Again. All apples were bare root and are coming up on their 5th year in the ground.

Anna - Very prolific. Small apples.

Ein Sheimer - Another very prolific apple. Tart, my youngest loves these apples. So do the birds.

Gala - Moved three times in the yard. Maybe if I leave it alone it might grow.

White Winter Pearman - Good tasting apple but gets sun burned very easy.

Dorsett Golden - This and the Anna are about the same to me. Good producer.

Beverly Hills - Its not very big and I might need to move it due to being close to the Dorsett and a Gold Kist Apricot. Very scrawny little tree.

Fuji - Hasnt done much of anything.

When I think of apples I think of cooler climates and higher altitudes. In Northern California where I was raised the best apples where grown high in the Sierra Foothills (4000'+/- ) east of San Francisco on the way to Lake Tahoe. It was a very celebrated crop in those areas.

Ein Sheimer Apple

Ein Sheimer Apple Flower

Dorsett Golden Apple

Dorsett Golden Apple Flower

White Winter Pearman Apple

Do the birds go after the apples like they do the peaches?

We'll see in about a month Dan.
All the trees are setting nicely and should start to begin ripening soon.

Dorsett Golden's.

I learned a very sad thing... woodpeckers really like apples. All of mine now have holes in them.

Ah, well, maybe next year...

Yours are sure looking good, Ray!

My experience is that birds do not go after apples like they do peaches. My birds are polite enough to keep pecking the one apple until it is almost gone before moving on to another. I think it has to do with breaking the skin. Peaches are softer so they forget their manners in my yard and peck every peach in site if I don't keep the socks on them.

Oh great. This morning a pair of woodpeckers were trying to find some tasty morsels on the metal exhaust vent on the neighbors roof.
I'm sure the apples are next.

The only good thing I can think of is that it seems with the apples available, the birds are leaving the tomatoes alone. The groundsquirrels, unfortunately, are another story entirely. I watched one of the little #$^&*^s pick a blushing tomato and run off with it, not 5 minutes after I finished working out there this morning.

Smart squirrel.... sorry it stole your mater... the birds are just destroying my mom's apples.... and peaches... and plums lol

My 3 trees are so overloaded. I have sent bags home with family . The birds seem to leave them alone though, I wonder if my birds are just not very smart?

lol, they must be because the apples are SO tasty

Now that's my idea of a good time--too many apples! Mmmmmm...... Marie, remind me what varieties you have?

Anna & Doresett Golden and then one of those 3 type trees. I know anna is one of them, Fuji and I am not sure what the 3rd is.

I've got a three-graft tree with Anna, Dorsett Golden and Einsheimer. The Einsheimer branch bloomed so late this year, there wasn't anything left on the other two to fertilize it with. I hope it straightens itself out next year, or figures out how to self-pollinate!