From time to time, I comment that anyone with even a small patch of dirt should plant a fruit tree. That's probably more true than ever, what with our "new normal" economy and all. I hope some of you find this useful - or at least interesting.
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Most everyone in the U.S. probably grew up with that saying. Ever wonder where it came from? It was a marketing slogan from the 1920s. Why then? Prohibition! (Which was in force in the US from 1920-1933.) Before then, apples were mostly used to make hard cider and applejack brandy. Apple growers had to hustle for new markets in a hurry back then!
Note: It's been four years since this diary was first posted to the (now-defunct) Vegetables of Mass Destruction series. It predates most of DK4's current users, and it's been long enough that even those who read it before might enjoy revisiting this update. Also published to History for Kossacks
Some years ago, I read an interesting book called The Alcoholic Republic. One idea I learned from it was that alcohol is an important part of the economic transition from agrarian to industrial society. You see, alcohol is a good way to store agricultural surplus. It keeps well, and it's more economical to transport than raw crop. In the colonial days, the agricultural surplus of the British empire mainly took the form of rum from sugar grown by slaves on Caribbean plantations - many old rum distilleries are frequented by island tourists to this day. After the American Revolution, as quick as you can say "Freedom Fries", it became unpatriotic to drink rum. Corn whiskey and hard cider came to the fore.
The triangle trade
A Very Brief History of Apples
The wild ancestors of corn and tomatoes are from the Sierra Madre in Mexico (the true treasure of the Sierra Madre is that wild germ stock!). Those of apples are from Central Asia. So, either the Garden of Eden was somewhere around Kazakhstan, or else the serpent tempted Eve with a pomegranate. (Which makes sense, since ancient Greek myth tells us that Persephone was similarly tempted, and ate five pomegranate seeds during her time in Hades.)
Pomegranate
There's something I should explain right up front. Fruit varieties don't grow true to type from seeds, just as people aren't exactly like their parents. The only way to get a new tree of the same variety is by grafting a branch of a particular variety onto another tree, or rootstock. The apple to the right, known as Winter Pearmain, originated in England, grown from seed in about the year 1200. Ever since then, small branches have been grafted onto small rootstock and grown into trees. Every Winter Pearmain tree ever grown in the world is traceable directly back to twigs from that one original tree.
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, was a Christian missionary who had an unusual calling. We all learned about him in school, or maybe from Disney.
Those stories leave out that Chapman's brother ran a cider mill - which in those days made
hard cider. After squeezing out the juice the remaining mash was full of seed. And that mash is what Chapman/Appleseed traveled around with, starting nurseries mostly along the Ohio River valley. Grown from seed, there was no telling exactly what they would be. But the good ones, like that one from 1200 England, would be grafted and propagated. The Grimes Golden Apple, the story goes, was first grown at Chapman's brother's cider mill by the headwaters of the Ohio River in West Virginia. And, it's reputedly a parent to one of the most widespread apple varieties of the present day: The Golden Delicious. Michael Pollan's excellent book,
The Botany of Desire, has a good chapter on apples, including about Johnny Appleseed.
Grimes Golden
This one, the Esopus Spitzenberg, originated in New York state, and was reputedly Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple. The National Park Service maintains the orchards at Jefferson's estate, Monticello, according to what was left behind in Jefferson's agricultural diaries - which were very detailed.
Esopus Spitzenberg
Considerations in choosing a fruit tree
Before you plant your tree, you've got to decide what variety of fruit you want to grow, and where you're going to plant it. In deciding what tree to choose, consider the following:
* You should like the fruit. Local farmer's markets are a good place to scout out new varieties. Also, there's an outfit called Apple Source that specializes in mail order novelty and heirloom apple varieties. Mostly they sell in the fall, but there's still some long-keeping varieties for sale now. Whatever you plant, you'll be eating a lot of, so it's worth investing a little to find a variety you really like. Things to consider: Flavor, texture, size, keeping qualities, juiciness (if you want to make cider), cooking qualities, even appearance (think Cezanne!)
