Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Empire Apple Bareroot

History: The creation and selection of Empire apples was a lot more intense compared to the chance origins of some of our older varieties. In 1945, scientists from the Cornell University New York State Agricultural Experiment Station collected thousands of seeds from the orchard of fruit nutritionist Lester C. Anderson. For years these seeds were grown and tested until Empire emerged as the best apple from amongst its siblings. It was released to the public in 1966 and has since become one of the top ten most popular apples in North America.

Why We Grow It: Empire is an excellent general-purpose apple for the Great Lakes area. The attractive green and red fruit is crisp and sweet and keeps well into the winter. The trees crop heavily and reliably, and the fruit is resistant to bruising, making life easier for the grower. They are also resistant to fireblight and cedar apple rust.

    $56.50

    Rootstock
    Size

    4 low in stock

    Fruit Traits:

    Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking

    Fruit Size: Medium

    Storage: Keeps until March when stored in cold storage

    Harvest: October - Early

    Cider Class (if applicable):

    Tree Traits:

    Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4b

    Soil Preferance: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam. Prefers average to moist conditions, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring. Generally quite adaptable to different soil conditions.

    Flowering Time: Middle

    Bloom Colour: White

    Pollination Requirements: Partially self-pollinating, this variety will produce some fruit without an apple tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

    Sun/Shade Requirements: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

    General Growth Habit: Moderately vigorous and precocious with heavy crops. Susceptible to mildew, scab and quince rust but resistant to cedar rust and fireblight. Spur bearing.

    Overall Disease Resistance Rating*: Medium

    *this rating is combined with our experience growing in our test orchards combined with already available information on the cultivar.

    Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

    Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc.

    We have simplified our crop inventory for grafted fruit trees into two sizes:

    1m+ Grade: this often has some feathering, and is measured including the rootstock.

    50-80cm Grade: this is like a 'b-grade' tree, sometimes with minor scaring or bent, these trees are priced accordingly.

    Empire Apple

    Empire Apple Bareroot

    $56.50

    $56.50

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