Looks just like a healthy little apple tree! I counted 7 fruits tho, I would probably snap them all off and let the tree get a little larger before letting it fruit. You might choose to do that for several seasons before letting it crop a full load.

From what I saw of the leaves, the tree looks healthy. Doesn't look like it will die anytime soon. Any leaf anomoly you see now may well not be there with a new flush of leaves next summer. It is no longer in a nursery situation, so that should help. Apples are pretty tough critters, the truth be known!

Do you know what rootstock it is on? Perhaps press the question to the nursery owner. I tried to find out from a local nursery what a particular rootstock was that I had purchased a plum tree on, and he gave me the BIGGEST runaround! Finally I started detecting sleaziness in the way he was handling the whole thing. After about 8 contacts, I gave up. He either just did not know, could not find out, or didn't care. Whatever. Hope you have better luck than me.

Be careful about fertilizing and watering too late into your own particular season, as when you go into hard frosts with lush green stems, you can get dieback. I like to stop watering 2 months before expected frost in my area, just so all the green stems can get woody and brown, and this advice is particularly suited for figs and grapes.

I am not sure what potting media it came with, but am betting that it was some soil substitute, like shredded/composted wood fibers and such. If you planted the whole thing in your ground, you can expect the compost stuff to decay away after a year or two, allowing the tree to settle even further into the ground, plus it could lean terribly! I had that happen to a few of my apples that came potted, and I planted the whole wad in the ground.

If you feel like the extra work this winter, you can dig up the entire tree, shake all the compost off the roots, clean the hole out of all compost material, then replant the tree with only native soil to anchor all the roots. Firm it well too. Then there will be no subsequent rotting of media, settling of tree, and leaning problems, unless the tree is on M9 roots, in which case it will need staking anyway. (you would not want to attempt this bare-rooting of the tree at this time. ONLY WHEN DORMANT! = no leaves)

Looks like it is in a pretty landscape! I hope you have neighboring apple trees in the wider area for pollination. If you don't, you could learn to graft this winter and attach a scion of some pollinator apple next spring.

Good luck! Looks like fun

Hi Chris,

You don't say where in the world the tree is located, but can I assume the Pacific Northwest? If that is the case, then you will want to keep the tree watered and fertilized thru the hot summers we get. That is one of the "drawbacks" of M27 rootstock -- they are never very deeply rooted (hence their prone-ness to water stress), so they depend on humans alot for their requirements. You may even have to stake it one of these summers, beings the roots are not much for anchorage, but a finer network that are not much of an anchor. Hope you don't have any deer present, because they will munch on it till it is GONE. Little M27's are never really gonna grow out of deer eating range.

One of the better things about M27 is that you can plant rows of them 2 feet apart or so, to simulate a hedge of apples. Put them in order of ripening or something for interest.

Have you seen Gene's backyard? I think you will enjoy this LINK. He's got 97 apple trees in his 2500 sq foot backyard!

I only hope that you can get your "yarden" all fixed up nice, just like you want it, and not have to move! It really sucks when you go to all the effort of collecting, planting, attending, fussing, etc, then have to move and start all over. Double sucky when you go back to your old house 5 years after moving and see that they let everything die! I had that happen once. It was depressing.

I always like it when people take an interest in growing fruit, especially apples. " title="Wink" />

Good planning, and good luck!