About Apples

The modern sweet and cider apples that are found in grocery stores today are not native to the North American continent. When European settlers arrived in the America's they brought cuttings of apple branches as well as seeds to start the first apple orchards. Native American apples were considered "crab" apples or small bitter apples that are not often used for human consumption. Other sweet and cider apple varieties were created by crossbreeding these early apple varieties.

Apples start producing leaves and blossoms in late spring after waking up from their long winter dormancy. In some parts of the state, apple trees start to blossom in mid-May with other regions seeing blossoms in the following month. Late frosts in spring can damage or kill an apple blossom affecting the harvest for that year. As apple trees bloom, pollinators feed on the pollen produced by the blossoms. The different pollinators attracted to the blossoms spread pollen from one blossom to another. This spreading of pollen causes the flowers to become fertilized which begins the process of fruit development.

Once fertilized, apples mature throughout the summer adding size and sugar until they are ready for harvest in late summer. Harvest for some apple varieties begins in late August with other verities maturing throughout the fall and even into early winter. Most apples are picked by hand, but more and more producers are relying on technology and mechanical harvesters to help harvest their fruit.

Most apples need to be cross pollinated to bear fruit and reproduce. Cross pollination is when pollen from one tree fertilizes a flower from a different tree. Cross pollination gives apple seeds very diverse genetics compared to the tree it came from.

Cloning

The apple blossoms that are pollinated in the spring will eventually become the apple fruit which is harvested in late summer and through the fall. If an apple tree is grown from a seed and not cloned, the new tree will produce fruit which is different than its parent tree due to cross pollination during the spring pollination period. The process of using genetically dense tissue from an organism, apple branches and apple buds, to make a copy of that organism is called cloning. To ensure that trees produce the type of apple desired by the orchardists, person who supervises or owns and orchard, can use two different cloning processes: grafting and rooting.

In branch grafting, an orchardist cuts branches from one tree and attaches it to another tree or tree roots. First, a desired branch from an apple tree, which is to be cloned, is located and cut off with an angular cut. Next, a matching angular cut is made on a branch or trunk of a host tree. Finally, the two cut ends are placed together and wrapped with a special kind of parafilm tape until they heal together.

Another method of grafting with branches is to coppice a growing tree or cut off a top portion of the trunk or branch. Slits are then made between the wood and bark and cuttings from another tree are cut at an angle and inserted between the bark and wood. The area is then wrapped with parafilm tape until it heals. With both grafting techniques, the apple variety from the desired tree will be produced on the host tree from the point where the cut branch was attached to the host tree.

The second type of grafting is called bud grafting. To make a bud graft, a bud is removed from a desired apple tree and attached to a host tree. The first step of bud grafting is to cut the developing bud from a desired tree. An X pattern is cut into the bark of the root stock or host tree which will receive the bud graft. The bud is inserted under the bark of the tree and wrapped with parafilm tape.

In both grafting methods, over time the cut ends heal, and the cutting and host tree grows as one plant.

Harvesting

Most apples that will be used for eating whole are handpicked. During the harvesting season, orchards employee groups of workers who work through the orchards to pick the mature fruit. Depending on the type and size of mature trees, workers can pick from the ground or need ladders and lifts to reach fruit higher in the tree.

Once picked, the fruit is dropped into a picking bag which is strapped over the workers shoulders and hangs in front of the worker. The bag can weight 40-50 lbs. once full. The full bags are then dumped into large wood bins and moved out of the orchards by tractors and trucks. A full bin holds about 20 bushels of apples. A single bushel of apples is on average 120-130 medium size apples.

Some orchards offer "U-Pick" experiences. In a u-pick orchard, the public is allowed to pick their own apples directly from the tree. This allows customers to enjoy the tradition of apple picking and participate with nature during the fall harvesting season. Many orchards have developed agrotourism experiences around these types of orchards with added attractions such as hayrides, cider pressing, farm stores, and donut shops.

Apples that are destined to be processed for juice are often harvested by machine. Machine harvesters wrap a deck around the tree and then shake the main trunk with a hydraulic arm. The shaken tree drops its fruit onto the deck and the fruit moves along a conveyor belt into large wooden bins. The bins are then moved out of the orchard by tractors and place on trucks to be moved to the processing plant.

Storage

Once an apple is picked, the fruit will stay fresh for a couple of weeks if not stored in a cold dry place. Apples that are stored in a cool place can stay fresh for months. To be apple to provide fruit year around, apple producers have developed unique methods for storing their fruit.

After being picked and placed in crates, apples that will be stored long term are moved to a large storage facility. These facilities have large, refrigerated rooms where many bins are stacked to fill the room. Once the room is filled, oxygen is pumped out of the room and is replaced by nitrogen gas. The removal of oxygen stops the apple from going through the process called enzymic browning which is part of the fruit decomposing. By long-term storing of the fruit, NY apple producers can assure that you are able to enjoy a fresh apple, cider, or juice all year.

Trip to the Orchard

Take a virtual field trip to LynOaken Farms, a real NY apple orchard to learn how NY apples are harvested, stored, and packaged to be shipped across the Empire State.

Fun Facts

• According to Dr. Susan Brown of Cornell University, a professor and lead scientist focused on apple breeding, quality, and apple disease prevention, there have been over 68 unique apple strands developed by Cornell researchers since the early 1900s and many more that have been identified as being unique to New York. Many of these unique apples have been developed over time by trees naturally breeding at forgotten overgrown old orchards or homestead sites.
• New York State is the second largest producer of apples in the US with a production of nearly 25 million bushels of apples a year.
• There are six major growing regions for apples in New York State.
• Cornell University in Ithaca, NY is one of the major apple research organizations in the world.
• A company in Syracuse has designed drones for pollinating fruit trees.

Sources

• https://www.applesfromny.com/
• https://cals.cornell.edu/cornell-agritech/products-we-research
• https://blogs.cornell.edu/treefruit/production/
• https://apples.extension.org/
• http://www.hort.cornell.edu/brown/pdfs/newfruitimpact.pdf