Special Garden and Orchard Thread - Apples!

Special edition today - APPLES! From LEX

I have always disfavored the saying “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” I find (usually) writers and artists employ this platitude to excuse a story or piece of work that is not too well thought out.
Our stories need catharsis (so said Aristotle), and if your conclusion is weak, it’s tempting to deflect by offering… “don’t you see, it’s about the journey?”

But certainly there are other aspects of life where the journey is –if not the point— as acceptable as the destination. Do I need to reach the summit of a mountain to enjoy a hike?

Might it be the same with gardening? Do we need the fruit or the flower to experience a sense of satisfaction? Perhaps the process can bring as much joy as the terminus.

I’m not trying to run interference for failure. In fact, last year, I posted on AoS about my ongoing battle with birds, which had, for years, poached my annual blueberry crop. That essay was titled “The Great Blueberry Bush Battle.”

A quick recap: the blueberry bushes at my house have, for the last ten seasons, yielded copious and healthy fruit. The only problem became preventing birds from stealing the berries, which happened until 2025 when I discovered thule netting (Photo 2; date taken 8-2-26) This style of mesh net acts like a Ziploc bag, encasing the bush in a net that no bird can penetrate.
So, after failing for a number of years to defeat avian pests, I found my game changer in 2025, and 2026 has been just as successful.
“The Great Blueberry Bush Battle” has been a fun journey, but it was always the goal to get good fruit. I did that, and boy has the catharsis flowed.

A quick recap: the blueberry bushes at my house (Photo 1; date taken 7-3-25), have, for the last ten seasons, yielded copious and healthy fruit. The only problem became preventing birds from stealing the berries, which happened until 2025 when I discovered thule netting. This style of mesh net acts like a Ziploc bag, encasing the bush in a net that no bird can penetrate.
So, after failing for a number of years to defeat avian pests, I found my game changer in 2025, and 2026 has been just as successful.

“The Great Blueberry Bush Battle” has been a fun journey, but it was always the goal to get good fruit. I did that, and boy has the catharsis flowed.
Unfortunately, the scrum with nature when it comes to my Empire apple trees has mostly gone against me. Unlike blueberries, there seem to be more factors that can affect a good apple crop. Rough winters, spring conditions, disease, and other unknowns that are out of my hands make getting good apples anyone’s guess.

I am certain I could do better if I put in orchard-level effort or used industrial-strength sprays, but that would entail hiring someone and I want this project all to myself. So, despite my instincts not to fall back on “it’s about the journey,” I’ve begun to lean into the phrase.
But should I?

***

To help you opine, allow me to provide the history of the trees. The blueberry bushes were planted when I bought and redid this house in 2009-2010.

In the photo, you can see where the blueberry bushes will be planted—just in front of the pylons that will eventually become the porch. If you look to the right of Bobcat machine, you will see a line of trees.

These remained on the property until 2012. After their removal, the apple trees were planted in their stead.

I wish I had done more time lapse photography, but by 2014 the trees were established enough to produce a glorious year of fruit .

As you can see, there was enough fruit to fill shopping bags, and I employed my sons to transport the cargo from field to table in their toy car (Photo 6; date taken 9-20-14). The fruit was not just ornamental that year; it was largely unblemished and certainly edible.

In the succeeding years, there was little bounty. The trees grew and did produce fruit each season, but the apples were always spotted or bruised, and by harvest time the toy car was not needed.

I didn’t do much to tend them until— because of Covid fascists—I had to hang around the house in the summer of 2020. I began to take more interest in my fruit trees at this time, but taking an interest and producing a satisfying result did not go hand in glove.

It had been fairly common for the tree to blossom in May, which always portended fruit, but often, as mentioned, the apples would never survive in any kind of healthy way.

For better results, I consulted landscape architects, my lawn and garden service team, the internet of course, and neighbors who also have fruit trees. Naturally, I received a lot of advice. Neem oil to ward off insects. Other sprays to combat disease. Reflective tape to deter birds. Trimming in winter months only. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.

Then, in the summer of 2023, something amazing occurred. I did nothing special to prepare for this year, but the trees produced more fruit than I could imagine. The limbs were so heavy with apples I had to tie up splitting branches. I estimate each tree produced 1,000 apples.

Plenty of them were poached by animals or blemished, but there was so much that even a ten percent haul meant 200 edible apples. The toy car was long gone, but it would not have been able to handle the payload.

***

To my consternation, there has been bupkis since 2023. In 2024, the trees didn’t even blossom and not one apple formed. In 2025 and 2026, there were small blossoms, and a few apples began to take shape, but by mid-summer there was nothing at all for the plucking.

