Johnny’s orchards kept him busy year-round.
Every fall, Pennsylvania farmers took their newly picked apples to the cider mills. So that’s when seeds were plentiful. Johnny usually collected a couple of bushels of them from the mills.
During the winter, Johnny fixed his orchard fences. These kept deer and other animals from nibbling on his trees.
Each spring and summer, he tended his orchards. He also chose sites for new orchards. He cleared the land, chopping shrubs and pulling weeds. He tilled the soil, then carefully planted apple seeds.
Squirrels and mice always ate some of the seeds before they could sprout. But he didn’t mind. He left the seeds to grow and came back later to check on them.
All year long, Johnny was also a traveling salesman. He went door-to-door, visiting settlers’ cabins. He sold apple seeds and seedlings.
An apple seedling is a small plant that sprouts from an apple seed. It will grow into an apple tree. He sold them for six and one-half cents each.
Settlers had a good reason for wanting to buy Johnny’s apple seedlings. If they planted apple seeds themselves, they would have to wait two years for four-foot-tall seedlings. With Johnny’s help, settlers got a head start on growing apples.
When settlers planted an orchard from seeds, they never knew exactly what kind of apples they’d get from the trees. That’s because of pollination. When an apple tree is flowering, bees spread pollen among different blossoms, resulting in trees with new types of apples.
Many farmers grafted trees together to improve apple crops. “Grafting” means joining two plants together. First, they cut a branch from a tree that had apples they liked. Then they tied that branch to a seedling grown from a different type of apple. The two parts eventually grew into a tree with a new kind of apple. Almost all apple trees are grafted today.
Johnny knew grafting was a better way to grow apples. But he thought it was wrong. He believed that only God should decide how apples develop. So he always grew his trees from seeds instead of grafting. His apples were wild apples, which weren’t as tasty as most apples in stores today.
HOW APPLES GROW
EVERY SPRING, BUDS FORM ON THE BRANCHES OF AN APPLE TREE. THE BUDS BLOOM INTO FLOWERS CALLED BLOSSOMS, WHICH OFTEN GROW IN GROUPS OF FIVE. MOST APPLE BLOSSOMS ARE PINK AT FIRST BUT SOON TURN WHITE. EACH BLOSSOM HAS FIVE PETALS, WHICH FALL OFF AFTER ONLY A FEW DAYS.
A GREEN BALL, WHICH IS A BABY APPLE, GROWS IN PLACE OF EACH BLOSSOM. BY FALL, THESE APPLES ARE BIG ENOUGH TO PICK AND EAT. APPLES ARE PICKED BY HAND BECAUSE HARVESTING MACHINES WOULD BRUISE THEM. THEY ARE WASHED AND PACKED IN CRATES. REFRIGERATED TRUCKS OR TRAINS DELIVER THEM TO STORES.
YOU CAN GROW A TREE FROM THE SEED OF AN APPLE YOU EAT. THE TREE WILL TAKE FIVE OR MORE YEARS TO PRODUCE ITS FIRST FRUIT. BUT THE TREE’S APPLES WILL NOT TASTE AS GOOD AS THE APPLE YOU ATE. APPLE TREES SHOULD BE GROWN IN GROUPS. BEES CROSS-POLLINATE SWEET SMELLING APPLE FLOWERS, RESULTING IN BETTER-TASTING APPLES. APPLE GROWERS USUALLY PUT BEEHIVES IN THEIR ORCHARDS EACH SPRING.
PARTS OF AN APPLE BLOSSOM
THE PISTIL IS IN THE MIDDLE OF AN APPLE BLOSSOM. IT IS THE FEMALE PART, WHICH INCLUDES THE STIGMAS, STYLES, AND OVULES. THE OVULES WILL BECOME SEEDS ONCE THEY ARE FERTILIZED WITH POLLEN FROM ANOTHER FLOWER.
THE STAMENS ARE THE MALE PART OF THE FLOWER WHERE POLLEN IS FOUND. MOST POLLEN IS YELLOW.
A BEE POLLINATES AN APPLE BLOSSOM
1. A HONEYBEE LANDS ON THE PETALS OF AN APPLE BLOSSOM. IT COLLECTS POWDER, CALLED POLLEN, IN TINY SACS ON ITS BACK LEGS.
2. THE BEE FLIES TO ANOTHER BLOSSOM WHERE IT GATHERS MORE POLLEN. SOME OF THE POLLEN FROM THE FIRST BLOSSOM STICKS TO THE STIGMAS OF THE SECOND BLOSSOM. THIS ALLOWS THE NEW BLOSSOM TO MAKE SEEDS. BLOSSOMS CANNOT POLLINATE THEMSELVES. THEY NEED HONEYBEES TO HELP SPREAD THE POLLEN FROM BLOSSOM TO BLOSSOM.
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