The Star: March 09, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday March 9 2017 33
An apple a day
Rachel Vogan says apples are easy to grow and
wonderful to eat – so why not grow your own?
REFERRED TO as the
world’s most popular fruit,
apples are one of the easiest
crops to grow.
They are often classified
as eating or dessert/
cooking apples. If room
isn’t an issue try to plant a
range of apples that mature
at different times, so you
can have a long harvest
period.
POLLINATION
Apples are pollinated by
bees, which move around
apple and crab apple
trees (which are useful
pollinators for apple trees
due to their abundance of
pollen and long flowering
period). If you only have
room for one, make sure
it’s self-fertile, or if your
neighbour has a tree or
two, the bees will move
from garden to garden to
aid in fertilisation.
MAINTENANCE
Young apple trees need
little pruning other than
to train to shape until
the plants have multiple
branches or when they
are starting to take up too
much space. Prune to aid
air and light movement
once established after
harvesting in winter.
Fertilise in spring with
a general-purpose fruit
fertiliser; avoid anything
that is exceptionally high in
nitrogen.
MULTI-GRAFTED
VARIETIES
The expert
horticulturalists, who grow
the trees, graft the apple
variety onto a vigorous
rootstock. These rootstocks
cope with a variety of
soil types and govern the
READY TO PICK: The flavour of home-grown is
best.
eventual height of the
tree. Grafting is nothing
new, it has been done for
centuries, and it allows
for more than one variety
to be grafted onto each
rootstock. Multi-grafted
apple trees are popular
and readily available; some
even come in triple grafts,
ie three varieties of apple
on one tree.
ONES TO TRY
The list of apple trees
available is fairly long, with
well over 100 different
varieties from new hybrids
through to those which
came out with the first
settlers. Here are a few
favourites:
• ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Red
Delicious’ both produce
large, smooth-skinned
fruit.
• ‘Braeburn’, ‘Gala’,
‘Monty’s Surprise’ and
‘Fuji’ are all reliable, tasty,
flavoursome, crunchy
fruit with good red
colours and tones.
• ‘Granny Smith’,
‘Bramley’s Seedling’ and
‘Baujade’ are all green
cooking-apple types.
• Big is better? ‘Peasgood
Nonsuch’ offers monstersized
fruit.
• Low-maintenance and
tasty varieties include
‘Initial’, ‘Adore’, ‘Ariane’
and ‘Divine’, which all
produce wonderful
apples, and what is even
better is that they are
disease resistant and do
not need spraying.
WHAT YOU NEED TO
KNOW
• Full sun is mandatory.
• For clay-based and heavy
soils, work in grit and
gypsum before planting
to help drain the soil, or
build the site up so water
will not pool around the
base of the trees.
• In light, loose, even
sandy soils, be generous
and load up with
compost and well-rotted
manure. This must be
worked through the soil
to ensure the roots have
something solid to latch
on to.
WHITE LIMESTONE
CHIP (WAIPAPA)
We have stock of 30mm, 20mm,
15mm, 10mm, AP10.
Christchurch’s largest supplier of
Waipapa Limestone Chip.
Landscape Lane
(off Lunns Rd)
P. 348 2915
OPEN 7 DAYS
Remember... we are
NOT in Parkhouse Road
NO GREEN WASTE IN ANY OF OUR COMPOST