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All about apples, pears, plums, and cherries - and orchards where they are grown

Honeycrisp Apple tree

Owner: David

Location:  Two Rivers, WI, United States

Age:Planted in about 2010
Age of this tree:18 years
Soil:sandy with a little clay 
Climate at this location:Zone 5b - cool, within 1 mile of Lake Michigan
Pruning:carefully trained to keep height down, 25% removed every March and July
Tree form:Bush (wider at top than bottom)
Height:Between 6ft / 2m and 15ft / 4m
Cropping:Biennial cropping (alternate years)
Growth:This tree grows easily here
Herbicides:Manual treatment (hoeing and weeding)
Pesticides:Chemical treatments
Local pests:rose chafers, apple maggots, squirrels

Owner's comments

Transplanted as a 3rd-year seedling in April 2010. Doing quite well in spite of my dog tearing several branches off its first year. Unsuccessfully attempted to graft two branches to Ashmead's Kernel and one branch to Esopus Spitzenberg in April 2012. Again grafted one branch Spitzenberg, two branches Kingston Black, and one unknown variety in May 2013. Sadly none of the grafts took again. After zero success grafting, and zero blossoms on this old tree, in 2014, I was beginning to question whether this tree is a seedling that still won't bear for another year or two. Update 2015 - Finally, there are a few blossoms this year -- got 5 wonderfully delicious Honeycrisps! Update 2017 - Enormously heavy crop this year -- finally! Tree is extremely healthy. 2017 thru 2019 - Rose chafers and apple maggots decimated crops. Heavy sprays with acetamiprid (Assail) starting in 2020 resulting in huge crops each year with zero maggots! No chafers came in 2024 for whatever reason, also got "Honeycrisp leaf mottle disorder" due to carbohydrate buildup in the leaves causing curled yellow leaves but has no effect on the fruit. Ended up with 40 lb (1 bushel) which is less than other years primarily because of the puppy and several losses to yellow-jackets and Japanese beetles due to LTA spraying. Starting 2025 may want to both allow more blossoms, at least 2 per spur, and prune spurs more heavily.

Season records for this tree

  • 2025

    Spring blossom: 27 May
    Removed half the spurs in March. In May, thinned blossoms to 1 per bud south half, 1-2 per bud north half (to help weigh down the branches). Birds eating a lot of flowers. Tree is healthy.

  • 2024

    Spring blossom: 12 May
    Harvest: 4th week September  20kg / 44lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   4.0m / 13.3ft wide
    Producing plenty of blossom and apples. Chafers not real bad. Dog stole anything reachable (bottom 4.5 feet). Still irregular in size and color, need to take down to one flower each cluster.

  • 2023

    Spring blossom: 27 May
    Harvest: 1st week October  55kg / 121lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   4.0m / 13.3ft wide
    Woolly aphid: Mild attack
    Heavy pruning of fruit buds and flowers must be paying off; covered in blossom in successive years! Huge crop, 3 bushels, irregular in size and color, many green. Maybe leaving 2 flowers per cluster was too many.

  • 2022

    Spring blossom: 30 May
    Harvest: 2nd week October  40kg / 88lbs
    Size: 3.5m / 11.7ft high   4.0m / 13.3ft wide
    Heavy bloom, thinned to 2 flowers per cluster. Pruned out a third of all spurs in March to help balance fruit vs vegetation. Sprayed before and after June vacation (evil rose chafers). Great harvest year.

  • 2021

    Spring blossom: 23 May
    Harvest: 4th week September  1kg / 2lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   3.5m / 11.7ft wide
    Only 2 spurs in bloom this year. Pruned out half of all spurs in March to help balance fruit vs vegetation. Ended up with 3 large apples, yay.

  • 2020

    Spring blossom: 29 May
    Harvest: 1st week October  35kg / 77lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   3.5m / 11.7ft wide
    Great year, very heavy bloom. Thinned to 2 flowers per cluster. Heavy crop weighing 2 branches to ground, 1.75 bushels / 75 lb.

  • 2019

    Spring blossom: 3 June
    Harvest: 1st week October  0kg / 0lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   3.0m / 10.0ft wide
    Very light bloom, thinned to 2 per cluster, only about 30-40 early season, most fell after attacks by rose chafers and apple maggots.

  • 2018

    Spring blossom: 27 May
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   3.0m / 10.0ft wide
    Only 4 or 5 apples, all infected with apple maggots. First year rose chafers showed up like crazy, consuming some foliage.

  • 2017

    Spring blossom: 28 May
    Harvest: 1st week October  40kg / 88lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   2.5m / 8.3ft wide
    This is the year!! Major bloom and VERY heavy fruit load. Severely affected by worms though -- perfect fruit a rarity.

  • 2016

    Spring blossom: 27 May
    Harvest: 1st week October  1kg / 2lbs
    Size: 3.0m / 10.0ft high   2.5m / 8.3ft wide
    Light bloom but more than last year. Should have gotten ~12 apples, dog stole all but 4, including 2 tiny underdeveloped ones.

  • 2015

    Spring blossom: 31 May
    Harvest: 1st week October  1kg / 2lbs
    Size: 2.5m / 8.3ft high   2.0m / 6.7ft wide
    Canker: Not present
    Scab: Not present
    Mildew: Not present
    Fireblight: Not present
    Cedar-apple rust: Not present
    Woolly aphid: Not present
    First few blossoms ever on this old tree! 5 large fruits.