It's a new tree. We have a really OLD one and a new one just planted this spring. I just harvested tons of apples off the OLD one. I think yours may just be in shock. With temps so high you may want to paint the trunks with 50% water based latex indoor paint mixed with 50% water to prevent sunburn. We water ours 3 x per week for 45 minutes with a 2 gallon emitter. You may need to mulch and water more.

Thanks for the advice Suzi..You're probably right about it being in shock..the strange part is the Dorsett golden that I planted around the same time is doing great, although it does get a bit more shade. I'll plan on upping my watering and hopefully that will correct the problem.

I WISH we would have planted a Golden Dorsett for pollination, but we didn't. Without a pollinator, Anna is prolific with 2 crops a year, but her apples are misshapen. They taste fabulous and make great pies and coblers. This year I'm also making apple wine. Too many apples in my freezer! I'm using the cores and peels in the wine along with the smallest apples.
I'm sure your tree will recover!

Yes, the nursery recommended the Dorsett and we have two of those. This is our second Anna, had one last year and it fell victim to the heat as well. We went on vacation, came back after a spell of bad heat and there was no bringing it back. That was my own fault though..A couple of weeks ago I lost my Tropic Sweet that somehow snapped off at the graft...So, I'm determined not to lose this one..I didn't realize you could get two crops from the Anna..that's good to know..

appreciate the words of encouragement..

The Anna apple didn't make it..Thought there was a chance it would pull through, but I noticed more of the branches seemed to withering and then when I cut into the trunk, I found this...

pretty sad since this is the 3rd tree that's I've lost in this location...2 Anna's and 1 tropic sweet..

I'll probably give it another try in the fall..

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Hard to tell by your photo, but is that borer damage? Next time, paint the trunk with 50% dilute water/inside latex paint. That will help sunburn and prevent borers, but keep up an insecticide spray program. We spray often with neem oil. Check for borer holes and get on top of it right away. It does seem odd that you've lost 3 trees in the same location. What's on the other side of that fence? Some plants have toxic roots and nothing will grow around them.

I know, the photo is out of focus. Don't think it was borer damage, no sign of holes or anything like that. The trunk was just completely dried out..you could snap it like a piece of seasoned kindling...

one of the trees I lost was healthy, but it snapped at the graft...

That's a good point about the roots..I'll have to check with my neighbor and see what he has on the other side of the fence. at one point he had these really tall junipers, but those have since been cut down. the strange thing is I have 4 other trees along the fence and they're all doing fine..

Hi Jeremy, just wanted to add that while Anna and Golden Dorsett are similar growers and good pollinators of each other its probably best not to benchmark how much heat the Anna can take based on how your Golden Dorsett is doing. The Golden Dorsett developed as a seedling planted by a lady on another island in my country, The Bahamas, so it is understandably very heat tolerant as it was first found in the Caribbean. Sorry to hear about your Anna, my college math teacher grows both of those in her backyard but I don't think she has the drying out problems with her Anna, may be it is more established?

Thanks Dan. I knew that the two were good pollinators, that's why I had chosen them..I'm sure if your math teacher can grow an Anna in the tropics I should be able to here in Florida..the big mistake I made was in digging it up a couple of months ago to straighten the trunk..In hind sight I should have just staked it..that probably sent the tree into shock, and coupled with the hot summer did it in..I'm going to give it another try in the fall and maybe look at a different location in the yard..

I'm going out today to check my local nursery to see if I can find another one..Anna's require cross pollination, so either a tropic sweet, or Dorsett will work in that regards. good luck.

They will produce fruit without a pollinator. It's just a little whonky shaped. Sort of elongated and the core is not centered, but the fruit is delicious and everyones favorite! I have 2 Anna apple trees. One is ancient and one is new. They both produce whonky fruit with no other pollinator. I have a peeler, slicer, corer all in one that I got from Amazon. It rips through a counter full of apples in no time. I make pie from the slices and wine from the cores and peels.

wow...those are pretty wonky..never seen an apple that shaped before. nice haul Suzi..can you post some pictures of the size of your trees? I'm curious to see how big they are.

I'll try to get photos this weekend. The ancient tree is big and fat! The new tree is just a year old, but it had a few apples this June. It's really hot here. Little heat wave. Supposed to be 107 degrees F, dry and windy this weekend. Normal is 95-103 summers. Anna is very heat tolerant. It was bred in Israel. That's desert! HOT! But pick yours when they have a blush of pink. If you wait till they are red, they will go mushy on you. BAD! Ours are ripe in June with a second crop Dec, but that's a small crop. Main crop is in June. What you see in my photo are perfectly ripe Annas and they keep in the fridge for a good month. Crisp, sweet with a nice tang. Yummy!

When your apples get overwhelming, you will need something like this: http://smile.amazon.com/Apple-Peeler-Slicer-SC-Lifestyle/dp/B00I55IQJO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1439650666&sr=8-3&keywords=apple+peeler%2C+slicer%2C+corer

I forgot to mention, the unpollinated Anna has very few seeds. Like maybe one, but mostly none.

