Newest Addition to Yard: Planting a Cortland Apple Tree

Every autumn our household goes into apple frenzy and consume a ton of the fruit whether serve plain packed in a lunch, baked in pies, or served up as cider or juice. The items produced by apples are numerous and never-ending. It is this long appreciation of the apple that I recently decided to plant a Cortland apple tree. I purchased the tree from Menards nursery as this store had fruit trees on sale 50% off the normal price of $25. The tree was one of a few Cortland the store had in stock. There were a few State Fair apple trees, but I am unfamiliar with that type so I decided on the Cortland which was a tad over six feet tall and quite the task transporting home in my Accord.


We decided to plant the tree on the side of the house relatively close to the neighbor’s apple tree. This was strategically placed to capture cross pollination from the other tree as well as provide some pretty blossoms and landscaping to the side of the home.

I dug the hole large enough to plant the root ball. I loosened the dirt I dug out and mixed with some store bought black dirt that was treated with plant food. Upon planting the tree into the ground hole, I covered up the roots with this combination dirt and pressed down a bit on the soil around the tree to really anchor down the root ball. I gave the area a good soaking and finally covered with some cedar mulch and watered again.

It is to my dismay after doing some research on the web, that I will have to wait anywhere from four to five years for the tree to grow well enough to produce some apples for baking. I do think they will well be worth the wait and I may even buy a second tree while I am waiting.