Malus domestica
Apple
Common names: Cultivated apple, Apple tree
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −25 °C
- Pruning
- Feb–Mar
- Harvest
- Aug–Nov
- Spacing
- 350 cm, rows 400 cm
- Water need
- Medium
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The apple is a classic in the home garden and can bear fruit for decades with good care. Old varieties such as 'Boskoop' or 'Goldparmäne' taste more aromatic than any supermarket apple and are often more resistant to scab. Pay attention to having a second variety nearby, because apples need a pollinator.
Care instructions
Plant the tree in late autumn (October week 42) or early spring in loose, deep soil. Prune the interior annually in winter (February week 7) to allow air and sun to reach the fruit. Mulch the root area and water young trees thoroughly in dry summers.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestAug–Nov
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, moist
Plant your apple in a deep, loamy-humus soil with good water permeability and even fresh moisture. Be sure to avoid waterlogging. Make very sandy soils more absorbent with compost and loosen heavy clay soils; the pH is best slightly acidic to neutral.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar, Apr, Jun
In spring, work mature compost shallowly into the tree circle and add horn shavings for the nitrogen needed for shoot and flower formation. If growth is weak, you can add a light organic nitrogen dose in early summer. In autumn, mulch the tree circle with compost and leaves, which protects the roots and builds humus. Be rather restrained with nitrogen. Too much encourages shoot growth at the expense of fruit quality and favours scab and mildew.
Pruning
Prune your apple tree in late winter (February to March, weeks 6 to 13) while it is leafless. Then you can see the crown structure clearly and the cut heals well. Keep the fruiting wood young: apple bears best on two-year-old shoots, so thin out aged wood regularly in favour of younger shoots.
Overwintering
Established apple trees in garden soil need no winter protection and survive the winter outdoors without problems; with young trees, you protect the trunk and graft union against frost cracks by wrapping the trunk with jute tape or coconut matting and mounding leaves or brushwood over the graft union. Apple trees in containers have less thermal buffer at the root ball: wrap the pot with fleece or a jute sack, stand it on an insulating base against a wind-sheltered house wall and water sparingly on frost-free days.
Propagation
Methods
- Grafting
- Layering
- Cuttings
True-to-type propagation of the apple reliably succeeds only by grafting. This is by far the most important method in hobby fruit growing. In December or January, cut dormant scions of the variety you want (about 20 to 25 cm, 2 to 3 well-developed buds) and graft them onto a rootstock of your choice (e.g. M 9 for dwarfing bush trees and small gardens, MM 106 for medium-vigour trees) by whip-and-tongue or cleft grafting. Alternatively, in summer (end of July to end of August, when the bark lifts easily) you can slip a single bud under the bark of the rootstock by budding. Whether the graft has taken, you see from the new growth in spring; first fruits appear from the third year. Air layering is suitable as a complementary method: lightly score the bark on a young shoot, wrap moist moss firmly around it and protect it with film. After a few weeks roots form, and then you can cut the shoot off and plant it. Note: a tree obtained this way grows on its own roots, that is without the growth-restricting effect of a rootstock. Cuttings (semi-hardwood cuttings in June/July) are much less reliable with apples than with soft fruit and do not form an efficient root system; they are possible as a stopgap or experiment, but do not replace grafting. Sowing is unsuitable for preserving a variety: apple varieties are highly heterozygous and mostly self-sterile (dependent on cross-pollination), so the seedlings segregate genetically and differ greatly from the mother plant.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
You can plant garlic and chives under strawberries and roses; their scent repels aphids and other pests.
For example GarlicOnionLeekWild daffodilRocamboleElephant garlic and 11 more species in the catalogue
Source: Bio-Gärtnerei Mixed Culture Practice
Rather not
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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Varieties
16 varieties‘Berlepsch’
you will find ‚Berlepsch’ a German lover variety from 1880, grown from ‚Ananasrenette’ and ‚Ribston Pepping’.
‘Roter Boskoop’
You will find that the ‚Roter Boskoop’ is a strong, tart, aromatic winter apple and one of the most well‑known old varieties.
‘Braeburn’
A late, very long‑storable apple from New Zealand with a strong reddish‑brown skin.
‘Cox Orange’
You will find ‚Cox Orange’ one of the most aromatic apples ever, fine, elegant, layered.
‘Elstar’
‚Elstar’ is the most popular table apple in the DACH region: crisp, juicy, with a balanced sweet-acid play.
‘Florina’
You will find ‚Florina’ a French, scab-resistant variety (Vf resistance) and a good choice for spray-free organic and home gardens.
‘Gala’
You will find this small, red-yellow striped apple from New Zealand, a cross between ‚Cox Orange’ and ‚Golden Delicious’.
‘Golden Delicious’
You will find ‚Golden Delicious’ to be a gold‑yellow classic from West Virginia, parent of countless modern varieties such as ‚Gala’ and ‚Jonagold’.
‘Gravensteiner’
The ‚Gravensteiner’ is a famous, intensely fragrant late summer apple and a very old variety.
‘James Grieve’
An old Scottish cultivar and a reliable early autumn apple that is ready to eat from the end of August.
‘Jonagold’
A cross of ‚Golden Delicious’ and ‚Jonathan’ that combines large, juicy apples with the sweetness of one parent and the aroma of the other.
‘Pinova’
Pinova is a Pillnitz breeding from ‚Clivia’ and ‚Golden Delicious’ that ripens late in October and keeps until spring.
‘Rewena’
A German Re variety from Dresden Pillnitz with pronounced scab resistance and good mildew resistance, bred for robust…
‘Rubinette’
A Swiss variety from ‚Golden Delicious’ and a ‚Cox Orange’ seedling that carries the high aroma of the Cox into a somewhat tougher, more productive apple.
‘Santana’
A Dutch cross between ‚Elstar' and the scab resistant ‚Priscilla' that combines the fresh Elstar aroma with Vf scab resistance.
‘Topaz’
‚Topaz’ is a scab resistant cultivar and therefore ideal for the organic and home garden without sprays.
Notes from real gardens
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From the magazine
Planting an apple tree: the right variety, rootstock and spot
Variety, rootstock and spot decide the flavour, size and yield of your apple tree. How three questions lead you to the tree that fits your garden.
Renovating an Old Fruit Tree: The Three-Winter Renovation Pruning Plan
An overgrown fruit tree can be saved, but not in a single day. The three-winter plan for old apple, pear, and cherry trees.
Pruning Fruit Trees by Type: Pome Fruit, Stone Fruit, and Nut Trees
Apple in February, cherry after harvest, walnut in late summer: why every fruit tree has its own pruning time, and which wood it bears on.
Apple tree winter pruning step by step
The apple winter cut follows the same order every year. Five steps from dead wood to fruiting wood, plus the trick against biennial bearing's glut and lean years.
Recognising apple scab and preventing it with resistant varieties
Brown patches on apples and foliage: apple scab is almost unavoidable in wet years. How to recognise it on leaf and fruit, why scab-resistant varieties save all spraying in the home garden, and what else helps.
Storing potatoes and root vegetables: cold, dark, kept apart
Why potatoes and apples never belong in the same room, why the cellar should sit neither below 4 nor above 10 degrees, and how carrots and beetroot stay crisp in damp sand right into spring. With wound healing, the solanine rules, rot diagnosis and the weekly check.
Where to get this plant
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