4-in-1 Apple Tree!

Today I bought a 4-in-1 apple tree...yay!  My first fruit tree - ever!  A four in one tree is a tree that will bear four different types of apples.  This is done by grafting...it's pretty cool.  A branch from a new apple is "grafted" or joined to the main tree, so you now have two different kinds of apples from the same tree.  In my case, I found a tree that will have four different kinds of apples, if I'm lucky! 

My four apples are, Anna,Fuji, Gordon and Dorsett

Low Chill semi-dwarf Apple Combos on M111

Anna

Dorsett Golden

Fuji

Gordon

Photos courtesty of Dave Wilson Nurseries at

http://www.davewilson.com

From the reviews I've read, ANNA is the lowest chill at 200 hours and is sweet, crisp and flavorful, keeping up to 2 months in the frig.  Everybody knows FUJI, but did you know that it gets ripe in September and requires 500 hours of chill? GORDON is good fresh or in cooking and requires 400 hours.  Dorsett Golden is very much like Golden Delicious and only requires 100 hours of chill.   All are self fertile, so everything should work out fine for me and the apples. 

Chill Out!

For coastal, southern California where I live, it's best to look for low-chill varieties.  Chill can be measured as hours below 45 degrees.  It's the amount of time when the tree goes dormant to protect itself, but also stimulates fruit formation.  So, no chill, no fruit!

PLANTING THE TREE

I found these awesome instructions and diagram on how to plant my new apple tree on:  http://www.sandybarnursery.com/care-of-bareroot-trees.htm

To quote from the web site...it says "dig a ten dollar hole for a one dollar tree".  In fact, because of that I'm going to plant the apple later...so I got a large pot to plant it in until I actually get it into the ground.  Below is a diagram and a brief out line on how to do the actual planting.

Diagram:  Robert Kourik "Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally"