Apples

There was a dead pine tree in front of Morton Building #1.  It was one of our live Christmas trees.  It struggled for years and then gave up last summer.  It was time to do something about it.

So I suggested to Mike that we plant a fruit tree there instead.  This way we would get rid of the dead tree and meet one of our long term goals.  We had talked on and off about having fruit trees.

So we went to Buchheit's where Mike had seen some on sale.  All I knew was that I wanted a dwarf tree.  We looked at all the ones they had there and picked out a yellow delicious full size tree.  When we got home, Mike removed the old tree and planted the new one.  Once we finished I went to remove the tree tag and discovered my error.

We did not buy the yellow delicious.  We bought a Mutsu, semi-dwarf tree.  I was happy to have a smaller tree but the tag said that a pollinator is required for the mutsu, which by the way is suppose to produce a very tasty apple.  So I went on Google.  Technically this tree is a triploid variety and requires two pollinators nearby which must be of different varieties and able to cross pollinate each other as well as the Mutsu or Crispin apple.  So after more research on the Internet, Mike and I headed back to Buccheits to buy two more apple trees that are different from each other and not a Mutsu.  

At this point I was very confused and had looked at two excel spreadsheets to decided which trees would pollinate which.  The only rule of thumb was that two of the same trees would not pollinate each other and that you should try to spread out the harvest time.  I think we bought a semi dwarf Mollie Delicious that produces a red apple in spring and a yellow delicious apple full size tree that produces in the fall.  After reading that the Mutsu doesn't produce for 6 to 10 years I gave up worrying about getting this right.  

The trees have to be within 50 to 100 feet of each other depending on their size or there will be no pollinating.  They also should be 30 feet from the nearest building.  While I was trying to figure out how to achieve all this Mike suggested that we just plant them in a line along the new road to Morton Building #2.  

Mutsu apple in foreground.  Yellow Delicious apple tree circled.
Further behind it in a straight line from the other two trees would be the Mollie Delicious.  

A close up of the Mollie Delicious tree.
The other new trees would be on the left of this one.  

I am not sure these trees are actually spaced correctly but with my not so green thumb the chances of them surviving to actually do any pollinating is in question anyway.  In the meantime, they look nice.  And thank goodness they were on sale.