First Full Size Granny

First full size Granny Smith apple from our tree.

cut and shared.

We have two Pinkerbelle apples and one Granny Smith.  Before I bought them I was told 'you can't grow apples here' and to basically not bother.  I figured our garden doesn't play by the rules usually, so maybe this could work and decided to give it a crack.  This time, it worked.  We must also have gotten enough 'frost days' to enable the apple trees to do their thing.  Interestingly only one of the two pinkerbelles fruited (both had flowers).  I chose the varieties with the most minimal frost requirements (5-6 days below a certain temp) so the variety itself is certainly a factor in the success or not.  I don't attribute much of the success to me, more to the garden and the magic stuff that nature does!

I've also started a list, divided up into the 'year' and then within each year, the months, so I can see what was at harvest stage in terms of the fruit trees, each month.  Because some of our trees don't fruit when the label says they do, I want to know for sure where our 'gaps' are in the months, when we don't have fruit available, so I can try and fill those gaps.

As well as the usual suspects (heat, position, water, light/shade etc) influencing when the fruit trees flower, I've also by accident worked out I can manipulate the flowering as well.  By chance, one of the oranges flowered and all the flowers fell off.  I then fed the tree quite heavily (by chance, was just the time I was doing it in the yard generally) and in a month or so a new flush of flowers.  Which meant the 'fruiting' as in harvest possibility, was delayed by a month at minimum.  So now instead of all the citrus being looking like they will be ready to pick at the same time, I have one plant that's about 2mths behind and another that's closer to three months behind, which spreads the citrus harvest.  So another thought to consider.  Onward and upward for the fruit trees!  Put it this way, they didn't produce much this year or the last few, but in the next few years they will definitely produce more than if they weren't planted in the ground at all.