It’s exciting to plant a fruit tree. You’re probably already looking forward to the first juicy, crispy bites of your very own homegrown apple. What stages should you expect your tree to go through and how long do you have to wait? Apple trees need time and work, but the fruit you get in return will be worth it.
All apple trees require a sunny location and rich, well-drained soil. Apple trees do take some dedicated effort to grow successfully, however. They require regular care and maintenance throughout their lives.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to grow an apple tree and what to expect at each stage of its growth. Let’s dig in!.
Depending on the type of apple tree you choose, it will start producing fruit about 5 to 6 years after it is planted. Dwarf varieties can produce fruit in as soon as 2-3 years after planting. Some standard sized trees will take up to 8 years to fully mature. So, it really depends on the variety you plant, and your growing climate.
Apple trees (Malus pumila or Malus domestica) are some of the most diverse fruit trees available. Apple trees come in thousands of different types and cultivars, each with its own fruit size, taste, color, growth habit, and range of climate tolerance.
The fruit varieties you can find at the grocery store are only a small part of the known apple cultivars that are out there.
Want to grow your own apples? You’ll be interested in the whole process, from choosing a tree to picking the apples.
Biting into a crisp, juicy apple picked straight from your own backyard tree is a delicious dream for many gardeners. However patience is required when growing apple trees from scratch. It can take several years after planting before those first ripe ruby-red apples are ready to enjoy.
In this article, we’ll look at the key factors impacting how long it takes for apple trees to bear fruit Read on to learn what to expect from planting to harvest!
Apple Tree Sizes and Growth Rates
The biggest factor determining how quickly apple trees produce is the tree’s size and growth habit Standard apple trees can take 5-8 years to bear fruit, while smaller dwarfs start producing apples sooner
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Standard apple trees reach 15-20 feet tall at maturity. They take the longest to bear fruit – generally 5-8 years.
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Semi-dwarf apple trees reach 10-15 feet tall and begin bearing fruit in 4-6 years.
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Dwarf apple trees only grow 8-10 feet tall. They are the fastest to bear fruit – just 2-4 years after planting.
So for those eager for homegrown apples ASAP, opt for dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties over standards. The smaller rootstock means less vegetative growth and quicker fruiting.
Apple Variety Makes a Difference
Certain apple varieties and cultivars produce fruit earlier than others. For example, most grafted dwarf Fuji or Gala apple trees begin fruiting in just 1-2 years. But grafted Red Delicious dwarfs may take 3-4 years to fruit.
Some naturally quick-fruiting varieties to consider include Akane, Ginger Gold, Jersey Mac, Sam Young, and Williams Pride. Ask at your local nursery for fastest fruiting options for your climate.
Heirloom and antique varieties bred for flavor over yield tend to be slower growing and slower to fruit. But their fruit quality is superb. Expect at least 4-6 years for fruit from heirlooms.
Optimal Growing Conditions Speed Things Up
Providing ideal growing conditions gives apple trees the best chance of fruiting on the early side. Some tips:
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Sunlight – Apple trees need full sun, at least 6 hours/day. Insufficient sunlight slows growth and fruiting.
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Space – Avoid overcrowding. Dwarfs need 6-8 feet, semi-dwarfs 10-12 feet between trees.
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Soil – Well-draining, nutrient rich soil is ideal. Improve poor soils with compost before planting.
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Water – Consistent weekly watering encourages healthy root growth and fruiting.
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Fertilizer – Feed trees annually in spring and after fruit harvest using a balanced organic fertilizer.
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Pruning – Prune apple trees every winter to shape and stimulate fruit bud growth.
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Pollination – Plant a compatible pollinator variety nearby for cross-pollination and fruit set. Most apple trees need a pollination partner.
Providing optimal care reduces stress and speeds growth and fruiting. Take extra care in tree’s formative years to give it the best start.
Warmer Climates Speed Things Up
Apple trees grow faster and bear fruit sooner in warmer climates with mild winters. Those in zones 8-10 can enjoy apples 1-2 years earlier than those in cooler zones 3-5.
If you’re in a marginal climate, choose chill hour varieties suited to your zone. Avoid late bloomers prone to frost damage. With climate change, warmer zones can grow apples that previously were challenging.
Use season extending techniques like espalier, protective netting, and trunk wraps to boost success in borderline zones. Dwarf trees in containers can also be moved if cold snaps threaten blossoms.
Beware of Pests and Diseases
Apples trees are prone to fungal diseases, bacterial infections, and voracious insect pests like codling moth. Preventative care is key to avoid issues that slow trees down. Some tips:
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Practice sanitation by cleaning up and removing dropped leaves and fruit immediately. Don’t compost.
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Use preventative, organic fungicidal sprays like sulfur early in the season. Target apple scab, powdery mildew, black spot, and fire blight.
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Apply organic insecticidal soap regularly to deter borers, leafminers, and other pests before they take hold.
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Remove any diseased or insect-infested areas promptly to prevent spreading.
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Support tree health with proper water, nutrients, pruning, and ideal planting site. Healthy trees resist diseases better.
