A seedling apple tree or full-size tree will grow to around 30′ tall.
In an effort to control tree size and vigor, improve disease resistance factors, promote early fruiting, and improve tree efficiency, the use of rootstock grafting began. This is the art and science of splicing one variety of tree onto the roots of another variety of tree.
Nearly all purchased apple trees are varieties grafted onto rootstock.
- Semi-dwarf apple trees grow to about 60-80% of full size, depending on the specific rootstock used.
- Dwarf trees grow to about 30-50% of full size.
Most of our trees are semi-dwarf size.
We don’t currently have any dwarf trees, they are shorter lived and generally more difficult to work with.
While there’s a lot to like about semi-dwarf trees, the reality is, the tree’s natural inclinations have been retarded through selective breeding to get the semi-dwarf size.
We’ve been working on fine tuning our seedling stock program, which means in the future we’ll be able to offer more full-sized trees on stock specifically adapted to our area.