GROWING APPLES AT SMITHS'

The Origin of Apples: The apples that all of us know today probably originated in the forests of present day Kazakhstan in the region bordering China. Located along the Silk Road, apples and apple seeds were likely carried by travelers along this route thousands of years ago and distributed throughout the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. When European settlers settled northeastern North America, they brought seeds with them and almost every farm had a small home orchard to provide fresh apples starting in the summer and lasting into the late winter. Some of those orchards are still producing fruit today.

Botony: Modern apples are classified as members of the genus Malus and are most likely a blend of several original species from Kazakhstan. They are in the rose family, Rosaceae, whose members typically have a simple flower structure consisting of five obvious petals and sepals.

Flowers have five petals and are complete flowers; that is, they contain both male and female structures. The plant itself is a medium-sized deciduous woody tree that requires a cold dormant period before growth resumes each spring. Therefore, apple trees range throughout the temperate growing areas of the world. They are moderately winter hardy and can withstand occasional winter temperatures of -25 degrees C. Prolonged temperatures below this will cause tissue damage, decline and eventual death.

Growing Apples at Smiths': Many visitors to the farm wonder how an orchard is started in the first place. Very few apple trees are grown "on their own roots" anymore. If you take a seed from an apple and plant it outside (it requires a cold period before growth) that seed will grow into a tree, but with two major problems for the apple grower:

1. Apple trees tend to be quite vigorous and the seedling tree will become very large and gangly and take many years before it will bear fruit.

2. You cannot be sure of the variety or quality of apple that will be produced, as the seed will have a combination of genetic traits. The seed will have traits from the tree that grew the apple and traits from the pollinating tree (which were carried in the pollen by an insect).

Apple growers solve these problems by asexually propagating the trees. They cut pieces from a desirable parent tree (the tastiest and most winter-hardy apple tree they can find, for example) and using a sharp knife connect this piece, called a scion, to an apple tree that has an excellent root system. This is called grafting.

At Smiths’ we wanted to grow the original Northern Spy variety that makes “the very best apple pies on planet Earth!”. We needed two components to do this: Northern Spy twigs (cut from an original tree obtained from the Ontario Heritage Apple Tree Nursery near Vineland, Ontario) and an excellent root system. Nurseries call these root systems "rootstock" and we chose one with the name "M-9", a rootstock that will keep the trees from growing with too much vigor and help them to produce fruit quickly (in the first few years after planting).
M-9 is said to be a dwarfing rootstock since trees grafted onto this root system can be trained to be quite small. This is very important to us since we want to be able to pick apples without using ladders.

The rootstock is ordered from a nursery supplier and looks like long pencil sized twigs when it arrives in the spring. The rootstock is planted in prepared soil in April and grows into small bushy shrubs by late summer. At this time we purchase the scion wood, and using a sharp grafting knife remove a single bud from the scion and slip it under the cut bark of the rootstock about 15cm above the soil. It is wrapped with a rubber band to keep it secure and prevent drying out. This type of grafting is called budding or T-budding. The grafted bud will connect with the rootstock in about two weeks and then rest until the following spring.

After the snow has melted we cut off all the rootstock ‘bush’ above the grafted bud. This leaves only the grafted bud connected to the rootstock, so now it will have all the stored energy in the roots to grow (and we hope it will grow like crazy!). We pound a bamboo stake into the ground beside the new little tree and tie it as it grows. By the end of this growing season we hope to get about a meter of new growth with three to five side branches (growers call these side branches ‘feathers’). If we don’t get enough growth the first year we simply leave the tree for an additional year in this nursery. Of course, every creature around seems to like eating the tender new apple leaves so an apple nursery is another challenge altogether!

Growing in an Orchard: Orchards consist of rows of trees organized and trained as a community to produce large quantities of high quality fruit. Many components must be properly in place to have a productive orchard. These include:

1. Proper choice of rootstock.

We use two kinds (M-9 or Malling 9, and B-9 or Budavosky 9) so that our trees will be dwarf and produce high quality fruit on young trees.

2. High quality nursery trees at planting.

At Smiths’ we grow our own or buy the best trees we can find. Good trees should have five to seven well-spaced branches with wide crotch angles.

3. Choose appropriate varieties to grow.

If you are growing for your own use simply plant the ones you like, provided they will mature and are winter hardy in your area. If you are planning to sell the fruit you need to anticipate the varieties of apples that your customers will wish to buy.

4. Choose a growing system and planting arrangement.

Our orchard is designed as a high-density orchard of single rows at twelve-foot centers with trees planted five feet apart in the row. This is a density of about 725 trees per acre. Each tree is supported with a single stake; this is essential for proper growth and production. When tied to the stake the tree does not sway in the wind. Normally the tree would respond to this motion by building lots of strengthening wood. However, when tied to the stake, the energy used for building wood is instead available to grow fruit and production increases dramatically.

5. Other Factors must be in order as well as the major components above:

• Weed control under the trees allows them to get the nutrients and water they need.
• Insects and mites must be carefully monitored and their populations kept below damaging levels.
• In our humid climate fungal diseases such as apple scab and powdery mildew can thrive. Trees must be protected from infection beginning with the first sign of green tissue in spring.
• Water stress is almost always a limiting factor when growing in our area, and irrigation begins in June and often continues into the fall.
• Nutrition of the trees must be monitored in order to maintain a balance in the trees. We analyze leaf tissue samples each summer so that any deficiencies can be corrected.
• Training involves positioning the branches so that fruiting is encouraged (instead of woody growth). We use string to tie young branches below the horizontal. The leader is also trained by tying it to the stake.
• Pruning is the important process of removing woody parts of the tree.
We dormant-prune in late winter to remove broken and diseased wood but most importantly to allow light to enter the tree canopy and encourage healthy buds and quality fruit to form. Summer pruning removes leafy shoots in August to allow light to reach the fruit for better colour.

Well, if you are getting the feeling that growing quality apples is quite a complex puzzle and a big challenge then you are right! We know some folks think you just stick the trees in the ground and wait to pick the fruit. Boy are they wrong!

-Steve