Autumn is nearing, and the apples are ripening. Local orchards are cranking up their cider mills, setting up corn mazes and welcoming weekend visitors out to pick a few baskets or bushels for applesauce, apple pie or just plain eating.

Those who have had their fill of apples can stop by a roadside stand for home-grown peaches and plums. Earlier in the season, cherry fans could pick up a pint of sweet or tart fruit for eating or baking.

But some go no further than their front yards to find their favorite fruit. Although residential orchards have become rarer over the years, many people still grow fruit trees at home.
Upsides, downsides

When Highland resident John Dron feels like eating an apple, he goes out and picks one from the seven McIntosh trees that surround his home. He also bakes pies and shares the fruit with his neighbors.

Since the trees have matured, Dron said, he’s gotten a good crop almost every year.

“For the last six, eight years or more, they’ve really had beautiful apples on them,” Dron said. “But this is the worst year I’ve had due to not pruning them properly.”

If apple branches are not pruned short in the fall, the tree grows too large to produce a healthy crop. Pruning a fruit tree stimulates new growth, gets rid of dead wood and allows sunlight through the foliage. In a sapling or maiden tree, pruning reduces stress on the roots and helps the young tree establish itself.

Dron is optimistic about next year’s yield.

“They’ll come back again because I’ll cut the trees down real short,” he said.

Bill Erwin, co-owner of Erwin’s Orchards, cautions homeowners to consider the downside before rushing out and planting a fruit tree in their yard.

“In the springtime they’re pretty, and in the fall they’re pretty, but they’re messy, messy trees,” Erwin said.

Erwin’s Orchards, which covers 200 acres in Lyon Township, has been run by the Erwin family for 86 years.

If a would-be orchardist does not pick up after his or her trees, fallen fruit will attract yellow jackets and hornets — a real concern for anyone who is allergic to insect stings.

Finally, Erwin said, fruit trees require a lot of care, beginning very early in the tree’s life. Protecting trees from inclement weather, animals, insects, fungus and other diseases can take up time and money.

Carl Joerin, who has owned Highland Garden Center and Tree Farm for 36 years, said that many of his customers plant fruit trees to enjoy their ornamental qualities as well as their fruit.

“Not only do you get the fruit, you get those great flowers,” Joerin said. “And they’re great bird attractors.”

The Highland nursery’s most popular trees for homeowners are bing cherries, Alberta peaches and McIntosh apples, Joerin said.

For those interested in plum varieties, he recommends the Stanley plum for its good bearing capacity.

“Mount Royal is the very best because it just continues to fruit all the time,” he said.
Tree-care tips

Joerin recommends pruning trees in January and February. New trees should be left alone for a year to grow before pruning, he said.

To help avoid spreading diseases such as fire blight between trees, Joerin advises his customers to sterilize pruning shears after finishing each tree.

While some trees are self-fruiting or “complete” plants, many fruit varieties should be paired with a pollinator. A pollinator is a compatible tree that bears a different variety of the same fruit, such as a sweet and tart cherry tree.

Joerin said that while many fruit trees do need a pollinator to bear well, most can get by through insect pollination alone.

“Bees travel for miles, and they’re going to catch them on the way through,” he said.

Spring and fall are the most popular seasons for buying and planting new trees. Steve Balbes, who owns Milford Gardens on N. Milford Road, sells about 150 to 200 fruit trees a year to local orchardists.

“If you can water them, you can plant them any time,” Balbes said.

Joerin said he recommends planting in the spring. Most growers dig the trees in late fall and place them in refrigerated buildings with high humidity during the winter. In early spring, they deliver the trees to garden centers and nurseries.

The best time to plant fruit trees is in March, April and the first week of May, Joerin said.

“It’s really critical if you get them in too late, because then you don’t get enough water to them,” he said.

Joerin recommends watering new trees every other day with a half-gallon of water.

“If you water your trees, you’ll never lose a tree,” he said. “Everybody just goes away, and they don’t take care of their trees.”
What kind of tree?

Erwin said that stone fruits, such as cherries, peaches and plums, are more difficult to care for than pome fruits, such as apples and pears. His family’s cherry grove bore a good crop this year for the first time — eight years after the trees were planted, Erwin said. Stone-fruit trees are more susceptible to weather changes as well, he said, and their bark can crack easily.

Customers frequently stop by Long’s Family Orchard in Commerce to ask co-owner Rob Long what kind of apple tree they should plant at their hunting camps.

“I tell them (to plant) the most vigorous tree they can find, because they’re not going to take care of it,” Long said. “The leaves are going to drop off because they’re going to have apple scab so bad, and a vigorous tree will withstand that.”

Apple trees come in several different sizes. Larger trees are more vigorous, while smaller trees, especially dwarf trees, require more careful maintenance.

Long said that he discourages people who are not going to spend much time managing their orchards from buying dwarf trees.

“People don’t understand that,” he said. “They all think, ‘Oh, I want a dwarf tree because it’s the latest and greatest thing,’ but it may not be right for them.”

A typical dwarf tree is eight to 12 feet tall, while a standard tree is 20 to 30 feet. In between are the semi-dwarf trees, which range from 12 to 20.

The dwarf tree is especially well-suited for commercial orchards, Long said. In large numbers, a smaller tree uses fewer resources and is easier to spray and prune.

Although they require less space to grow, smaller trees need special care simply because they are closer to the ground. Weeds should be kept down around the tree, and homeowners must mow carefully so as not to nick or cut the trunk.

A densely planted commercial orchard might support 500 or more trees per acre, according to the Michigan Apple Committee. More new orchards are deciding to plant densely, in part because dwarf and semi-dwarf trees can be planted closer together than standard trees.

The residential trend is toward smaller trees, Balbes said. Standard sizes “are just not available,” he said, even from orchards.

“They’ve sort of died out in the nursery industry,” he said.

Bob Tritten, a Genesee County horticulture agent for Michigan State University, said he would “strongly recommend” dwarf trees for people planting small home orchards.

The trees are easier to care for, Tritten said, because they do not require ladders to prune branches or harvest apples. In addition, he said, they mature more quickly.

“They bring to bear fruit from the fourth or fifth or sixth year after you’ve planted them, whereas semi-dwarf and standard or large trees will take 10 to 15 years before they’ll bear any sizable crop,” he said.

For homeowners who want lower-maintenance trees, Tritten recommended the Novamac, Prima and Liberty varieties. These apples are resistant to apple scab, a common and serious fungal disease.

Erwin also recommended apple-scab-resistant varieties for people who are not growing fruit trees primarily for the fruit. While the trees are easier to care for, he said, scab-resistant varieties are often not as large or flavorful as their non-resistant counterparts.

Tritten recommended the Paula Red, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Ginger Gold, Empire and Gala varieties as popular, easy-to-grow apple trees for Oakland County homeowners. These varieties represent the full growing season, from mid-August to mid-October.

Alyson Iott is a reporter for the South Lyon Herald. She can be reached at (248) 437-2011, or by e-mail at aiott@gannett.com.