How are new apple trees made?

Apples are grown in all 50 states, but only about 36 states grow enough apples to sell in large amounts. The majority of our apples in the U.S. are grown in Washington, Michigan, and New York.

In the winter, farmers prune their apple trees to keep their trees from getting overgrown. Then, they monitor the trees for pests and other potential damage. In the spring, farmers ensure there are adequate pollinators to pollinate the trees, and they continue to monitor to see if they need to spray pesticides to keep insects from eating the apples and plant diseases from harming the fruit and the trees themselves. In the fall, apples are harvested and the process starts all over again.

Apples are harvested by hand. It takes a lot of people to harvest all the apples every fall. Orchard workers use ladders and long poles with wire baskets to reach the apples and get them harvested quickly. Trucks with large bins are pulled between rows of apple trees to collect the apples and get them quickly back to the coolers.

Apples are stored in advanced coolers using a system called "Controlled Atmospheric Storage." This ensures the apples have the perfect conditions to keep them fresh as long as possible. Most varieties of apples can be store for 12 months or more! So, the apples you're eating at school in May were actually harvested the previous September or October!

Without pollinators, we would have no apples. Apple blossoms must be pollinated by bees and other insects in order for the apples to grow into the fruit we love. Many orchards plant pollinator habitat to attract native pollinators, and many also bring in hives full of honeybees to pollinate their trees at the right time.

Apples originally came from central Asia. They were brought to the Americas by the Pilgrims in the early 1600s. Today, apples can be found all over the world.

Apple trees are grafted onto mature rootstocks. This process allows trees to mature much faster and start producing apples sooner. Grafting onto different rootstocks can also add some disease and insect resistance for the apple trees, as well as affect the full-grown size of the tree.