Introduction to Apple
Apple, the name of an edible fruit and the tree that bears it. The apple tree belongs to the rose family and is related to plum, peach, and pear trees. Apples are the most widely grown fruit of the temperate zones. Native to central Asia, the apple tree has been cultivated in the Old World for at least 4,000 years. Apples were brought to the North American colonies by the early settlers, and by the mid-18th century many orchards had been established.
Apples are native to Central Asia.Apple trees have bushy, rounded crowns and sturdy, sometimes gnarled trunks and branches. Some trees reach 50 feet (15 m) in height, but 25 to 30 feet (8 to 9 m) is more common. Smaller trees, produced by grafting standard trees onto dwarf rootstocks, are becoming increasingly common because they are easier to care for and make picking easier.
The pink or white flowers and the leaves are borne together at the end of a short twig. The wood is hard and strong with a uniform, close grain. It is often used for making knobs, tool handles, pipes, rulers, and canes. The fruit is fleshy with a tough skin, and ranges in color from greenish-yellow to red. Apples are usually two to three inches (5 to 7.5 cm) in diameter and have pinkish-white or yellowish-white flesh.
Uses of Apples
Although they have a limited nutritive value, apples are widely used as food. The are composed mostly of water, but they also contain fruit sugars, some vitamin A and C, and small amounts of minerals. Most apples in the United States are either canned, usually in the form of applesauce, or eaten fresh. Applesauce, which is usually eaten as a relish or dessert, is prepared by cooking apples with sugar and water. Apples are also canned after they have been sliced. These sliced apples are used in baked goods, such as pies. Some apples are dried, frozen, or made into specialty products such as "apple butter" (a spread prepared by stewing apples in cider, sugar, and spices).
Apples are also crushed for their juice. The juice is marketed fresh as apple juice or sweet cider, or is allowed to ferment and become hard cider or vinegar. Unfermented apple juice is sold canned, bottled, or frozen. It is sometimes blended with other fruit juices and is used to make apple jelly. Applejack is a liquor distilled from hard cider.
Kinds of Apples
There are more than 6,500 varieties of apples, all derived from the original Asian species. Only about 50 varieties, however, are economically important. Summer, fall, and winter varieties are cultivated. The fall and winter varieties make up the largest part of the total production in the United States.
The leading winter varieties are Red Delicious, McIntosh, Winesap, Rome Beauty, and Golden Delicious. Other popular winter apples are Stayman, Cortland, Baldwin, York Imperial, Rhode Island Greening, and Yorktown Pippin. The leading fall varieties are Jonathan, Wealthy, Grimes Golden, and Northern Spy. Summer varieties include Gravenstein, Early Harvest, and Yellow Transparent.
Growing of Apples
Apple trees tolerate a moderately wide range of temperatures and types of soil. The trees are deciduous (shed their leaves) and must have enough cold weather to provide a dormant season to promote fruit bud development. Most of the world's apples come from temperate regions having average rainfall or supplemental irrigation. A slightly lime soil increases the yield.
Trees in an orchard are planted 8 to 30 feet (2.4 to 9 m) apart, depending on the size of the tree at maturity. Orchards are usually on elevated ground so that excess water and cold air can drain off. Because cold air is heavy, it will flow downward and thereby help free the orchard from late and early frosts.
Apple trees can be propagated by seeds, but the varieties do not breed true by this method. Once a desirable variety has been discovered, it is perpetuated by grafting or budding. Apple trees first bear fruit when they are 4 to 6 years old, depending on variety, and continue to bear fruit as long as they live. Some trees have lived for more than 100 years, but most orchard trees are replaced at 30 to 40 years.
Ideally, apples are harvested just before they become fully ripe. They are usually picked by hand and packed in boxes. The apples that are not sent directly to market or a processing plant are kept in cold storage.
Apple-growing Regions
Because apple trees require a dormant season, they are cultivated farther north than most other common fruit trees. Apples are raised in most parts of Europe, in northern India, and in China, Japan, Argentina, Australia, Turkey, Canada, and the United States. They are grown for home use in nearly all states of the United States, and commercially in more than 35 states.
The largest apple-producing region in the United States runs from Lake Michigan east to the Atlantic coast and northeast to Nova Scotia. Other important regions include the foothills of Virginia and North Carolina and the mountain valleys of nearby states, the Ohio Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
Crop Damage
Among the most destructive enemies of the apple orchard are the codling moth, various species of mites, the woolly aphid, the apple maggot, the red-banded leaf roller, and scale insects. Field mice, which nibble on the tree's bark, are also destructive. Bacteria cause diseases, such as fireblight. The fungus growths that cause apple rust, apple scab, and mildew are also very damaging.
Various pesticides are used to control crop damage. Disease-resistant varieties of trees have been developed.
The Asian apple from which all common apple varieties are derived is Malus pumila of the rose family, Rosaceae.