Have you ever thought about having an apple orchard in your yard or garden?
To begin with, we need to speak about selection standards. Search for the most disease resistant trees – they will provide you the capability to grow more ecological or even organic fruits with fewer chemicals.
Apple trees consist of two parts, rootstock and top. Rootstock can be size controlled type (to produce smaller trees for easier harvest) or seeding type which gives full sized trees and apples trees top can determine the fruits quality and variety.
Chosen apples should be predicated on fruits properties characteristics like bloom time or pollen compatibility. Consult some local seeding nursery to see which trees are good cross-pollinators.
To achieve good results you can choose Golden Delicious or Red Delicious in your orchard. These kinds are well known pollinators. Crabapple trees may also be used as pollinizers They should bloom at exactly the same time as the required apple type. You will find additional information about crossing in seeding nurseries catalogs. They shall provide pollination graphs too.
Many apples kinds will not pollinate themselves or any flowers which requires planting at least two different apple trees types/varieties close to the other so the bees can pollinate. If you are short on your gardens space you can choose of course some apple trees that will self-pollinate but remember that these varieties after crossing pollinated will bear more fruit.
Have you already chosen your apple tree variety? Hurry up! In second part of our guide we will write something about planting.