The trees themselves have continued to grow and always appear healthy, but bearing fruit like those two great years (2014 and 2023) seems an impossibility now.

In the succeeding years, there was little bounty. The trees grew and did produce fruit each season, but the apples were always spotted or bruised, and by harvest time the toy car was not needed.

The trees themselves have continued to grow and always appear healthy, but bearing fruit like those two great years (2014 and 2023) seems an impossibility now.

My own very non-scientific theory is the trees have become too big. They were much larger in 2023 than in 2014, so that may disprove my theory, but it’s hard to gainsay they are probably twice as big as when planted. That is, there is too much wood. The branches shoot to the sky and criss-cross each other at every chance. I have trimmed each year, but they grow back quickly.

But now that this season is effectively over, I’m going to get much more aggressive with trimming and thinning than I have before. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks taking out branches, and the results are much more ‘airy’ trees.

Experts will probably say this is a mistake, that I should wait until winter (if you call Chat GPT an expert), but like the cop who goes on a hunch rather than by the book, I’m not sitting on my hands until next February.

Whatever the result in 2027, perhaps the point of these apple trees is not the fruit they can produce but the stories they engender. The neem oil, the toy car, wobbling precariously on ladders during trims. And on…
Even so, it would be nice to munch on an unblemished, crispy apples that come from my trees. Check in with me the next season, and I’ll tell you where I stand on journeys and destinations.

Thanks, LEX! What a project! You have kept good records, too.

Time for discussion!

Do you grow apples? Do you want to? How about pears?

Gardens of The Horde

What's going on in your garden or neighborhood?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden at g mail dot com

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Sep 5

I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Happy Caturday everyone

Posted by: Skip at September 12, 2026 02:13 PM (Ia/+0)

2 Mentioned before we sem to have a outside rabbit than lives within feet of the house. Ttying not to frightening her we think its a female

Posted by: Skip at September 12, 2026 02:17 PM (Ia/+0)

3 Bluebird at the mealworm feeder right now.

Posted by: Ernst Rohm at September 12, 2026 02:19 PM (RIvkX)

4 Stone fruits are pruned when in bloom or leaf to discourage too much growth at cutting points. I imagine it's the same for other deciduous trees. Don't prune in fireblight season.

Posted by: KT at September 12, 2026 02:23 PM (1RGZ5)

5 I didn’t do much to tend them until— because of Covid fascists...

====
Do you have a newsletter?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 12, 2026 02:25 PM (RIvkX)

6 When all of us neighborhood kids were growing up in our residential neighborhood there was still a fairly large (for little kids) vacant lot owned by a certain Mr. Hackett (rumored to shoot at kids with a shotgun loaded with rock salt). It was at one time pasture or farm ground, and overgrown. It had a number of wild apple trees, and it had the best tasting green apples ever. I didn't care for them ripe, they seemed mealy and not crisp the way I thought an apple ought to be. They never turned solid red.

Posted by: Common Tater at September 12, 2026 02:26 PM (/ijqt)

7 I am tending to a fig tree planted this year. I've been fighting the fact that I have grown into an old, Italian man for quite some time now but, alas, the proof to the contrary is doing well right in my own back yard.

Posted by: Tonypete at September 12, 2026 02:30 PM (m4Pfq)

8 Just trying to keep the losses down, epically hot and dry around here.

Posted by: Miflin at September 12, 2026 02:30 PM (aA6YN)

9 I am wondering if Lex's neighbor's crabapple pollinates his apples.

Posted by: KT at September 12, 2026 02:32 PM (1RGZ5)

10 I would love to eat an apple, even that green one, but alas, I has only 10 teefs.

Posted by: Eromero at September 12, 2026 02:34 PM (LHPAg)

11 Lex, that story was an emotional rollercoaster! I feel your pain: growing up, we had a beautiful apple tree that threw off tons of tart green apples, but they were to often twisted and wormy.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 12, 2026 02:43 PM (kpS4V)

12 Speaking as a person with little actual knowledge of the problem, those trees need to be way thinned out so there is room for sunlight, and later, apples. Now.

Posted by: From about That Time at September 12, 2026 02:45 PM (sl73Y)

13 often twisted and wormy.
Used to date her.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at September 12, 2026 02:45 PM (t59Wi)

14 My vegetable garden is definitely winding down for the season, although the hot peppers are still going great guns and the zucchini plant is punching above its weight.

