Tips for Growing Bonsai Apple Trees

A close up horizontal image of an apple tree with three developing fruits trained to grow as a bonsai in a blue ceramic pot.

Apple bonsai are dramatic, striking trees in a small package. They produce full-sized fruits on a teeny-tiny tree. Oue guide explains how to grow your own bonsai apple trees, from selecting a specimen to potting, pruning, and shaping them for the most impact. We’ll also help you manage problems that might pop up.

How to Identify and Control Apple Maggots

A close up horizontal image of a ripe green apple infested with maggots.

Apple maggots are the larvae of small flies that lay their eggs in orchard fruits, especially apples, quickly turning the ripening fruits inedible. To catch these pests before they ruin your pie dreams, learn everything you need to know about apple maggots – including a variety of control options – in this guide.

How to Protect Apple Trees in the Winter

A close up horizontal image of an apple tree with ripe fruit covered in a light dusting of snow pictured in bright sunshine on a blue sky background.

Are you growing any apple trees in your yard? If they’re less than ten years old, they can be highly susceptible to several winter maladies: sunscald, pest infestation, and the ravages of other types of hungry critters. Find out how to keep your apple trees warm, safe, and happy during the winter. Read more now.

How to Prevent Soggy Breakdown Disorder in Apples

Oblique view of Honeycrisp apples that have been sliced open to show soggy breakdown disorder.

Soggy breakdown disorder is a particular problem in Honeycrisp apples, and the fruit can be hiding this issue even though it looks fine on the outside. Read more now to learn how to prevent soggy breakdown in your homegrown harvest by conditioning the fruit before storing it at the proper temperature.

How to Identify, Treat, and Prevent Common Apple Diseases

A close up horizontal image of apples growing in the garden suffering from disease pictured on a soft focus background.

Growers typically plant resistant apple varieties to control the major pathogens in their region. What can home gardeners do to prevent the occurrence of diseases on their apple trees? Read more to discover prevention techniques, learn ways to identify common diseases of apples, and implement control methods.

How to Store Your Apple Harvest

A close up horizontal image of a wooden crate containing freshly harvested apples for long term fresh storage surrounded by straw, pictured on a soft focus background.

If you find yourself with a bumper crop of apples, you’ll likely want to put some of your harvest up for winter storage, either fresh or as preserves. The fresh fruits will keep their delicious flavors and perfect textures for months when stored in the best conditions. Learn how to store your apple harvest in this guide.

When and How to Harvest Apples

If you’re growing apples in your orchard, you’ll harvest the best quality fruit if you know how to judge the maturity of your crop. There are a number of factors that will help you estimate when your apples will be ripe for picking. Learn when and how to harvest your apples in this guide. Read more now.

How to Prevent Armillaria Root Rot on Apple Trees

A close up of a dead stump with lots of light brown mushrooms growing on and around it with fall leaves and forest in soft focus in the background.

Armillaria root rot is a serious fungal infection that attacks many different plants. This fungus can devastate apples and most other kinds of fruit trees. Resistant to fungicide treatments, it is difficult to control. Learn what makes this pathogen so hard to control and how to prevent infection in your apple trees.

How to Identify and Prevent Apple Cork Spot

An apple hanging from a tree with signs of cork spot.

If your apples have green dimples on them, they do not have a fungal disorder. Your fruit lack calcium and have apple cork spot. You can prevent this from happening in the future by liming your soil or spraying your trees with calcium. Read on to find out how to diagnose and prevent this physiological disorder.

How to Identify and Prevent Southern Blight on Apple Trees

Since southern blight can infect hundreds of plants and live in the soil for years, it is a severe threat to apple and crabapple trees. Especially if you live in the south, learn how to prevent this disease and keep it at bay with rigorous sanitation.

How to Identify and Control Apple Black Rot and Frogeye Leaf Spot

An apple leaf with frogeye leaf spots. Close up.

The complex of apple black rot cankers, black rot on fruit, and frogeye leaf spot can cause serious losses on apples and crabapples. However, you can minimize the damage by removing dead tissue and mummified fruit. Read on to learn the details of controlling these diseases.

How to Identify and Prevent Crown Gall on Apple

A large crown gall growing on the trunk of residential apple tree.

Crown gall bacteria can infect apples, crabapples, peaches, pears, nectarines, apricots, and plums throughout the world – causing unsightly growths that can girdle the trees and kill them. Read on to find out how to prevent this soil-borne disease from attacking your fruit trees.

How to Identify and Control Bot Rot on Apple Trees

Three apples in various stages of rot from Botryosphaeria dothidea.

Bot rot (white rot) can result in cankers on the limbs and twigs and fruit rot that may not show until your apples or crabapples rot after storage. Fortunately, this fungus only infects trees that are stressed. Read on to learn how to prevent infections from occurring.

How to Identify, Prevent, and Control Cedar Apple Rust

Cedar apple rust fungus on a juniper tree.

Although cedar apple rust won’t kill the junipers or apples and crabapples it infects, it can surely debilitate them. What can you do if you are faced with this complex disease? Read more now on Gardener’s Path to discover how to identify and learn how to control cedar apple rust on either of its hosts.

How to Prevent and Control Powdery Mildew on Apple Trees

An apple tree branch complete coated in a Podosphaera leucotricha fungal infection showing the characteristic white powder-like coating on the leaves.

Do you have a white powdery coating on the leaves of your apple trees? Are trying to figure out what it might be? It’s likely powdery mildew and it needs to be managed. This disease is found in every region of the world that grows apples and damages leaves, limbs, fruit, and may even make an apple harvest impossible. Read on to learn how to recognize this pernicious disease and how to treat it.

19 Apple Tree Varieties That’ll Knock Your Socks Off

Closeup of apple tree branches covered with red fruit and green leaves, against a white sky.

Selecting the best apple tree varieties can be disappointing and fruitless (pun intended) if you don’t pick the right trees. Cold hardiness, flowering groups, and chill hours can be overwhelming, and don’t get me started on the trouble with triploids. Read more to learn about picking the right ones for your yard.

Growing Apple Trees: A Fruitful Primer

A person is picking a perfectly ripe, bright red apple from a tree branch that is supporting many of the delicious fruits.

There’s an old saying that society grows great when people plant trees they’ll never enjoy the shade of. That’s a fine sentiment, but why not enjoy the fruits of our labor along the way? Growing apple trees offers long-term benefits, and in just a few years we can enjoy the fruit of our trees. Read on to learn how.