Life of an apple tree

[Ron C]

I have one large apple tree (cross between red and yellow delicious) which is about 18 years old. The yield is down
about 50%. What is the normal life for an apple tree like mine?

 

[John Paul McMillin]

I think the normal life in a commercial orchard may be 30 years max, not sure though . I have a large apple orchard where i work and it was planted in 1938 and it is producing tons of apples. I do a program of 8 sprays a year and a pruning program also. I get so many apples though that the weight of the apples is actually making these old trees fall apart and fall over. JPM

 

[geofore]

apples

JPS, 1938, apple trees planted back then did they hammer nails in the trees when they were young to put more iron in the trees? The apples on my farm planted in 1914 all had nails in them and I was told that they did this to put more iron in the trees. I know it's an old wive's tale that this would improve the apples but I had seen it in many old orchards that are now gone.

 

[John Paul McMillin]

I havent found any nails or spikes in any of the trees that i have taken down. These trees were all planted by the DuPont family of Winterthur and the DuPont company. This family settled here and had mills and made it big with gunpowder mills and are now a chemical company giant. they were also very into horticulture , have you heard of Longwood Gardens , another DuPont estate. So maybe they knew better than to drive nails into the trees , but like i said i havent seen any yet. JPM

 

[geofore]

DuPont

I would say they hired people that knew more about trees than the average tree guys. I have seen the Gardens once. Just wondered about the nails that I had seen in some orchards and the claims that they were good for the apples way back when.