I won't bother to plant corn next year. I got a few slender ears of pretty blue corn, which was fun to monitor but kind of a waste of space. Ditto the sunflowers, although the birds and bees loved them.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 12, 2026 02:47 PM (kpS4V)

15 "the trees produced more fruit than I could imagine"
What a great problem to have. Great post, KT!

Posted by: 40 Miles North at September 12, 2026 02:48 PM (96qvc)

16 And no more cherry tomatoes! There's such a thing as being too prolific, guys.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 12, 2026 02:49 PM (kpS4V)

17 Fruit trees and plants are my bailiwick. I worked in a large (and varied) orchard for four years in my youth to put money away for college. I learned how to get stung by bees, a bit of Spanish, and lots about growing healthy market acceptable fruit (apples, peaches, pears, berries, grapes, kiwi, you name it).

First off, your apple trees that produced beyond expectations one year, and then dropped off. That's common. It's called alternative bearing, or biennial bearing. They mean the same thing. Essentially, your tree exhausted itself on a good year or two and has to recover to produce again. Not unusual. And, orchards will combat this by pulling excess fruit off during development to assure it doesn't overload the tree's resources. Pruning in early winter is a necessity. You want a flat top to your tree, and solid limbs, not "springers". Insecticide is basically to assure a blemish free apple...nothing more. It's a pain, but if you want the good, perfect fruit it is required. I grow Winesap, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious and a couple Japanese apples I can pronounce. I eat a bunch, the rest are for the deer (who can smell them miles away).

Posted by: Orson at September 12, 2026 02:51 PM (dIske)

18 Today I picked and ate the first fig from my Beer's Black container tree. It was tasty and there are more figs maturing on the branches. It needs repotting but I plan to wait until after I pick the rest of the figs. I have a nice clay pot for its new home.

Posted by: Emmie, celebrating 250 years of God's grace at September 12, 2026 02:51 PM (OlzlW)

19 I've heard apple trees naturally set more fruit on the more horizontal branches. The skinny branches (water sprouts) that grow straight up just sap the tree's energy.

Posted by: Emmie, celebrating 250 years of God's grace at September 12, 2026 02:56 PM (OlzlW)

20 Hey you damn kids, get away from my apple tree!

*!!!BLAM!!!*

Posted by: Mr. Hackett at September 12, 2026 02:59 PM (4Je4D)

21 I love the idea of a container fig tree! Think I'll try it next year.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at September 12, 2026 03:01 PM (kpS4V)

22 Oh, one other thing on apple trees, specifically. Stay away from nitrogen based fertilizer if fruit is your goal. "Nitrofert" is great if your goal is a beautiful looking tree for your front lawn, but nitrogen based will go right to the leaves first and foremost.

Posted by: Orson at September 12, 2026 03:03 PM (dIske)

23 You need the book "Grow a Little Fruit Tree". It will teach you how to prune them for a manageable size. And, I have pruned apple trees in a commercial orchard, Granny Smiths grown on wires and kept reachable on a 12' ladder. If you want fruit, you have to prune and you thin the apples when they first set. For manageable trees, you prune in the summer, which discourages growth. Amazon carries the book.

My little trees are trying to recover from a grasshopper attack. I used neem oil. I also used a copper fungicide for rust.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 12, 2026 03:04 PM (bkuEU)

24 How's your bee population? Here we have very nice native bees like mason bees. They only come out when the fruit trees flower, have a pretty short life but a busy one No nests, so they aren't aggressive. Lots of places offer mason bee "houses" for them to place their eggs and offerings of pollen (that then get walled up with mud, hence the name "mason bee").

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at September 12, 2026 03:05 PM (63pwK)

25 I love the photos and story!

I second what Orson wrote about pulling off excess fruit and winter-pruning.

I'm planning to prune the arbor vita this coming winter. They are filling out nicely. In a couple more years, I hope they'll be a proper privacy fence.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at September 12, 2026 03:06 PM (ao+in)

26 There are two wild apple trees next to each other right off my favorite hiking trail. Can always grab 3 or 4 with no wormholes. They're not pretty, but they're all-natural.

Posted by: Delurker at September 12, 2026 03:07 PM (2Drhq)

27 And, in the battle with the grasshoppers, they have not touched a leaf on the figs. I am starting to wonder if I should put in another Chicago Hardy or two as replacements for anything that doesn't make it. No figs but the trees look good

Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 12, 2026 03:09 PM (bkuEU)

(Jump to top of page)

Name: *

Email: *

URL:

Comments:

Processing 0.0, elapsed 0.006 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.0034 seconds, 35 records returned.
Page size 43 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.