lift the bark under the T-cut and insert the eye. The noble eye should be in the middle. Secure the spot with raffia - but the eye must remain free.

bark plug

• Special shape of the plug.
• Well suited to connect very thin scion with a very thick base.
• Cut the base down to the desired thickness and loosen the bark in one place with a vertical downward cut. The bark is then carefully lifted, but not completely unfolded.
• Cut the scion flat along the length of the base to match the length of the cut. Push the cut scion behind the bark and fix the connection point with raffia.

More information about Grafting of apple trees you'll find here.

Apple tree pollination: How to set fruit

Apple varieties are self-sterile. You need a second variety of apple for pollination. The so-called pollinator variety. Some varieties have very specific requirements. There must be a suitable pollinator variety close to the apple tree so that it can bear fruit. As a rule, it is sufficient if the pollinator variety is in the neighboring garden.

Buying an apple tree: This is something to consider when buying

Before you buy an apple tree, you should think about it. Consider that an apple tree normally needs a lot of space or reach for slow-growing specimens - see the rootstock for this. Choose a variety that suits your taste. When you buy it, remember that the apple tree needs a pollinator variety. Before buying, you should carefully examine the chosen plant. The goods should:

• a straight trunk
• well-branched crown with at least three long side branches,
• no injuries to the bark,
• no symptoms of illness
• no dead shoot tips
• and have intact grafting points.

Planting an apple tree: procedure in 7 steps

The better the soil, the better the tree will grow. The best way to plant the trees is as follows:

1. Soak the root ball in water for a few hours before planting.
2. Dig the planting hole: With a spade, about 0.5 meters deep and twice the width of the root ball.
3. Loosen the bottom of the planting hole and lay out a layer of compost; Root growth is inhibited if they encounter too dense ground.
4. Put the apple tree vertically in the planting hole; the finishing point must be at least 10 cm above the ground.
5. Fill the planting hole: The excavated earth mixed with compost is suitable for this. Cavities should be avoided.
6. Press the soil down and create a pouring rim: You should not solidify the soil too much.
7. Watering and mulching: A good supply of water and nutrients is important for successful cultivation.
   

A tree stake is suitable for long-term stabilization and stability. You can use a coconut rope to attach the tree to the post.

A detailed guide to Plant your apple tree you'll find here.

Water and fertilize the apple tree properly

After planting, you should water your apple tree regularly and sufficiently - even a year later of planting, because younger trees in particular need additional ones in the event of prolonged drought watering. Older apple trees usually do without additional watering.

By enriching the potting soil with compost, no further fertilization is required when planting the apple trees. The best time to fertilize is in spring, March or April with a suitable fruit plant fertilizer.

More information about this Fertilizing apple trees you'll find here.

Pruning apple trees: the fine art of pruning apple trees

The crowns of the apple trees grow very dense. They have to be thinned out regularly, this is the only way to build a stable supporting structure and ensure a high yield. Below you will find out what needs to be considered when pruning apple trees.

When to prune the apple tree

The perfect time to prune an apple tree is either in winter (December to March) or in summer. If the tree is to be stimulated in growth and branching by the cut, winter pruning is particularly suitable. This creates an impulse for the new shoots of many buds in spring, from which new shoots develop.

The summer pruning, on the other hand, serves to slow down the growth of the tree and significantly thin out the crown. With the yielding leaf mass, the tree is robbed of energy, so to speak, and next year's budding will be much more restrained.

Regardless of the time of the apple tree pruning, you should make sure that your protégé is only pruned in dry weather. This way you can minimize the risk of fungal infections.

How to prune the apple tree?

In general, the following applies when pruning fruit trees: severe pruning causes wood growth, strong new growth and crown development. A gentle pruning causes the crown to be compacted and more fruit wood. When cutting, do not leave cut surfaces in a horizontal orientation. Water can collect there in winter and cause the outer layer of the apple tree to burst. The cracks in bark and wood are a popular entry point for fungal and other harmful pathogens.

Depending on the stage of development of the tree, different goals can be achieved by pruning.

• plant cutting
  • Shorten the crown of the tree by one to two thirds
  • Leave three to four evenly distributed leaders on the main shoot
  • If planting in the fall, wait until early spring to cut the plants
  • Prune spring plantings immediately
• education cut
  • Aim: Shape the crown according to the function of the tree, avoid undesirable developments
  • Promotes yield and vitality and stability in young apple trees
  • Targeted cut in winter, summer and autumn
  • Remove twigs with a narrow angle to the branches
  • Leave branches with stable bearing capacity for the fruit
• maintenance cut
  • Aim: Preservation of the crown framework
  • Promotes yield and vitality and stability in older apple trees
  • Remove water sprouts
  • Cut back older fruiting wood with many branches

More information about Pruning apple trees you'll find here.

Harvesting and storing apple trees

If you proceed with enough care when harvesting the apples, the apples are ideal for storage and, depending on the variety, can be eaten weeks to months after harvesting. Another way to preserve apples is to process them, for example to make apple juice.

Harvesting apple trees: when is harvest time?

The harvest time of the apples varies depending on the variety. Early varieties can be harvested as early as August, late ones until October. The apples do not ripen evenly across the tree. Tilt the apple slightly or turn it, it can be easily removed, it is ripe.

Storing apples: extending their shelf life

Depending on the variety, apples can be stored quite well over the winter. They must be stored in a cool, dry place, protected from frost and temperature fluctuations. Boxes lined with newspaper are suitable for this. But be careful not to damage the apples, as this encourages rot.

More tips about Harvesting and storing apples we have compiled for you here.

Apple Tree: Common Diseases and Pests

Some apple varieties are susceptible to certain diseases and fungi. In addition to the choice of variety, the location also plays a role. For example, some locations are known for apple scab. We name the most common diseases and pests and appropriate control measures.

Apple Spider Moth

The apple spider moth is a small white butterfly with black spots. In spring, the infestation can be recognized by the white webs that cover the tree to a greater or lesser extent. But they can easily be removed. The caterpillars of the apple spider moth feed on the tender buds and the mines of the young leaves. Even if the tree is eaten completely bare, it can regenerate completely and no further damage remains.

aphids

The apple grass aphid and the apple fold aphid are particularly harmful to the apple tree. They can be recognized when damage occurs with curling and deformities on the leaves. Aphids can almost always be found on young shoots and buds, so you should check your tree for aphids as early as spring.

fire blight

Fire blight is a reportable disease. The bacterium is the cause Erwinia amylovora, which is transmitted by insects. The damage: the flowers and young shoots look as if they have been burned. They are dark brown to black in color. The disease can be deadly for the tree. Because of the risk of spreading, it is important to be particularly careful here, it is best to burn the cut wood.

Unfortunately, these are not all common ones Apple Tree Diseases and Pests. In our special article we introduce you to more and give tips on how to combat them.