Catching issues early and maintaining vigor is key to preventing devastation that can delay fruiting for years. Be vigilant!
Should You Start Apple Trees from Seed?
Growing apple trees from seed can certainly be done, but it will add many extra years before fruiting occurs. Seeds need cold stratification before sprouting. Once germinated, seedlings take 5-8 years just to become established juvenile trees. Then they need additional years before flowering and fruiting.
Overall, starting apple trees from seed will delay fruiting by 8-10+ years compared to buying a grafted dwarf sapling. For anyone impatient to get apples, seeds are not the best option!
However, growing from seed can be fun for the patient gardener. Just be prepared to wait a decade or more for fruit, with no guarantee the resulting apples will be good quality. Most seed-grown trees bear small, tart “spitters”. But surprises can happen!
Tips to Elicit Quicker Fruiting
You can give your apple tree a little extra push towards earlier fruiting by:
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Gently bending branches downward in summer to slow vegetative growth and encourage flowering spurs.
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Applying organic liquid kelp fertilizer in early spring to stimulate fruit buds.
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Scoring rootballs at planting time to promote quick root growth into surrounding soil.
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Wrapping trunks of young trees with white paint or tape to prevent sunburn and borers.
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Installing dwarfing rootstock if planting seeds to restrict size and speed fruiting.
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Keeping trees pruned and shaped to direct energy into fruiting wood rather than branches.
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Top-dressing annually with aged compost or manure to feed fruit development.
While not required, these tips can shave off a year or two from the typical wait for the first apple harvest.
Be Patient – Fruiting Comes with Maturity
While most apple trees start producing some fruit within 4-8 years, the quality and quantity of the harvest continues improving as trees reach maturity. An 8 year old semi-dwarf may only bear a handful of apples, while a 20 year old tree yields bushels.
The old adage “good things come to those who wait” certainly applies to apple trees. Expect some fruit in years 2-4 from dwarfs, 4-6 from semi-dwarfs, and 5-8 from standards. But the longer you wait, the better the reward!
So while you may get a few edible apples within a couple years, it takes closer to a decade for trees to hit their peak production stride. Fortunately, apple trees can live and fruit for 100+ years with proper care!
Growing fruit trees requires patience, but in return you’ll be rewarded with an abundance of flavorful homegrown apples. With realistic expectations on timing, you can look forward to many seasons of prolific harvests to come.
Choose a Growing Site
Plant in moist, well-drained soil, in an area that gets full sun.
Before you buy a tree, you will need to assess your growing site. Do you have enough space and the right conditions to grow apple trees? Check out this list and see if you can meet these basic requirements:
- Sun—full sun, at least eight hours of direct sunlight every day
- Soil – Moist and well-drained, rich in organic matter
- Soil pH – Ideally between 6. 0 and 6. 5, but anywhere between 5. 5 and 7. 0 is okay.
- Fair air flow—Good air flow lowers the chance of fungus growth
- Weed-free: Don’t let weeds grow around your trees’ bases.
Choosing the right variety will vary depending on how you want to use them.
You can start the fun part once you’re sure you have enough room for a couple of trees and the right conditions to grow apples.
There are too many apple varieties to list here. There are also countless ways to judge an apple and many are entirely subjective. But the following list will give you some ideas.
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- Dwarf varieties tend to produce fruits sooner than standard varieties
Depending on what you want to do with your apples, you can also look for types that make good pies (Rome), taste great when eaten fresh (Honeycrisp), make great cider (Jonathan), make the best sauce (Crispin), or have pretty pink flowers (Whitney Crabapple).
There are a lot of qualities to choose from when picking which apple varieties to grow. You can decide for yourself which ones are the most important.
Since most apple trees need to be cross-pollinated, it is recommended to plant at least two different varieties.
You don’t have to plant a whole orchard of trees to get good apples, but most apple trees need to be pollinated by other trees before they can bear fruit. So if you want to grow apples, you will need at least two trees.
For pollination, it doesn’t matter which two varieties you pick as long as you pick at least two different ones. One of them can even be a crabapple.
There are several ways to purchase an apple tree to plant in your garden. You can start them as early as from seed, which is the cheapest way to do it but usually takes the most work and doesn’t guarantee results.
Getting a nursery start, bare root tree, or potted tree is usually the fastest and most successful way to grow an apple tree. These are a little older and the brunt of the work has been done for you by professionals.
You can grow an apple tree from seeds, but you won’t be sure of the apple variety.
What happens when you plant an apple seed? If you buy any kind of apple at the store, you’ll see that it has seeds in it. You can plant a few of these seeds and they will probably sprout.
You won’t know what kind of apple you are growing with this method, though, because the seeds in the apples you buy will be genetically different from the fruits they came from.
You can select a tree at a nursery where they are usually grown for the first two years.
If you truly want an apple tree to grow your own fruits, start with nursery stock. Nurseries sell plants that have been propagated by grafting. Grafted plants will have a hardy rootstock base grafted to a specific variety of branching stems.
