This is a favorite at many pick-your-own orchards. This prolific tree produces robust red apples with white flesh that won’t turn brown in your favorite fruit salad or Waldorf salad! It’s also delicious fresh, in pies, or as cider. Developed in Geneva, New York in 1898, the Cortland apple tree is cold-hardy. Apples ripen in mid-September on the end of slender branches, rather than on branch spurs like most other apple trees. Be sure to get a pollinator buddy!

Sun Exposure

• Full sun (six to eight hours)

Soil pH

• 6.0 to 7.0

Hardiness Zones

4 to 6

Spacing

• 12 to 15 feet apart

Moisture

• 1 inch every 10 days or so

Notes

• Bloom Time: Early-Mid
• Chill hours: 800 to 1,000
• Harvest: September
• Taste: Tart
• Years to Bear: Two to five
• Pollination Buddy: Consider Lodi, Gala, Granny Smith

Have you tried growing Cortland apple trees? What region do you grow them in? Please tell us your experiences growing Cortland apples.