Friday, 2 May 2008

fruit trees - What kind of land and weather is required to cultivate apples?

Much of the soil type and environment depend on the selection of apple variety, but I can tell you from experience that apples appreciate calcium in the soil. Often hydrated lime (calcium) is used for the control of apple diseases. Some apples will do quite well in an acid soil. Mainly, they are the tart apples which are good for pies. But even they would prefer a soil more stocked with calcium.



If you want sweet apples, be sure to lime the soil to a ph around 6.5 and give the tree plenty of sun. Sun is need to make sugars in the apples.



Keep in mind that most fruit trees need a certain amount of Chill Hours



Wikipedia says:




The chilling requirement of a fruit is the minimum period of cold weather after which a fruit-bearing tree will blossom. It is often expressed in chill hours, which can be calculated in different ways, all of which essentially involve adding up the total amount of time in a winter spent at certain temperatures.



Apples have the highest chilling requirements of all fruit trees, followed by apricots and, lastly, peaches. Apple cultivars have a diverse range of permissible minimum chilling: most have been bred for temperate weather, but Gala and Fuji can be successfully grown in subtropic Bakersfield, California.




I don't know your climate in India, but without sufficient chill, maybe Gala and Fuji are a good bet. Those are nice apples anyway.



Here is a good publication for the selection of and care for apple trees: http://www.caes.uga.edu/publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_id=6364



The southern part of Georgia is very warm and doesn't get many chill hours. The soil is sandy too. The north is temperate with mild winters and a heavy clay soil. The entire state gets around 50 inches of rainfall annually, which leaves the soil on the acid side. You should be able to pick from the zones shown for Georgia to compare with your weather and soil and choose a tree best suited.

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