In the early spring of 2008, I arrived home one afternoon to find three Stark Brothers dwarf fruit trees on my front porch. For as long as I can remember, my father has planted this style of fruit trees in his backyard. And now he'd sent some to me; it was my turn. JT and I planted the trees, pruned them, and then kept careful watch.
A dwarf tree is carefully grafted to ensure that the tree won't get much larger than 12 feet. The tree will stay smaller, ensuring that it can be easily harvested and that gardeners won't be overwhelmed with produce. A dwarf tree takes 2 to 3 years to reach full-production (regular size trees usually take 4 to 6 years to mature into full production capacity). Typically, the dwarf apple harvest comes in late-August and early September. I planted two apple trees with a pear tree in between; the pear will help with pollination of the apples.
My trees were a year old when they arrived, so I didn't anticipate any harvest in the fall of 2008. Last fall, one of the apple trees yielded a tiny harvest of two apples. This fall, I can expect a more fruitful yield. And with that in mind, 2010 will be the year of the apple (with some gratuitous pear tree shots thrown in).
Seen here, the trees have only recently lost all of their leaves. They look bare but I know they are sturdy. They've got some winter mulch protection around their base because it looks good, but they are plenty hardy. I took this photo at twilight, my favorite time of the winter day, and I now think a daylight photo would have been much better. Tune in on the 1st of each month this year to see how my apple farming efforts are coming along.
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