Gardening 101: Apple Trees
Do you have any apple trees? Yes? Read on. No? Are you sure?
So what?
Do you know how to care for your apple tree in your yard or are you thinking about planting one? It’s a popular choice for Canberrans and a specie that you will come across as as one of the most popular fruit trees in Canberra. Read on to be able to:
- Maintain so they last for years to come;
- Prune for successful harvest next year;
- Harvest to get the best tasting apples; and
- Cook and bake to get the most out of them.
Types of apples
There are two main types of apples that are found in Canberra. First being culinary/dessert apples and second being crab/cider apples. Common culinary/dessert apples are Granny Smith, Fuji and Pink Lady. Common crab/cider apples are Breakwell’s Seedling, Bulmer’s Norman, Kingston Black and Sweet Coppin.
Experts and professional gardeners would say that maintenance requirements are different for each variety of apples. We, at YourLifeEA, prefer to keep things simple. Below are simplified schedule of maintenance per season and harvesting instructions.
Maintenance
- Winter
- Add compost
- Throw away mummified apples
- Hard prune
- Spring
- Spray seaweed solution on a monthly basis
- Remove weed around trees and exposed roots
- Place mulch around trees
- Summer
- Spray seaweed solution on a monthly basis
- Thin fruits
- Soft prune
- Autumn
- Harvest poor apples first
- Pick best apples to be eaten immediately
Harvesting
- Best eaten off the tree
- If harvested under-ripe, can keep for weeks or even months
- Apples to be kept should be free of rots, holes or bruises
- Keep the stalks for longer keeping
- Harvest all apples prior to frosts
Cooking and baking ideas
Apples can be eaten as-is, pureed, frozen, juiced, dried or made into cider. Below are popular ways that your homegrown apples can be enjoyed:
- Apple pie
- Apple jelly
- Dried slices
- Apple cider
My experience
We have over 10 varieties of trees in our yard. Unfortunately, apple is not one of them so we don’t have any personal experiences. Sorry!
What now?
- Create a schedule as suggested above.
- Put in calendar events so you don’t forget.