I planted a granny smith apple tree transplant in our yard in 2006. It’s a scrawny little tree. It hasn’t grown much since I planted it, even though I have been watering it regularly and fertilizing it twice a year. Even so, I have high hopes that it will undergo a growth spurt eventually.

This tree produced about 8 apples this season. The apples are large enough to cause the tree’s weak branches to sag down toward the ground. A few of the branches have broken off under the weight of just one or two apples. The tree has so few branches that some of the apples got sunburned in the summertime.

I picked granny smith partly because it has a lower chill requirement than most apples and partly because I like the flavor. The granny smith apple flavor is slightly tart, at least when it is fully ripe. People who think that granny smith apples are supposed to be extremely tart have never eaten a fully ripened one. I think that the flavor is like a very mild version of a tart green apple candy.

Some sources say that granny smith apples should be picked in September. But I have heard that they are best left on the tree until after November 1, weather permitting. Last year, I harvested them the first week of November, and they were only slightly tart. Most of them had a great flavor, although a few were bland. This year, I am leaving them on the tree a few weeks longer to see what difference, if any, a few extra weeks would make. I have harvested a few so far, and they taste about the same as last year.

August is Gravenstein apple season in California.  Gravenstein apples have been a popular apple here in Northern California for a long time.  They are excellent apples for making apple pie and apple sauce, because they have a balanced sweet-tart flavor, and they soften up when cooked. 

This is a picture of Gravenstein apples ripening on a small tree in our yard.  It’s interesting how red the apples are turning.  The apples on my mom’s Gravenstein apple tree are usually yellow with a bit of a red blush.  Hers rarely turn this red. There is a variety of apple tree called Red Gravenstein, but our tree was labeled as a regular Gravenstein.

Apple trees are not self-fertile.  At least two different varieties of apple trees need to be grown within about 100 feet of each other to achieve successful cross-pollination.  Apple trees may not bear apples without proper cross-pollination between two different types of apples.  Sometimes an apple tree that is not cross-pollinated produces very small apples or very few apples.

We also have a small Fuji apple tree and a small Granny Smith apple tree.  Why three apple trees? Gravenstein apple trees have sterile pollen, which means that a Graventstein will not pollenate the blossoms of another apple tree.  Without a third tree, the second tree would not get pollenated.  The second apple tree pollenates the Gravenstein and the third apple tree, and the third apple tree pollenates the second apple tree.  

Most apples ripen in the late summer or fall.  For example, Fuji and Granny Smith apples usually ripen in October into early November.  One of the great things about Gravenstein apples is that they ripen early, a month or two before most apples.  So we are harvesting apples in the summer and in the fall.