This lets the nursery sell plants whose genetic origin is known. This way, you’ll know exactly what kind of apple you’re planting, how big the tree will get, and what it needs to grow.
Trees spend their first two years, before they are sold to you, at a nursery. This is where they are grown, grafted, and cared for until they are ready to be sold. These first two years are all about getting a healthy tree started.
Tips for Selecting and Buying the Right Tree
- Buy a healthy plant.
- Buy a plant well-suited for your area.
- You should buy a plant that fits the space you have.
- Buy a tree when you are ready to plant it.
- Most apple trees need cross-pollination, so buy two trees.
When buying a bare-rooted apple tree, plant it as soon as possible.
If you buy from a reputable online nursery, you will probably be sent a bare-root tree. These trees are generally 1 to 2 years old at the time of purchase. Since you are ordering online, you won’t be able to see the actual plants before they arrive. Just be sure to choose the best trees for your location and your personal needs.
A good online nursery will send you healthy trees at the best time to plant them, so you can put them in the ground right away. Plant your new bare root trees promptly.
You can determine how old the tree is by its pot size.
Most likely, if you go to a local garden center, you will buy a tree that is already grown in a pot. Pot size is generally a good indication of how old the tree is.
A tree purchased in a 1-gallon pot is probably 2 to 3 years old. A tree is a 3-gallon pot is typically 3 to 4 years old. And if you purchase a 5-gallon potted apple tree, it may be between 4 and 5 years old.
Preparing to Grow an Apple Tree
Growing apple trees takes a lot of effort. Even before you have your apple tree in hand, it is important to prepare a few things. Start by finding out a little more about the region you are in.
Now you need to learn about the different kinds of apple trees so you can choose the two that will do best in your garden and produce the best fruit, pies, cider, etc. ). Only then will you be ready to make your apple tree purchase!.
There are a few numbers to become acquainted with before you begin your apple-growing adventure. First, you need to know your home’s hardiness zone to know what kind of growing conditions your trees will have. The number of chill hours is also important for the health and prosperity of your apple trees.
Choose a variety that grows well in your hardiness zone.
Before you bring home an apple tree, you’ll need to know your hardiness zone. USDA Hardiness Zones define a range of climate zones based on the average annual minimum temperature.
Plant growers rely on knowing their zone so they can choose the best plants to grow. After figuring out your zone, choose a few apple varieties that do well in your area’s weather.
There are climate zones 3 through 9 where apples can be grown, but not all trees do well in all zones. If you live in zones 3 or 4, you will need to pick an apple variety that can handle the cold.
If you live in zones 8 or 9, you will need to find apple varieties that can handle more heat.
Apple trees require 700 to 1500 chill hours to fruit successfully.
Another important number to understand is chill hours. Fruit trees typically require a certain number of chill hours to develop fruit successfully. A chill hour is typically defined as one hour under 45°F.
To break out of winter dormancy, fruit trees need chill hours. Flowers need chill hours to open properly in the spring. Flower buds don’t open evenly or at all if they don’t get enough chill hours. They may also open too early or too late in the season. If the tree does not receive the expected number of chill hours, it will have problems with fruiting.
Apple trees require anywhere from 700 to 1,500 chill hours to set fruit. This number depends on the apple variety. In general, if you grow an apple tree in the range that it was meant to be grown in, your climate will naturally give it the right number of chill hours.
But sometimes your tree will come out of dormancy too early or too late, which will throw off the fruiting cycle.
It can be a little complicated to find your local area’s average number of chill hours, but talking with your local agricultural extension agent can be helpful or using an online chill hours calculator. Some nurseries and fruit tree growers can also help guide you toward plants that are best suited for your particular region.
How Long Does It Take For An Apple Tree To Bear Fruit
FAQ
Do I need 2 apple trees to get fruit?
What tree takes 100 years to produce fruit?
How long do apple trees take to produce fruit?
What is the fastest growing fruit tree?
How long does it take an apple tree to bear fruit?
Two varieties are required for successful pollination; one can be a crabapple. Dwarf apple trees will start bearing fruit 2 to 3 years after planting. Standard size trees can take up to 8 years to bear fruit. Some varieties are more susceptible to insect and disease damage than others. Prune annually to keep apple trees healthy and productive.
When do apple trees bear fruit?
Bearing tree: During the fourth and fifth years, your apple tree will begin to bear fruit. The amount of fruit your tree produces will vary depending on the variety of apple tree and the conditions in which it is growing. Mature tree: After five years, your apple tree will be considered a mature tree.
How long does it take apple trees to grow?
A standard-sized tree may take between 5 and 10 years to start fruiting. A home gardener will most likely want a smaller tree, so you can expect to begin enjoying fruits within a few years after planting. Weaker apple fruits drop naturally, but you can thin out the fruits by manually thinning excess fruits.
How often do apple trees bear fruit?
While some apple plants bear fruit once every year, other varieties may fruit every two years. This pattern can be expected even from the healthiest trees as pollination plays a big part in their ability to produce fruit.
