Empire Apple Tree

The Empire Apple is the perfect apple if you want both eating and cooking apples from just one tree. It doesn’t even need a second variety for pollination, as it is self-fertile. It grows well in all the cool to warm states, and it has the unique ‘pineapple’ flavor of the always-popular McIntosh apple. With its rich-red skin color, on a light green background, and its sweet, juicy flesh, you and your family will love this apple. It doesn’t bruise easily, or discolor quickly, so it is ideal as a lunch-box apple all through the fall and early winter. It begins to ripen in September, and it can be stored well into January. In the kitchen it holds it shape when cooked, and it tastes simply delicious in pies and other baked goods.

• Dual-purpose eating and cooking apple
• Beautiful red skin and white flesh children love
• Ideal for a small garden – needs no pollinator
• Harvest in September and October, store till January
• Disease resistant tree

The Empire Apple will grow best in full sun, in well-drained soil. It should be mulched with rich compost or manure in spring and pruned in late winter from an early age. Develop a central trunk, with an open ‘fat doughnut’ shape, with radiating branches at low angles from the trunk. This variety is resistant to Fireblight, a lethal disease of apple trees, and it is also resistant to Cedar Apple Rust. Other diseases are less important to the overall health of your tree, and only cause minor blemishes. This vigorous and tough tree is easy to grow, and gives big harvests every year.