An Apple (Or Pear)! A Day

Photo Courtesy of PhotoImpact Image Gallery

An Apple (Or Pear)! A Day

We are truly blessed to live in one of the best fruit growing regions in the country. If you pass many an old farmstead, you will see old fruit trees, particularly apple or pear trees, somewhere on the property. A tour of the region just east of Lake Michigan and west and south of Lakes Erie and Huron shows mile after mile of orchards galore.

Apples and pears grow well throughout the region. The trick with apples is to pick those varieties that will mature in enough time and display good vigor. Some varieties, such as Granny Smith, are a bit long to mature. In those areas immediately to the lee side of the lakes, within the zone 6a part of our region, "Grannies" will often mature. In other parts of the region, it is a toss of the dice, depending upon how mild the fall season will remain. With pears, fire blight resistant varieties are the best choices.

Apples and pears can be modern varieties, antique varieties, eating or dessert quality, for baking or cooking, and for all-purposes. Sizes vary from dwarf to semi-dwarf to standard sized trees. For most homeowners, the dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties would be the choice when adding an apple or pear tree or two to an average yard. If you were to speak with orchard fruit specialists, most would advise the homeowner to choose semi-dwarf trees over dwarf for their stronger limbs which hold up better under fruit loads and sustain less damage to limbs from breaks and tears.

There are literally hundreds of varieties to choose from, and would take more space than this article could support. I will briefly touch on my top five of the disease resistant varieties of apples and my top three Fire Blight resistant pears for our Southern Great Lakes Region. These fruits are a big plus for those who garden organically and for those who do not want to have the added expense of using a lot of sprays. Those who grow these will need to follow good sanitation practices, and to some extent, there will still be a need to use organic sprays. Be aware, disease resistance does vary, and while no one apple or pear is perfect, these are all the best of the easily obtained varieties:

Apples
Liberty: This is an apple that resembles the venerable 'McIntosh' apple. It is a good, all-purpose apple, with excellent disease resistance to Apple Scab, Fire Blight, Powdery Mildew, Cedar Apple Rust. Possibly the closest to the perfect apple that one can grow.

Goldrush: 'Goldrush' is another disease resistant apple. Resembling the Golden Delicious in appearance and Lodi in flavor, this is a Purdue University introduction, and will do well in our region. It can be used for fresh and cooking, and has an extended shelf life. It has excellent resistance to Apple Scab, fair resistance to Fire Blight. Its major drawback would be a fair to poor resistance to Cedar Apple Rust and Powdery Mildew. It keeps in storage from 5 to 7 months.

Redfree: This is a fairly early apple, one of the first to ripen. As with most early ripening apples, the shelf life of this apple is fairly short. A good dessert-type apple, It has excellent resistance to Apple Scab and Cedar Apple Rust. Redfree shows fair resistance to Fire Blight, and only fair to poor resistance to Powdery Mildew.

Enterprize: One of the later apples, 'Enterprize' is also a good keeper. For cooking or fresh use. Enterprize shows excellent resistance to Apple Scab, good resistance to Cedar Apple Rust and Fire Blight, and fair resistance to Powdery Mildew. This is another introduction from Purdue.

Freedom: Here is another apple for eating, cider, or cooking. It has excellent resistance to Apple Scab, and good to Excellent resistance to Cedar Apple Rust. Good resistance is displayed to Fire Blight and Powdery Mildew. This midseason apple keeps well in storage and will keep from four to five months.

Pears
Seckel: A fine dessert pear, small in size, with good texture and rich flavor. It has good resistance to Fire Blight, and ripens in late August and into September.

Magness: Another dessert-quality pear. It can be a shy bearer, but does display excellent resistance to Fire Blight.

Moonglow: A good pollinator for many other pears, this pear is similar in uses and form to 'Bartlett', but with excellent Fire Blight Resistance.

General Cultural Requirements
The most important thing to realize when utilizing an organic approach to growing apples and pears is that there will be some casualties among the fruits.

Apple Maggot is very difficult to control, but if good sanitation practices are followed, the infestation of fruits can be greatly reduced. This includes picking up any fallen fruit, particularly right after natural fruit drop occurs. The use of fruit traps will help to trap the adult flies, thus reducing damage by reducing the breeding population. Likewise, Plum Curculio damage is also reduce by removing any fruits after natural fruit drop.

Pear scylla is a pest that not only feeds on pear trees, but are carriers of Fire Blight. A good dormant oil spraying program and use of insecticidal soap can control or contain this pest.