* Cold hardiness. Some apple varieties are bred for the south, and will die in harsh northern winters. Each variety also has various "chill hours" required. If they don't get enough hours below freezing they won't blossom in the spring. Or if they do make fruit, it won't be very good. Those of you from Maine may know that MacIntosh apples grown there are superior to those grown in New Jersey. So you need to match your climate to your apples. The USDA has an interactive map to zoom in on your local area to find your hardiness zone. To make it more complicated, here's an animated map from the National Arbor Day Foundation showing changes in recent decades, perhaps more or less permanent, owing to global warming.
* How big will the tree grow? Partly that's a property of the variety, but mostly that depends on the genetic characteristics of the rootstock it's been grafted onto. Rootstock can also play a role in cold hardiness, and even disease resistance.
* Disease resistance. Various insects, fungi, viruses and other diseases can kill a fruit tree, or keep it from growing or producing well. Your local agricultural extension agent can tell you which are in your area. I'm assuming you're like me and don't want to use a lot of chemicals around your house, so you have to look for varieties which are resistant to your local pests. There's been plenty of breeding work in recent years to create varieties with good multiple resistances.
* When does it blossom? You want to avoid heavy frost during blossoming, because you likely won't get any fruit. A few trees have frost resistant blossoms - including my Hale Haven peach tree which is nearly miraculous!! Also, there are various ripening times, so you need to take the length of your local growing season under consideration, too.
* Pollination. Some trees can only set fruit if the blossoms are pollinated by a different variety blossoming at the same time. Those other trees don't have to be really close - a quarter mile or more will do, so it's worth checking what your neighbors have planted. Crab apples can be excellent pollinators for apples, too - often a few are planted in big orchards to help boost production. Some apple varieties are good "self-pollinators", others aren't any good as pollinators at all. A good reason to avoid chemical pesticides is that you need bugs for good pollination. You can also find trees with branches of several varieties grafted onto one trunk - an option worth looking into with limited space.
* Do you want fruit every year? A fruit tree does not need to make fruit every year, but you probably want yours to. Some varieties are typically bi-annual bearers, or up until ten years before first fruit. This can be managed somewhat by dwarfing rootstock (which deliberately stunts the growth) and aggressive pruning and thinning.
Old World Apples: 1) Kandil Sinap: From Turkey, date unknown. May or may not be from Russia before that. 2) Summer Rambo (originally Rambeau) from France, 1535. 3) Duchess of Oldenberg: Russia, 1700. 4) Muscat de Bernay from Normandy, France; used in the hard cider and apple brandy industry. Russian varieties have been used for rootstock, because they're typically very cold hardy.
I've planted lots of trees (over 20 varieties of apples), so I've taken the approach that I don't need fruit every year from every tree. With blossoming at many times throughout the spring, I'm pretty sure to always have something. Even if some of the trees only produce a couple of times a decade, they'll be good treats when they do.
But if you've only got room for a tree or two - and that's a good place to start, no matter what - that advice to check your local farmer's market is a good idea. And the county extension agent can tell you the main varieties from your area, though they may not know newly released varieties, or obscure heirlooms. Local nurseries are also good for advice - especially if you can find one that grows their own, rather than reselling stock grown elsewhere.
Where to Buy
There's a terrific outfit, the Seed Savers Exchange, who've put out a book called Fruit, Nut and Berry Inventory (4th edition, 2009.) It is a useful, extensive compendium of hundreds of varieties, with information on who sells them. But before you buy from any mail order outfit, it's worth checking up on them at the Garden Watchdog website.
I"ve done business with a variety of suppliers: Raintree (WA), Greenmantle (No. CA), Trees of Antiquity (So. CA), Cummins (NY) and White Oak (they're Amish, so you have to write snail mail to 2515 White Oak Rd., Strasburg, PA 17579). I've also used local garden centers, and a local nursery called Tooley's Trees. It's at higher altitude, is more exposed, and has poorer soil than I've got - so I can be sure that anything that survives its first few years there will do fine at my place. Special shout out to Trees of Antiquity, because they gave permission to use their pictures of apples & of planting for this diary. Here's an example of an outfit you'd be glad not to do business with: Their website has good information though, and worth a look. This year, I want to plant a Swiss Gourmet apple, and none of the nurseries I've ordered from before carry it. So I'll be trying a new one, Van Well, and also getting a totally yellow cherry, allegedly less attractive to birds.
