Bringing Apple Culture to the Island of Cebu - Apple Trees in Cebu, Philippines

What was once a dream is now taking roots in our tropical island of Cebu.

Apple Tree in Cebu, Philippines

Sure we have lots of tropical fruits that we all enjoy and love growing abundantly at home giving us unlimited treats mostly during summer but wouldn't it be nice if we could add a few extra none tropical fruits to grow and bear juicy and delicious fruits in our own backyard. One of a few candidates would probably be the apple. We are all very familiar to it that we even associate the letter A in the alphabet for apple. I got some good news for you fellows. We can now grow this temperate plant using only a few simple techniques that you can easily find on google. A lot of the trees here in the Philippines however are young trees grown mostly from seeds. These are the results of curious people's experiment on the possibility of growing apples where they are not supposed to.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1. How to germinate apple seeds? Buy one from the grocery store and collect the seeds. Wrap it with a wet tissue paper and place it inside an air tight container. Place it inside the chiller of the fridge and allow it time to germinate. You can plant it immediately into the soil as soon as it sprouts. Tip: For starters, Fuji is observed to germinate quickly compared to the seeds of other apple varieties.

2. Where do I place the newly planted apple sprout? Filtered sunlight po. Not shaded area o direct sunlight. Pag mga 3 months na pwede na yang painitan under direct sunlight pero wag biglain. Dahan dahanin nyong e acclimate sya. Spend a few weeks na painitan sya sa umaga hanggang mga 10 am.

3. Paano po ang tamang pagdilig? Water only when soil is dry. Wag sobrahan at malalanta ang ugat.

4. Pwede ko na bang e fertilize agad ang bagong tubo na mansanas? Don’t apply any form of fertilizer yet. It might damage its delicate roots. Wait for a few months before applying any fertilizer. For me, I will wait for 6 months.

5. Bubunga po ba ang apple sa Pinas? In theory, yes. Base on studies, yes din dahil may Apple experiment tayo sa highlands dati sa Baguio at sa lowlands during the 1970s at successful ang experiment nila. Mayroon naring nakapabunga sa mga members dito na galing from seed ang apple nila at yung mga grafted apples na galing sa labas ng bansa. Search Magnifico Farm in Arakan, North Cotabato if you wish to see photos of a fruting apple in the Philippines grown from seed or you can check previous post from other members in the group. Nakapag pabunga narin ang ating admin na si Sir Eric Ogayon at Sir Atilano this year ng kaunaunahang mansanas na sila ang nag pollinate.

6. Ilang taon po bago mamunga ang mansanas? If galing sa seed ang apple seedling mo you’ll get different answers from different sources. Approximation is 5-7years. Other sources say 10 years. Ang pinaka matagal I found online is 12 years. However kung grafted ang seedling mo galing sa branch ng namunga na na mansanas eh less than 5 years lang at mamumunga na siya.

APPLE FYI 1. Do you know that there are over 7,500 species of apple worldwide and there are more discovered every time? The reason behind this is very simple. Apple is mostly not self-pollinated.

Each apple seed produces a genetically unique apple, just like every human egg and sperm will produce a genetically unique person. This is why a different species of apple is being discovered every time. So whenever you buy apple fruit and plant the seed, it may not germinate and if it does, it may not survive and if it survives it will not give you the exact type of fruit you eat. You’ll simply get another variety, color and taste.

Source: http://www.okefarms.com/special-report/

But there are exception to the rule. 2. Some apples are apomictic.

Apomixis (asexual seed formation) is the result of a plant gaining the ability to bypass the most fundamental aspects of sexual reproduction: meiosis and fertilization. Without the need for male fertilization, the resulting seed germinates a plant that develops as a maternal clone o exact copy ng mother tree, parang identical twin nya.

3. Polyembryony

May mga rare instances din po na may mahahanap kayong polyembryonic apple seeds. Polyembryony is the occurrence of more than one embryo in a seed which consequently results in the emergence of multiple seedlings. The additional embryos result from the differentiation and development of various maternal and zygotic tissues associated with the ovule of seed. Katulad ng mga citrus na maraming tutubo na seedling sa isang buto lang. Isang beses lang akong nakahanap nito sa apple. Sabi sa mga article isa sa mga tutubo pag galing sa polyembryonic seed ay clone o exact copy ng mother tree.

