By Ethen Askvig
By Ethen Askvig
The U.S. is able grow up to as many as 2,500 different varieties of apples, with 100 of these being commercially grown and sold. An apple is able to be grown in all 50 states, with the top commercial growing states being Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The reason that these states are so good for growing apples is because of their climate. Apple trees prefer temperate regions and are well adapted to places with winter temperatures that are below freezing for 2 months. Apple trees grow the best on hilltops and sloping sides of hills. This provides for better water drainage and also allows colder night air to fall into the valley below, where it doesn’t harm the apple blossom.
In an orchard apple trees are planted in rows anywhere from 10-30 feet apart. Young trees require more attention than the older trees in a orchard. You have to keep a closer eye on the progression of it and watch out for infestations to it. You want these trees to grow up healthy because you will be relying on them down the road to produce fruit.
It takes 6-8 years for a apple tree to begin producing fruit. Once it is able to produce though, it is able to continue producing fruit for up to 100 years. A commercial orchard will usually replace a tree anywhere after 12-20 years though to get a better fruit quality and higher yield from the tree.
An orchard, just like with any other plant, requires fertilization and fighting pests to keep it as healthy as it is able to be. Fertilization is more important in some areas more than others depending on the soil and what you have to work with in that soil. For pest control you can use things like pesticides. With pesticides though you must be careful because it can have after effects to the plant or even the fruit, which may transfer to humans. There are other ways instead of pest control though that are non-toxic and more biologically safe. You can do simple things such as pruning infected wood, or you can get more technologically advanced and breed apple trees that are pest resistant.
At the end of the growing season when apples are ripe and ready, they are hand picked. A healthy apple tree is able to produce around 840 pounds of fruit each year. In 1997, over 4.6 million metric tons were produced in the U.S. with a value of more than $1 billion dollars.
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