New World Apples: 1) Snow (aka Fameuse): Named for its very white flesh, it originated in Québec in 1824. 2) Kidd's Orange Red, bred by a guy named Kidd in New Zealand, 1924. The best apple I've ever tasted, it has an intoxicating violet element to its flavor. 3) Honeycrisp, Minnesota 1991. Bred to be disease resistant and cold hardy, it's becoming increasingly popular in grocery stores. 4) Winesap, USA 1817. Very juicy and tasty, outstanding for fresh cider.
Planting Your Tree
Mail order trees are shipped bare root, usually on Mondays, so they don't sit drying up over the weekend anywhere. When you get them, they've got to be planted quickly. I like to soak them in water for 24 hours before planting. Bare root trees should be planted early in the spring, while they're still dormant.
When choosing where to plant your tree, consider how much sun and wind it will get, and where it will get its water. In dry areas, a good way to augment limited rainfall is to direct the water that comes off your roof. Generally, it's a good idea to plant at least 10 feet away from the foundation. Once you've picked your site, it's time to dig the hole. It's important to make the hole wide enough, and not to dig it too deep. Before planting, I like to fill the hole with water a couple of times and let it soak in to the surrounding soil. That won't matter so much if you're in a moister area than New Mexico.
Larger version here
The graft should be a couple of inches above the ground. The reason for mounding up a little is to allow for settling. You don't want the graft (it's easy to see in a young tree) or the area immediately below it to get under ground for two reasons. 1) you don't want roots to start up from above the graft (the scion wood), and the area right below the graft (where the roots of the mature tree spread out) is important for the tree's gas exchange and needs to stay open to the atmosphere.
You have to be careful with the roots of a bare root tree, including snipping off damaged bits before planting. It's best to spread them out sideways as straight as possible. I take awhile at it, to make sure the soils as tightly packed as I can make it. And without air pockets which are bad for the roots. The drawing above has suggestions of stuff to put in the hole. If you want to go low budget, you don't have to buy bone meal. Just bury a few bones around the roots. I found a coyote skill last summer, and I always seem to find old bleached cow bones around. Those, or anything left over from food (if you eat meat) will do just fine.
Not only does mulch hold moisture in, it also reduces weeds. Just be sure not to pile it up right against the trunk. That air exchange thing again. More on planting from Trees of Antiquity here. Some people say you should prune when planting to reduce load on the limited roots. But recent research has shown that the transplant will have healthier root growth without the pruning. And the main goal the first year is to grow roots. And it might be best to give it at least a couple more years to grow however it wants before doing any pruning.
A bare root tree has minimal roots. It's important to keep it well-watered through the first summer to help it grow new ones. Think twice about adding fertilizer though, as it affects the salt balance of the soil, and can impair water uptake - not what you want for your transplant traumatized sapling! A little compost, maybe some dilute manure tea, or some of the modern infusions of soil mycorrhizae (fungi) and beneficial soil bacteria. Don't let anyone sell you any "root stimulator"!
Conclusion
Other fruits are similar, but the apples took up so much space, I'm mostly skipping mention thereof. Trees on dwarf rootstock tend to produce sooner, and to have shorter lives. Peaches are precocious and short-lived, too, living maybe 40 years max. If you plant several kinds of fruit tree, they'll be the first to produce a crop.
When you plant a tree, you produce your own food. You also do good things for the planet's carbon balance three ways. 1) The tree converts carbon to plant material through photosynthesis as it grows; 2) You save the fuel that would be used to ship fruit from a remote location to your local store and from the store home; and 3) Properly placed, you can shade your home on summer mornings and afternoons and help keep it cooler without ever turning on an air conditioner.