How to Grow Apple Trees

Hi, This is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we are going to talk about how to grow apple trees. Now apple trees have been around as long as man has been around. Even the Bible mentions Adam and Eve and the apple tree. So it's so directly related to the human history and I find it fascinating. All of the stories and all of the different history related to the apple. But, apples are easy to grow too. They are pretty much native to almost every area on the Earth. Apparently they really came from Turkey and into the Middle Eastern area and then they spread throughout the World. Way back in history as soon as man was walking around they were taking apples with them. So when you're growing an apple tree you either start it from a seed. But, it's much easier to just to buy a potted fruit tree from a garden center. That way you can get fruit very quickly. So make sure and plant in full hot sun. Cover the root up. Have the stem come out of the ground. Make sure that you water it really in the heat of the summer. Especially if you have a new tree if it dries out you might lose it. So make sure and water it really well. The best time to plant your apple trees would be in the middle of the Winter or even early Spring. You don't want to start them in the Summer when they might dry out. But if you water them well you can pretty much plant them anytime of the year. Now, apple trees really need that full hot sun and they need other apple trees to cross pollinate. If there is no other trees in the area you probably won't get fruit. Plus they need bees. So if you live in an area where there is lots of bees you will get fruit. No problem. But in parts of China now where there don't have bees at all because of the pollution. They are actually having to hand pollinate the trees by taking a piece of bamboo and a feather and they actually wipe the pollen off of the male part of the blossom. They dry it out. Then three days later they wipe it onto the female part of the blossom. On the middle stylus part. That way it will produce fruit. So hopefully we will have fruit for many years to come. They are a beautiful easy plant to grow and as long you water them well in the heat of the summer they really don't need any care. I do like to trim mine back after they are done producing fruit every fall. But never cut your tree back more than one third the height. That way you will always get fruit and you won't kill it. Because if you cut it back too far you might kill it. Make sure when you are trimming back a young tree you have one base plant and you've got at least two main branches coming off of it. Just trim all the other little branches every year so that you can control the growth a little more. It will be a lot more bushier then just having a Medusa type tree like these wild trees here. They are a beautiful plant as well in the garden and they make gorgeous fall foliage. They are great addition to your garden.