Apple
Malus domestica
Orchard mainstay — chives at the trunk are said to fend off scab.
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Red
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Deep, fertile, well-drained
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, followed by potash through the summer.
- USDA zones
- 3a–8b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Prune in late winter, working toward an open goblet of branches.
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 150 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- at the first fall frost
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–May Flowering
- May–Aug Fruit Set
- Aug–Sep Harvest
- Sep–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- In-row spacing
- 11 ft 6 in
- Between rows
- 16 ft 5 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, shallow and far-reaching
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 4 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 26–39 ft across, about 2–3× the width of the plant
Almost all of a tree’s roots are in the top two feet of soil, where the air is, and they run out well past the branch tips. The deep taproot most people picture belongs to the seedling; the tree grows out of it and spends the rest of its life spreading sideways instead.
The habit is Apple’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats and dogs
- Recorded toxic
Recorded as toxic to cats and dogs by ASPCA.
We file the apple as Malus domestica, the ASPCA prints Malus sylvestrus for the same tree. The finding concerns the stems, leaves and seeds (cyanogenic glycosides), not the flesh, and is worst in wilting material.
- When
- Late July (earliest varieties) to late October (long-keeping storers); most maiden trees crop in 3–5 years (2–3 on dwarfing rootstocks like M27/M9). Early varieties don't store; late varieties often need weeks in store to reach full flavor.
- What to look for
- The classic test: cup the apple, lift and twist a quarter-turn — a ripe fruit parts from the spur with its stalk intact, without pulling. Ground color turns from green to yellow, pips inside are dark brown, and the first sound windfalls appear. Taste one: crisp, juicy, and sweet for the variety.
- How to harvest
- Lift-and-twist, never yank (tearing the spur removes next year's fruit buds). Keep the stalk on — a lost stalk opens a rot entry point. Use a long-handled picker or tripod ladder for tall trees; lay fruit gently in a padded basket, never drop.
- How often
- Two or three passes per tree over 1–3 weeks — fruit on the sunny side and outside of the canopy ripens first. Pick storers slightly underripe but mature.
- Storing the crop
- Early apples: eat within days to a couple of weeks. Late keepers (e.g. Bramley, Fuji, russets): wrap individually in paper or lay unwrapped, not touching, in slatted trays in a cool (3–7°C), frost-free, mouse-proof place; sound fruit keeps 3–6 months. Store only unblemished fruit and check regularly — one rotten apple genuinely does spoil the barrel. Bruised/windfall fruit goes to juice, cider, sauce, or the freezer as stewed apple.
- Adelgids & woolly aphids Woolly aphid
- Codling moth Its caterpillars tunnel to the core of apples and pears, leaving frass-filled exit holes. Hang pheromone traps from late spring and pick up windfalls promptly.
- Canker Sunken, cracked patches of dead bark that can girdle and kill branches. Prune back to clean healthy wood in dry weather and improve tree vigor.
- Powdery mildew A white dusty coating over leaves and shoots when roots are dry but the air is humid. Keep plants watered and mulched, prune for airflow, and remove the worst leaves.
- Scab Apple scab
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Bats ChiropteraHunts Codling moth
A single bat takes hundreds of moths and mosquitoes in a night, and the moths are the parents of your cutworms, corn earworms and hornworms. Put up a bat box on a warm south wall, leave a night-scented corner unlit, and never spray after dark.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Adelgids & woolly aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Codling moth
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
Chives, Nasturtiums, Comfrey, Clover
Apple pips don't grow true to type, so every named variety is propagated by grafting.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com