Dormant oil spray in the late winter to early spring will greatly reduce the overwintering population of small insects, such as scale and mites. Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis will help to control Coddling Moth.

One promising development that should become more readily available is the use of kaolin-based barrier films which can effectively reduce the population of Pear scylla, Plum curculio, and many other orchard pests, particularly in apples. *I do not have a source for this as yet, but will update this article when I receive more information.

*April, 2003 Update: Gardens Alive! is the sole US distributor for kaolin-based barriers for home gardening use. The product's name is: Surround At Home Crop Protectant. You can type in Surround in the search on Garden's Alive which will take you directly to the product and its description.

Organic disease controls includes the use of lime-sulfur spray, Pyrethrum, and Bordeaux spray. One of the best resources for a spraying program would be to refer to your county extension agent or your land grant university in your home state. When you contact them, please be sure to let them know you are using an organic approach with your trees. One last note: There are several resources for organic orchard sprays listed on the General Gardening Links page. Plant and maintain these trees properly. For reference, I have an article written called Simply Shade trees that details the ins and outs of proper planting. Those guidelines would also apply to planting fruit trees as well.

Growing these trees will take more than just plopping them into the ground. As with any tree, site selection is the first step to getting these trees off to a good start. Avoid fost pockets, which would typically be those areas in your yard where frost lingers on in the day, such as low spots. You might end up growing attractive trees that set little fruit if the blossoms get hit regularly by frosts in the Spring. The higher, sunnier, and more northern spots of the yard are the better places to site apples, pears or any other fruit trees. Most of these trees will set a small crop on their own, but will do much better if more than one variety of pear, or in the case of apples, another apple or a pollinating crabapple is grown for cross-pollination. Be aware that not all varieties of these fruits will pollinate each other. Again, call the extension agent for more information.

Plant and maintain these trees properly. For reference, I have an article written called Simply Shade Trees that details the ins and outs of proper planting. Those guidelines would also apply to planting fruit trees as well.

Pruning in the year of planting consists of cutting the mainstem back to allow for better branching and training the tree to a central leader. As branches develop, 4 horizontal branches should be chosen for training. These should be evenly spaced around the tree, two lower and two upper, and there should be about 18 to 24 inches between branches to allow light and air ciruclation in the center of the tree. By hanging weights or using limb spreaders, these flexible branches can be trained to grow more horizontally. Fruit develops on horizontal branches, so be sure to remove any branches that will form V shapes with the trunk or those shoots known as watersprouts, which are easily identified as branches that grow from the other branches perfectly straight up. Some of the upright growth on the scaffold branches can also be trained to grow horizontally as was described for the scaffold branches themselves. Promptly remove any suckers that grow from the base of the tree, typically below the knob on the tree that is the graft union. These are shoots that grow straight up and look like watersprouts, but grow from the base of the tree.

To maintain growth and vigor of your trees, pruning should be done in late Winter to Early Spring. Continue to prune to maintain that open scaffolding/central leader shape. You want light to get into the center of the trees and you want strong and productive branches. Reserve Summer pruning to remove excessive growth, less than vigorous branches, and to trim back the horizontal scaffold branches. Pruning in the Summer will slow down the growth rate of your trees. Also note, unlike apples, pears need only be pruned lightly to maintain their shape; vigorous pruning can stimulate more lush growth, which can lead to Fire Blight susceptibility in all varieties.

Don't be alarmed when you see immature fruit on the ground in June. This is normal and is called fruit drop. In a way, it is the tree thinning some of the excessive fruits on its own. Remove the fruit for disease and pest prevention. You will also need to do more thinning for good sized fruits later in the fall and to prevent limbs from breaking. Fruits should be thinned when they are about marble sized to about five inches apart. This means that most of the fruits will be removed, but this will allow larger sized fruits to develop for harvesting.

Try to keep weeds and grasses down beneath the trees by applying mulch. These can compete with the trees for nutrients.

Also remember to apply tree wrap in the winter for the first few years to prevent damage to the bark by nibbling rodents and rabbits as well as to protect from mowers and weed whippers.

Yep, it sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it ? I won't lie and say it isn't, but once you get the hang of it, growing and maintaining your apple or pear trees will not be difficult. Besides, it will give you braggin' rights when you proudly serve that apple pie or brandied pears to your guests and announce that the fruit came from your own trees, and not the local supermarket!

Share Your Gardening or Nature-Related Questions, Tips or Comments:

Through The Garden Gate