Greetings, This is my first post but I've been an avid reader to your forum. My family and I have started a small orchard of semi-dwarf antique and popular apples, (17 trees). I am looking at doubling the number of trees but on dwarf rootstocks in some kind of high density planting arrangement. I'm interested in variety. My question is as we are in Eastern Kansas, (zone 5), how well does the list of bloom periods provided by your organization correspond out here? Does one cultivar relatively follow the next as they are listed, from one zone to the other? Does warmer or harsher climates significantly change the order of cultivar bloom periods.
Michael Berndt
I'd check with your own Agriculture Research Hort. department. The order will likely be the same, but the number of days from the earliest blooming fruit of a species and the latest, will probably be shorter. We have a cool bloom season for most fruits, and that would tend to expand the bloom period. The order will most likely remain the same though. You just can't pick dates off of a Calendar.
Boizeau, Thanks for all your help!
I’d nearly given the ‘same advice,’ lacking the realization that in warmer climates bloom duration would be shorter, or compressed. With a ‘compressed’ bloom cycle, would there be more overlap… and less need for critically timed cultivar-specific pollinators? Or would corresponding trees having, say, four good bloom days ‘up here’ have only one day in Kansas, thus little difference in the ultimate problem of matching bloom times?
Mike, with 17 trees, and planning to double that number, if you’ve any variety at all you’ll likely have all the pollination you need – perhaps more than you want. Plan to thin!
I’d watch for trees listed at either extreme of the bloom charts. Example: Gravensteins. They’re early bloomers and need pollen from two fertile trees. “Transparent†(Yellow Transparent or “Lodiâ€) and “Early Red†do the trick for me. I was shocked to find “Early Red†at one of our Scion Exchanges, as I’d never heard of it, but it was on a list of early bloomers that work well with the Gravensteins – and it has 
Hi Michael,
For dwarf rootstocks I would try to stay with Bud-9 from Russia. Kansas can't be colder than that!
I understand the Bud 9 is still in short supply. I have a bush of it that I use from. So it is not a problem here.
As far as flowering periods, you usually do not have the same sort of long, drawn out, protracted cool springs that we do in the PNW. Hence all your apples tend to flower simultaneously. It is less of a concern for you than it is for us. Plant whatever apple you want, on the desired rootstock.
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