Many gardeners dream of growing their own juicy apples. However, growing fruit takes long-term commitment—from pruning apple trees for good form to pest control—for success. Here’s our expert advice on planting, growing, and harvesting apples.

Apples trees aren’t just for people with acres upon acres of land. Even in a small space, you can plant a hedge of dwarf apple trees or an apple espalier and yield a successful crop. Spring planting is recommended in central and northern areas. Fall planting can also be successful but only in areas where autumn and winter weather is generally more mild and moist.

Where Do Apples Grow?

However, climate considerations are very important for growing apples. As a general rule, if a tree is termed hardy, it grows best in Hardiness Zones 3 to 5. If termed long-season, apple quality will be best in Zones 5 to 8. Check your zone here.

Tree tags don’t always tell you where the variety grows best, but many catalogs do. Also check with your local Cooperative Extension Service for a recommendation specific to your area. Each variety has a number of chill hours needed to set fruit (i.e., the amount of time temperatures are between 32 and 45 degrees F). The farther north you go, the more chill hours an apple variety needs to avoid late spring freeze problems. Check tree tags for chill hour information or ask the seller.

Apples Need Pest Control

Also, it’s important to recognize that there are many diseases and fruit pests that attack apples so it’s rare for this fruit to be grown without any type of pesticides. Growing apples organically is much more difficult in the East coast than the West due to incidence of fungal diseases and types of pests that aren’t even present in the West. It will take much research and persistance to grow apples is you wish to avoid any type of spraying program.

Apple Trees Need Friends

Most apples need pollen from another apple tree to produce fruit. This is called cross-pollination. This second tree must be a different cultivar but also one that will flower at the same time. The presence of bees will be very important; poor pollination can reduce the number of fruit and cause misshapen fruit; some orchards rent or maintain bee hives for good pollination. Overusing broad-spectrium insecticides can reduce the number of bees.