Many garden owners dream of being able to harvest fresh and juicy apples from their own garden. An apple tree can develop ideally when it is planted in the garden as a relatively young tree and then pruned into shape.

Choosing the right tree in the trade

There are several thousand different apple varieties worldwide due to breeds and different regional characteristics. It makes sense to choose an apple variety for your own garden that is adapted to the region's soil and climate requirements. In Central Europe, for example, the following varieties have been widespread for many decades:

  • Red booscope
  • Alcmene
  • Cox Orange
  • Nicer from Nordhausen

These apple varieties are available in specialist shops in various growth and grafting forms. By grafting at a certain height and on a certain growth base, the growth height is mapped out for you as a bush, half-stem or standard.

Grow an apple tree yourself from a core

With a lot of patience, apple trees can also be grown from seeds yourself. However, you should be aware that the resulting tree will not necessarily have the same characteristics as the tree bearing the fruit. Since each apple blossom is individually pollinated with pollen from another apple blossom, the genetic material stored in the core is a combination of both trees. Seedlings can often result in surprisingly vigorous wild forms of apple trees. If apple seeds are to be germinated before winter, they must be stratified between sheets of damp paper in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.

Plant the seedling properly

When planting a young apple tree, it is essential to pay attention to the later spread of the roots and crown. Espalier trees can be approached much closer to a wall than a tree with a high trunk and a large treetop. The planting hole for the seedling should be twice as large as the root ball of the apple tree. Then line the planting hole ideally with loose humus so that the apple tree can grow well as a shallow root.

tips and tricks

The right time to transplant a young apple tree seedling is autumn. When the leaves have fallen, there is the least sap circulation in the tree, making transplanting easier.

Category:

Trees