Apple orchards of Adams County

When getting into the country side of south central Pennsylvania, it just amazes me all the hills and little valleys everywhere, and almost every hill side is covered with apple trees.  The man giving the narrative during the bus tour was very well versed.  He is an entomologist--I think that means bug guy.  But he talked about how they are now doing different kinds of plantings and the ways they have to keep bugs and deer away from the trees.  One style of planting that is shown below is the "V" type.  This was introduced from Europe.  If I remember it correctly, they do it this way so that they can have more trees per acre and more fruit on the     branches that still exist.  It made me feel a lot better to know that in this part of the country, they use very little pesticides.  The guide even said he is frequently out in the orchards in this area, and he would not hesitate to just pick an apple off a tree and eat it.   He also spoke about the dwarf planting they do now where the root ball is very shallow, and the tree only grows about 7 or 8' high.  He said this works out well during those years when they have drought conditions.  However, there is an extra cost for stakes that hold the trees up.  With such a shallow root ball and with the weight of the apples in the fall, the trees would just fall over if they were not secured to a pole.

The good news this year is that even though there was a heavy frost after all that really warm weather in March, the crops should still be substantial.  That is as long as the weather  continues as it has in the past couple of weeks.  And, since the blossums were almost three weeks early, the crop of apples should also be a few weeks early for picking.  I want to keep a watch for this, as I found out last year a really good apple is the Early Fuji.  Their season is very short, and I want to get out there and get some of these before they are all gone.
One last item for the end of the tour--we each got a free apple!