apples

A small portion of this year's Goldrush harvest

There are a number of apple growers in New Mexico, and apples are certainly common enough at the grocery store. Why grow apples? Well, once you start looking into the variety of apples that are available you will realize that there are many, many more varieties that can be grown than are available at the grocery store. Once you start tasting them, you will realize that there is much more to apples than the tasteless and mushy/mealy 'Red Delicious' or 'Golden Delicious' that you, if you are like me, grew up on, and the tart Granny Smith's that were only used for cooking. True, there are much better apples that are available at grocery stores than there used to be, and some of them such as 'Jazz', and 'Envy', are at the top of my taste preference for apples. Yes, growing them takes effort and then you have a harvest to deal with. So let me start of by saying that it isn't for everyone. But there is the satisfaction of growing and harvesting something that you can't get at a grocery store. Even the lowly 'Golden Delicious' is a different animal in terms of taste and texture when is is harvested when mature instead of harvested early for ease of shipping. Then there is the terroir of the apples you have grown. Like grapes and wine, apples also develop a characteristic taste grown in different locales.

'Goldrush'

When I removed some trees from my side yard, I knew immediately that I wanted to plant some apple trees. Years previously I had asked a number of my landscape architecture friends if they could plant one thing only, what they would plant, one of the responses I received was from my friend Rick, who said, “I am within this garden, not looking at it from outside.  It's a garden that offers protection - dappled shade and a sense of enclosure.  It offers sustenance; a fruit.  It expresses the passage of time and cyclic nature of life in fragrant blossom, changing leaves and the stark and spare beauty of a structure laid bare in winter and open to a warming sun.  Fallen leaves give a soft place to lie, protect and regenerate the soil.  A company of birds and critters share its gifts.  I'd be happy to lie under a tree in this apple orchard, watching a changing summer sky.  "Ah, perchance to dream..."

This idea resonated with me, and I kept it in my heart until I had a place to plant an apple tree. I actually had a place to plant FOUR apple trees. Since I had not idea how apples would grow in Albuquerque, or how much fruit I would want, this seemed reasonable. I researched apple varieties for months. Since I like to make Tart Tatin, I decided that I must have at least one cooking apple, and not the English type that make apple sauce, but the French type for apple tart. So that ruled out 'Bramley's Seedling' although I was sorely tempted to try this quintessential English cooking apple.  I was encouraged by a friend to grow 'Fuji' apples, but I also wanted apples that were not possible to get at the grocery store, and 'Fuji' apples were easily obtainable, although not necessarily of a quality that I would always like. I also learned that apples are rather particular as to their climate. Those early settlers of North America from Europe found this out pretty quickly when most of the apples brought with them did not produce well, or produced an inferior product, or simply died. Fortunately apples from seed are so diverse that within a few generations of growing apples from seeds, there were a number of varieties that did well in the New World. Some of these have lasted through time, and remain popular among growers. There are also a number of newer varieties that are bred for disease resistance, and flavor. But to choose an apple (or four), I knew I had to be careful since Albuquerque is a very quirky growing climate. I extensively researched rootstock. Apple trees are grafted onto the root of a different variety of apple for various reasons, mostly to control the size of tree. But those roots also have important characteristics. Because the soil here is poor, and the climate windy, and it is dry, I knew that I would struggle with the most dwarf apple trees, since the roots used to make a dwarf tree need rich soil, and the trees need to be staked throughout their lives so they won't blow over in the wind. A full size apple tree could get 20-30 feet tall and wide, which is too large for my space. So I decided I wanted semidwarfing M111 roots, which would reduce the size of the trees to about 70-80% of full size (standard) trees. M111 is know to anchor trees well, and to tolerate drought.

I began tasting as many apple varieties as possible to see what I liked. Although 'Arkansas Black' is said to grow well here, I didn't like the flavor. 'Empire' is supposed to grow well, but I didn't like flavor or texture much. I've never been impressed with the texture of 'Gala' if is is cut and peeled much in advance of eating, and I like to prepare my snacks in advance so as not to interrupt my work day.  'Mutsu' didn't have a good sweet-tart balance and was too soft for my taste. 'Jazz' is not available as a tree. 'Jonagold' has quirky pollination habits and may not do well in this area but is one of my favorites for making Tart Tatin.


So from thousands of options, I settled on four trees, knowing that at least two of them would be questionable. I knew I had to risk growing 'Calville Blanc d'Hiver', the quintessential French cooking apple, which originated in the 1600's. I also knew I had to grow 'Ashmead's Kernal' (from about 1700) said to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple, and an apple that some have described as having "too much flavor." Everything I read said that I wouldn't be able to grow 'Orange Pippin', so I settled for the easier to grow 'Tydeman's Late Orange' (from1929). I also decided upon 'Goldrush', a modern apple (1992) which was said to be very disease resistant, and although descended from 'Golden Delicious' was described as having a better sweet/tart balance, but had some of the honey flavor from it's parent. Also essential was that I plant four trees that could pollinate each other. Although 'Goldrush' is at least partially pollinating, other apple trees need other apple trees to pollinate them, and since apple trees can bloom at different times, only apples that bloom at the same time will work.

