An Apple a Day...

I bought this Chehalis apple tree the first year I was in my house. My first fruit tree! Chehalis apple trees are not only disease tolerant, but do well in our wet and rainy climate. They are also a miniature variety so  I thought it would be fine in the back between other trees.  I didn't understand miniature would still mean large. Stuck too close and between other trees, it was getting only 5-6 hours of sunshine a day. Not only did it not grow much, but never produced apples.  When I finally figured out my mistake the tree was still relatively small so I moved it to the front yard. And it grew and grew and grew!

 

For all that growth it has only produced a total of seven apples in the past five years. Some years I get nothing. Other years I'd get two or three apples, but they were BIG apples. Giant apples. About the size of small grapefruits. I asked everyone I knew who had gardening expertise why I would get two GIGANTIC apples and my neighbor was getting 200 tiny ones. I much preferred my HUGE champions to his pathetic, puny things, but I still wondered. And he was still eating more than me. He planted his tree the same year I did. I felt like a failure.

I finally figured it out: Peter.

"Who? Me? I didn't do it!"
 

Peter's toilet used to be under the apple tree. All that nitrogen was making the tree very healthy. Exceptionally healthy plants being fed excessive nitrogen usually won't blossom nor give fruit. I'm still not sure why it produced lots of blossoms and any apples at all.

"I love to eat trees..."

Peter was exiled from the front yard last year for eating too much and he hasn't been allowed back this year. The tree is LOADED with apples. There is at least one if not two on every branch! I'm so excited!

I'm located on a block where everyone brags about their apple trees. I see my neighbors out in their yards continuously inspecting their trees and comparing them to the trees of others.

 

Apple trees are the constant topic of discussion between neighbors: complaining about the deer eating them, how much they grow, how much fertilizer should be used, how many blossoms they had, and how many apples they can see. In my neighborhood, apple trees are metaphors for success.

 

Mine is the only organic tree on the block so you can imagine my frustration as it was hardly a good role model for organic gardening. This is the first year I don't feel like an utter failure! Hooray!

 

 

Apples are very good for you. Besides being loaded with vitamins and minerals and very good for digestion, they help regulate blood sugar. There is lots of truth to the saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Yep, that's my goal.