kristie:

Granny Smith on a semi-dwarf rootstock would normally begin to bloom in year 3 to year 5. If you are super-lucky, less, if you are not so lucky, could be more. There is no rule controlling onset of bloom. I had a Granny here that took 7 years to begin blooming, and never did bloom very well before I gave up and took it out. Now I know that summer pruning and shaping might have helped, but I did not know that then.

Whether or not a tree blooms is not controlled by the presence or absence of other trees, insect pollinators etc., but by the readiness of the tree itself. Once you begin to see blooms, cross-pollination can become very important. Granny is not an easy apple to pollinate, and there will have to be a pollinating tree within insect striking distance, but it does not have to be in your yard. It could be 100 yards down the street, and it could be a decorative flowering crab or any other type of apple tree. But yes, it does have to be some kind of apple.

Be patient with your little apple tree. Fruit trees take time to grow up and produce.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hi Kristie. Sounds like your Granny is still just a kid- and it's just as well that she's not trying to bear fruit yet. It takes a while for the fruit-bearing wood to develop.

When it is time the flowers will form regardless of other trees, but in order to bear fruit the flowers will need another member of the apple family to provide pollen. If there are any other apples (including crabs) within a block or two of your house that bloom at the same time as your tree you will probably have no problem with pollination. Well, assuming it's not too cold, too rainy, too discouraging to bees and other insects!

If you have room for another tree and want to take the time with it call your county extension office and find out what does well in your area and also blooms at the same time as your Granny. Or, fall in with that crowd that grafts little bits on one tree to another- then you can have it all on one stick!

Good luck,

Mark

Kristie:

There was one detail I left out; must have been asleep. Granny Smith is one of the latest-ripening of all the popular apple cultivars. In my zone 7 climate, which has a pretty hot summer, it ripens in about mid-October, just before the first average frost date. Of the commonly planted apples, only Fuji might ripen later.

Your summers in Colorado Springs are much cooler than mine, and a good bit shorter. This means that even if your tree begins to bloom and set fruit, the apples will not ripen before your first hard freeze and if you pick them before that they will be immature and of poor quality. Places that grow Granny commercially, like the Wenatchee and Yakima valleys of Washington State, or most California locations, have very hot and longer summers than you have at your altitude of 6,000 feet.

It would have been better to ask first before planting the Granny Smith apple where you live.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I did realize it's a stretch to try to grow and get great fruit from a Granny Smith apple tree. We get hot summers, not humid and the weather is hit or miss some seasons. We can get an Indian Summer from time to time. My sister has a lovely Granny Smith in her yard and she lives just a few miles away. She gets fruit and we've made pie with it. It's not as tart as the fruit in the stores but it was fine. She doesn't have another apple tree in her yard either so there must be another apple in some else's yard or a crabapple.

Thanks for info on the tree being too young yet for flowers. It sure does have a lot of leaves. It looks good and made it through the first winter. I hope I can manage to get a good season of fruit from it occasionally. I will research flowering crabapples for help with the cross-pollination.

Thanks.