Please search and read about apomictic apples from: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum published by Harvard University Watch this video documentary to better understand the reproductive biology of apples: Apples: British to the Core https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h29uBlqSrgQ

CROSS POLLINATION

Some varieties are actually self fertile or partially self fertile meaning these apples will be able to produce fruits on its own even without the presence of a different apple variety nearby for pollination. Although self fertile apples can benefit from the presence of another apple variety to produce more yield. The only time where it is required to plant at least 3 apple varieties is when you have diploid and other polyploid apples. For example, the pollen of a diploid apple is compatible with a triploid apple however the pollen of the triploid apple is not compatible with the diploid ones. So if your diploid apple is not self fertile then you need to have a third apple from a different variety with a compatible pollen to cross pollinate it to produce fruits.

Apple breeding video documentary by University of Minnesota Breeding Program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Q52UA-W00

PROMOTING FLOWER BUD FORMATION

1. Grafting a bud from a fruiting apple tree to an existing stock. This works 100 percent!

Buds from a fruiting apomictic ornamental apple tree and buds from its young seedlings were budded on uniform clonal dwarfing stocks in 1951. Of the five trees from the “old” buds, one flowered in 1953 and all flowered in 1954.

The evidence although not conclusive, supports the assumption that a flower stimulating substance was transmitted by the buds from the fruiting tree, but not by the apomictic seeds of the fruiting tree.

Source: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum

2. Girdling the trunk of the tree, grafting on dwarfing rootstocks, or by bark inversion.

3. Root pruning and pot binding.

4. Bending of branches in a horizontal position.

5. Storing one year old shoots for 30 days under 5degrees to 10 degrees Celsius as a substitution to winter temperature and regraft them on to the stock.

Source: Acta Horticulture: Prelimenary study on forcing of flowering in apple.

6. The Philippines followed the cultural practices of East Java in their apple experiment. Hand defoliation of leaves, training branches horizontally, cutting off irrigation for 3 weeks and pruning. Defoliation was performed in July and December in the Philippines according to the article.

Source: APPLES AND PEACHES IN TROPICAL LOWLANDS OF THE PHILIPPINES

7. Notch Dormant Buds So They Bear Fruit. Notch below the bud to promote flowering. Notch above the bud to promote branching.

Source: Growing Fruit

8. Paclobutrazol (Cultar/Paclotar) application. This Plant Growth Regulator is available in the Philippines and is used in mangoes to promote flowering.

Australian Registration

Paclotar 250 Plant Growth Regulator has APVMA Approval Number 59682 and is a systemic growth regulator that is used to reduce vegetative growth in mango, stone fruit and apple trees as specified in the Directions for Use Table.

Paclotar 250 is a systemic growth regulator that reduces internode lengths of new shoots and causes earlier formation of terminal buds. When Paclotar 250 is applied to the soil, it moves up through the roots into the shoots and blocks the plants ability to make flowering inhibitors, thereby allowing the plants natural flower-promoting factors to work. Therefore, the post- harvest application of a small amount of Paclotar 250 to the soil significantly promotes flowering and fruiting in the following year.

9. Beating the trunk of the apple as hard as you can. This is the weirdest thing that I’ve read online about promoting fruiting in apples. According to the author of the forum this puts the apple in survival mode and bears fruit to make sure that its species won’t go extinct. You can google it to read more about it. This strategy seems to work according to most of the members in the forum.

I’ve already tried 80 percent of the things I mentioned above but I don’t see any flowers on my apple trees yet. My trees’ age is probably one reason why it didn’t work. My oldest apple is only 3 and a half years old and according to most articles, apple trees bear fruit after 5-7 years or even 10 years if grown from seed.

Hope this helps. Please message or tag me if you want to add something or if any of the entries require correction. Happy planting everyone.