Trying to get a rough idea of how many usable pounds of fruit semi and standard apple and euro/asian pear trees produce. (Just what you have seen from yours). Also, what are some of the farmer market prices you have seen? Most all that I am growing is going to the farmers market and want to get an idea of what to expect when everything is in full production.
I think to get a useful answer your going to have to supply more information. Generally from what I have seen 4 bushels from a semi-dwarf apple tree is a reasonable target. That’s for a central leader tree that has a commercial cultivar grafted to it. Old heirlooms in many cases will yield less. And of course that’s for a tree that is sprayed and pruned well. Numbers for trees trained to different systems are going to be different. Do you have trees already or are planning to plant some?
I think there was a thread on farm market prices you could search for it. But probably the best way to gauge prices is to attend farmers markets in your local area and see how the pricing runs. Visiting local orchards to check their pricing would be helpful too.
Edit: A bushel is about 40 lbs. It varies but is usually in the 40-44 lb range.
So a good semi apple production est. would be between 100-200 pounds? I have 20 apple, 20 euro pears, and 10 asian pears on a variety of rootstocks. Mostly semi and standard. Only the more dwarfing rootstocks are doing any fruiting at this point.
There is a standard down the street that is about 40 feet tall with what looks like over a thousand apples on it. I don’t plan on letting mine get that big, but it did look impressive.
1 Like
Yes that seems a reasonable range- maybe a bit lower. I have no idea what to expect from a standard sized apple or the pears.
Robert, some 40 years ago I picked apples for a commercial orchard for a couple seasons.
I don’t remember the ‘average’ from a standard tree…but 10 or more bushels was common except on yellow delicious, and twice I filled 25 bushels from one tree. Once from a winesap, once from a Red Rome.
2 Likes
That’s what? About 400 pounds per tree? That’s what stark bros had on their est. chart for large semi and standard. I just assumed that was sales propaganda. Maybe their other est. are right too.
A good yield for apples in the eastern part of the US is between 700 -1000 bushels per acre.
In Washington yields are a lot better.
A bushel weighs around 40 pounds or a little more, so 40,000 pounds per acre
You will need to divide the yield per acre by the number of trees per acre to get the yield per tree
1 Like
I worked at an orchard while in college. They still had a few old standard sized trees left but not many. I recall one giant standard McIntosh apple. After picking it was my job to haul all the apples to the cold room. 30 bushels! I was amazed. It was the biggest standard apple tree I have ever seen and it was just loaded with fruit that year.
My apples on M7 normally yield about 4 bushels each in a normal year.
2 Likes