Falling Apples
Question from Debbie:
I purchased this home with orchard and there are many apple trees which I do not know how old they are… I have a drip system with bubblers on all the trees. The apple trees are dropping many fruit as you can see from the photos…. I do not know what type of apples they are. They appear too small at present and are dropping many as well as the birds. How often do I water the apple trees? The bubblers right now water each early morning for only a few minutes, then repeat again for a deeper watering. I have the satelite watering system.
Answer from Pat:
Deciduous fruit trees often set far more fruit than they can bring to maturity. Thus they always drop a lot of fruit. This is called “June Drop” but usually occurs in July. Thin out fruit in spring so that only one fruit is at each joint. Even then the tree will drop fruit. The fruit in your photos looks almost mature. Have you tried it to see if it is? It might make good pies.
Watering fruit trees a little bit each day is not a good idea. Water fruit trees deeply about once a week in hot weather. Clay soil can take more infrequent watering and sandy or decomposed granite soils need more frequent watering. Bubblers are fine if the irrigation stays on long enough and the water penetrates at least one foot. (Use a tensiometer to check after watering.) Then do not water again until the top 4 inches of soil are dry. Frequent shallow watering is not recommended.
Thanks Pat so much…. the fruit are not very big though; I don’t know what type of apple it is???? How do you know when time to pick?
Perhaps you can contact the original owner to find the variety or varieties. Might be ‘Winter Banana’ or might be ‘Gordon’ or might be an entirely wrong variety for your area, such as “Fuji’, which is not exactly low chill but can sometimes bear crops with less chill than some others. Study the lists in Sunset Western Garden Book concentrating on the low-chill apples. Look up photos online. And taste the apples when they are ripe. Eventually you may be able to decide which ones you have. Clean up all the fallen fruit. Don’t allow it to rot on the ground.