It's been five years since I planted those trees and there are a number of things I learned.

It does take at least 4-5  years for trees on M111 roots to produce a decent crop.
Two trees produce more than enough apples for the two of us to use and to give away.
Some trees produce a lot more fruit than others.
Just because a tree produces great fruit somewhere else, doesn't mean it will here (I had made some well researched gambles, but they were gambles nonetheless).
Apple trees need water.
Apple trees need nutrients.
Apples here get worms. They get enough worms that the fruit is unusable unless the trees are sprayed with insecticide throughout the season. For a schedule check out the New Mexico State University website. 
Apples need protection from birds. Birds here are very aggressive about eating apples. They jack-hammer them with their beaks until they are full, leaving about 3/4 of the fruit left. The damaged fruit falls to the ground, and the birds move on to another fruit. Sometimes they just sample a number of fruit, and a number of birds over a week can damage most of a crop.
Different varieties of apple trees have very different growth habits. I thought that planting four varieties of apples together would produce a uniform planting, but some of the trees grew strictly upright, others more of a weeping shape, and some were awkward.
Apple trees don't produce much fall color, some more than others, some none at all.

Some leaves, individually can be quite attractive on some trees.

Fruiting apple trees produce pretty flowers, but not many of them, and they don't make much of a show. That's why people plant crabapple trees, for the multitude of flowers. 

The whole tree in the fall doesn't make an impressive fall show.

I removed the 'Calville Blanc d'Hiver' after three years of its producing fruit that sunburned and became corky on the sun exposed sides. It also was a favorite of the birds. Mostly, the fruit was hard to use, as peeling it was very difficult, the flesh coming off with the peel in large chunks, even with a sharp peeler. The flesh had the texture of styrofoam and the grown here, the flavor unexceptional. Likewise, I removed 'Ashmead's Kernal' this year, after several years of a very large tree producing very few, very small fruit, not much bigger than a lemon, and mostly pit. It was also very susceptible to sunburn of the fruit. I almost gave up on all of them after losing a couple years crops to worms and failing at intense efforts at organic methods for two years, until I learned to spray.

'Goldrush' has turned out to be the standout performer. Although the first fruits it produced were not very tasty, in subsequent years, the fruit has been extremely flavorful, both sweet and tart. Samples given to friends have always resulted in "Oh my God, that's an incredible apple!" comments. It is good for fresh eating. It is good for cooking, holding its shape and adding incredible flavor.

Fresh out of the oven

The small tree is amazingly productive. This year I picked over five, 5-gallon buckets of fruit.

This small tree produced that much fruit. Fall color here is nice, but not exceptional.

Fruit is produced amazingly densely on the tree and requires thinning early in the season. 

Branches need support from all the heavy fruit, or risk breakage.

'Tydeman's Late Orange' has also proved itself to be a keeper. Although not nearly as productive as 'Goldrush', it produces a decent crop of large fruit that need to be rescued from the birds who find it particularly irresistible. The fresh flavor is more bland than 'Goldrush' but still quite good. I think of it more as a cooking apple. The Tart Tatin (yes I capitalize it), I made from the 'Tydeman's Late Orange' was deemed by my friends to be the "best ever", and I've made Tart Tatin for them for over 10 years. When I removed the other two trees, my friends begged me to keep this tree, because they loved the tart so much. It's more of a lax tree, not weeping, but with rather thin willowy branches to start. It also needs strict pruning to keep it from branching down low. It has no fall color whatsoever, the leaves turning from green to dry before falling off. Here is the tree today (below).

This year, the apples were picked before they turned very orange, since the birds just DEVOUR them. Given another few weeks or a month to ripen they would have been more flavorful and colorful, but then there would be literally none left from the birds. The apples tend to be rather large.

So if you plan to plant apple trees in New Mexico, keep a few things in mind. Choose an apple that you really like, because when it comes time to harvest, there will be a lot, and they are a fairly large amount of work. Be prepared to irrigate, fertilize (i.e. a thick mulch of decomposed compost). Be prepared to thin the apples. Be prepared to spray, put the spraying schedule on your calendar, and FOLLOW IT. Learn how to prune properly. Choose your rootstock for your growing conditions. Choose your varieties for pollination. Is it worth it? You decide. I decided to replace the two I removed with a fig and a cherry tree.