Special Garden and Orchard Thread - Apples!

Special edition today - APPLES! From LEX

I have always disfavored the saying “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” I find (usually) writers and artists employ this platitude to excuse a story or piece of work that is not too well thought out.
Our stories need catharsis (so said Aristotle), and if your conclusion is weak, it’s tempting to deflect by offering… “don’t you see, it’s about the journey?”

But certainly there are other aspects of life where the journey is –if not the point— as acceptable as the destination. Do I need to reach the summit of a mountain to enjoy a hike?

Might it be the same with gardening? Do we need the fruit or the flower to experience a sense of satisfaction? Perhaps the process can bring as much joy as the terminus.

I’m not trying to run interference for failure. In fact, last year, I posted on AoS about my ongoing battle with birds, which had, for years, poached my annual blueberry crop. That essay was titled “The Great Blueberry Bush Battle.”

A quick recap: the blueberry bushes at my house have, for the last ten seasons, yielded copious and healthy fruit. The only problem became preventing birds from stealing the berries, which happened until 2025 when I discovered thule netting (Photo 2; date taken 8-2-26) This style of mesh net acts like a Ziploc bag, encasing the bush in a net that no bird can penetrate.
So, after failing for a number of years to defeat avian pests, I found my game changer in 2025, and 2026 has been just as successful.
“The Great Blueberry Bush Battle” has been a fun journey, but it was always the goal to get good fruit. I did that, and boy has the catharsis flowed.

A quick recap: the blueberry bushes at my house (Photo 1; date taken 7-3-25), have, for the last ten seasons, yielded copious and healthy fruit. The only problem became preventing birds from stealing the berries, which happened until 2025 when I discovered thule netting. This style of mesh net acts like a Ziploc bag, encasing the bush in a net that no bird can penetrate.
So, after failing for a number of years to defeat avian pests, I found my game changer in 2025, and 2026 has been just as successful.

“The Great Blueberry Bush Battle” has been a fun journey, but it was always the goal to get good fruit. I did that, and boy has the catharsis flowed.
Unfortunately, the scrum with nature when it comes to my Empire apple trees has mostly gone against me. Unlike blueberries, there seem to be more factors that can affect a good apple crop. Rough winters, spring conditions, disease, and other unknowns that are out of my hands make getting good apples anyone’s guess.

I am certain I could do better if I put in orchard-level effort or used industrial-strength sprays, but that would entail hiring someone and I want this project all to myself. So, despite my instincts not to fall back on “it’s about the journey,” I’ve begun to lean into the phrase.
But should I?

***

To help you opine, allow me to provide the history of the trees. The blueberry bushes were planted when I bought and redid this house in 2009-2010.

In the photo, you can see where the blueberry bushes will be planted—just in front of the pylons that will eventually become the porch. If you look to the right of Bobcat machine, you will see a line of trees.

These remained on the property until 2012. After their removal, the apple trees were planted in their stead.

I wish I had done more time lapse photography, but by 2014 the trees were established enough to produce a glorious year of fruit .

As you can see, there was enough fruit to fill shopping bags, and I employed my sons to transport the cargo from field to table in their toy car (Photo 6; date taken 9-20-14). The fruit was not just ornamental that year; it was largely unblemished and certainly edible.

In the succeeding years, there was little bounty. The trees grew and did produce fruit each season, but the apples were always spotted or bruised, and by harvest time the toy car was not needed.

I didn’t do much to tend them until— because of Covid fascists—I had to hang around the house in the summer of 2020. I began to take more interest in my fruit trees at this time, but taking an interest and producing a satisfying result did not go hand in glove.

It had been fairly common for the tree to blossom in May, which always portended fruit, but often, as mentioned, the apples would never survive in any kind of healthy way.

For better results, I consulted landscape architects, my lawn and garden service team, the internet of course, and neighbors who also have fruit trees. Naturally, I received a lot of advice. Neem oil to ward off insects. Other sprays to combat disease. Reflective tape to deter birds. Trimming in winter months only. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.

Then, in the summer of 2023, something amazing occurred. I did nothing special to prepare for this year, but the trees produced more fruit than I could imagine. The limbs were so heavy with apples I had to tie up splitting branches. I estimate each tree produced 1,000 apples.

Plenty of them were poached by animals or blemished, but there was so much that even a ten percent haul meant 200 edible apples. The toy car was long gone, but it would not have been able to handle the payload.

***

To my consternation, there has been bupkis since 2023. In 2024, the trees didn’t even blossom and not one apple formed. In 2025 and 2026, there were small blossoms, and a few apples began to take shape, but by mid-summer there was nothing at all for the plucking.

The trees themselves have continued to grow and always appear healthy, but bearing fruit like those two great years (2014 and 2023) seems an impossibility now.

In the succeeding years, there was little bounty. The trees grew and did produce fruit each season, but the apples were always spotted or bruised, and by harvest time the toy car was not needed.

The trees themselves have continued to grow and always appear healthy, but bearing fruit like those two great years (2014 and 2023) seems an impossibility now.

My own very non-scientific theory is the trees have become too big. They were much larger in 2023 than in 2014, so that may disprove my theory, but it’s hard to gainsay they are probably twice as big as when planted. That is, there is too much wood. The branches shoot to the sky and criss-cross each other at every chance. I have trimmed each year, but they grow back quickly.

But now that this season is effectively over, I’m going to get much more aggressive with trimming and thinning than I have before. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks taking out branches, and the results are much more ‘airy’ trees.

Experts will probably say this is a mistake, that I should wait until winter (if you call Chat GPT an expert), but like the cop who goes on a hunch rather than by the book, I’m not sitting on my hands until next February.

Whatever the result in 2027, perhaps the point of these apple trees is not the fruit they can produce but the stories they engender. The neem oil, the toy car, wobbling precariously on ladders during trims. And on…
Even so, it would be nice to munch on an unblemished, crispy apples that come from my trees. Check in with me the next season, and I’ll tell you where I stand on journeys and destinations.

Thanks, LEX! What a project! You have kept good records, too.

Time for discussion!

Do you grow apples? Do you want to? How about pears?

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Sep 5

I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 02:12 PM

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