Apples

 

We love apples, and I'm sure you do too (or else you probably wouldn't be on this page)! They are probably the first fruit tree everyone thinks about planting in their yard. Unfortunately, apples are not so easy to grow in our area, especially without any sprays. And since we don't use ANY sprays on our fruit, we have found them very challenging. They suffer from cedar apple rust, fire blight, scab, wooly aphids, plum curculio, apple codling moth, and what seems like a never-ending list of pests and diseases.

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All hope is not lost, though! Because here at Hundred Fruit Farm we have been trialing disease-resistant apple cultivars for their performance in no-spray conditions, and these are the only apples we will graft and sell to customers. So for those who are brave enough to try growing apples in our area, we will help hook you up with the cultivars that will give you the best chance of success!

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All our apples are grafted onto semi-dwarf rootstock, which means you can expect the trees to reach about 12-18 feet in height once mature. Apples are not at all resistant to deer, in fact they are among their favorite things to eat! So make sure you protect your apple trees from deer with either cages, tree tubes, or a deer fence. Once the trees get above 5 ft tall, they are relatively safe from deer browse, but young trunks can still be damaged in the fall by buck rub, so be careful of that as well!

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Apples need well-drained soil (don't even think about planting them in a wet spot) and full sun. Give them lots of sun and airflow and this will go a long way to preventing disease and problems. Most apples need another cultivar for pollination (though crabapples will pollinate them as well). Any cultivars that are self-fruitful will be labeled as such.