Photos taken today. Here is the ancient one. Needs pruning and will get it this winter. It always gets pruned, but just grows really fat. On drip irrigation 3 x per week. 2 gallon emitters 45 minutes.

And here is the new tree. Note the trunk is painted to prevent sunburn and borers. Sorry it flipped sideways. Healthy!

they both look great..the old one almost looks like a shrub...

nice that they're doing so well, especially with as dry as it is out there..

on another note, I lucked out..the local nursery happened to have one more Anna laying around..Couldn't help myself..

watered it in good, and it's actually raining now, so fingers crossed that this one will do better..

Good luck with your new tree! We bought this property as a short sale. It had been neglected for years. When we tasted the Anna, we knew it was a keeper. I doubt anyone ever pruned it, so it does have a shrub shape but it's lower limbs are so thick, it could hurt the tree to limb it up.

Interesting stuff! Suzi are you saying the two Anna you have will pollinate each other but just produce wonky fruit unless pollinated by a separate variety or that each tree is self fruitful but makes odd shaped fruit? I don't mind the shapes if I can get nice production lol. And nice catch Jeremy, that's about the size of the ones I saw at the store, nice branching and green leaves. Although I'd probably have to grow it in a large container as we have terrible soil. How long do they take to start fruiting?

Prior to getting the new Anna, the ancient one produced huge crops with no pollination. The new tree is about an acre away from the old one, so I doubt any pollination is going on. They both bear oddly shaped delicious apples. Maybe one day we'll put in a Golden Dorsett, but we are in a drought, so not a good idea now. My new tree was planted bare root spring 2014 and had a few fruits June of 2015.

Suzi, I'm amazed the new tree produced fruit that quickly..that's impressive..

You're right, with them an acre away even if you had another variety that would probably be too far for cross pollination..

It's really too bad about the drought. If I could figure out a way, I'd be happy to send some of our rain over to you..

Lol you're really tempting me to get one, they just sound better and better. The ones at the store don't have any flowers, is that normal for this time of year? Also do you think I could get by in a large container? If I remember you have success with blueberries or some such thing in pots.

It's possible that they already flowered..mine did.I don't see why you couldn't get by with a large container, after all that's what they're kept in at the nurseries, but that is obviously going to limit the growth..how bad is your soil? Is there any way you can amend it with natural compost..then maybe you could put the tree in the ground..

It has quite a few knocks against it lol. Hard caliche layer on limestone underneath so it's very sandy and alkaline, and its also very shallow. More work than I'm willing to deal with right now lol

If I lost three trees in the same hole, I would be concerned there is something in the dirt at that spot.

Also, grasses give off gas and are detrimental to some trees. I would pull the greenery to 2-3 ft in diameter.

I don't think it's the dirt or the grass. There are three other trees within 10 feet and they are all doing fine..this was definitely a error on my part, and one I don't plan on repeating.

three weeks later and here's where things stand. the tree doesn't seem to be doing well at all...maybe tim was right and it is the dirt..or maybe I bought a bum tree..

symptoms, yellowing then browning leaves that pull right off the tree.

The the tree had this dark brown spot on it when I bought it, almost looked like a burn, but the person at the nursery said it wasn't a problem. I'm not so sure now..You can see below that spot that there is some vigorous growth, so perhaps the darkened area is affecting the uptake of water to the rest of the tree..

I'd still give it more time. Could it be the humidity in FL? Maybe you should spray for fungus? I know the variety was bred in hot, dry Israel, and it has no issues here in Southern California. Not sure how humid heat reacts on it. The brown spot you mention. Fungal?

you would think the nursery would only keep trees in stock suited to our climate. But to your point, it is extremely hot and humid here, so maybe that is a possibility. The brown spot doesn't appear to be fungal, is there a way I can tell? part of me wants to dig it up and move to another spot in the yard to see what happens. I'm going to hold off though.

I agree with Suzi, given that the other trees planted virtually right next to it look pretty good its probably not the soil, most likely still in a bit of transplant shock and the roots are still adjusting. I'd almost advocate some mulching as we have very similar summer conditions and even though we get a good bit of rain because of our sun intensity and soil plants usually appreciate the extra moisture being conserved. I know it has helped a lot of my trees, but I have never grown apples so I will defer to Suzi on this. How often is it being watered or rained on?

thanks Dan..I guess it could be transplant shock. But 3 weeks in, I would have expected it to stabilize and not have gotten worse..that's my concern..good call on the mulch, I may give that a try. For now, we've had plenty of rain since I planted it, well over an inch a week. I've been checking the soil around the roots regularly with my moisture tester and the readings indicate there is more than enough water..

When we bought this house there was an existing apple. One of those with several varieties grafted onto it. Definitely had fire blight. We tore it out and burned it. Happily it wasn't near the big old Anna. No blight there.

I'm glad you found out what the problem was and can start fresh. Good luck with your new trees. I hope your wife is good with apples because you are going to have them coming out your ears! She will need an apple corer, peeler and slicer all in one. I got mine on Amazon and it has a suction thing so it sticks to the counter while it's being turned.

we're a family of apple lovers which is part of the reason why I'm so determined to make it work..my dream is to have apples coming out of my ears...

Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it. :-)