Spring is a good time of the year to plant fruit trees. Keep in mind that all varities of apple trees require some cross pollination for fruit set. Even though some varieties are listed as self-fruitful, they will set fruit heavier and more regularly if they are cross-pollinated. For backyard trees, a pollen source should be no more that 100 feet away. The honey bee is the most important carrier of pollen. It does not take the same variety of apple tree to cross pollinate another variety. Even the crab apples will pollinate large fruit bearing apples.
Planting a couple of apple trees will insure that you have plenty to eat. New trees can take up to five years or longer to start blooming and bearing fruit. From my experience, the taste of that crisp home grown apple is worth the wait.
I’m often asked how to keep the apples from getting worms in them? The culprit is the coddling moth which comes along and lays eggs on the newly forming fruit. The eggs hatch and the larvae (worm) move into the apple and feed. Spraying the fruit tree with Seven and/or Malathion after all the petals have dropped from the blossom is recommended to control the adult moth. A shot-gun approach is to make second, third and fourth sprayings - ten to fourteen days following the previous spray. This will help reduce the incidence of worms in your apples. Timing is everything. One method to help determine the best time to spray is to buy pheromone traps which help show when the moths are active and then follow up with spraying or additional trapping.
