Fuji Apple Tree

Everyone loves apples and if you want your children to eat more fruit then you need to choose an apple that is sweet and that children love. Fuji is the perfect apple for that. You will be able to bring fresh, tree-ripened fruit straight into your house and know exactly what has or has not been done to it. Another benefit in choosing this variety is that the Fuji Apple will store in a cool place for at least 3 months (and usually longer), so you will not have any waste from the bumper crop that this apple is known for producing. It does not need a long period of winter cold, so it is a particularly good choice for warmer areas like zone 6 to 8, although it will grow well in zone 5.

The Fuji Apple was developed in Japan, as the name suggests, but its parents were American apples, so it is a cross-Pacific product. It is a very popular apple in China and Japan as well as in America. It is a moderate growing apple, increasing in size by perhaps a foot a year until it is 20 feet tall. With suitable pruning it can be kept to a smaller height of 15 feet. The first blooms should appear in the second or third year after planting and you will be rewarded for your patience with your first crop of delicious, home-grown apples.

Growing Fuji Apple Trees

It flowers in spring with white blossoms and needs another variety of apple tree for a pollinator. So if, for example, you also grow a Granny Smith Apple tree, they will pollinate each other and you will have good crops from both trees. Plant the trees within 50 feet of each other.

Your Fuji Apple tree is hardy in zones 5 to 8 but in zone 5 it needs a good, sunny location to ripen its fruit properly.Like all apple trees, your Fuji Apple will do best in well-drained soil that does not become too dry. Apple trees should not be allowed to dry-out in the summer as the young fruit may begin to fall. They need some care to control insect pests and diseases, but this can be done using organic methods or traditional sprays depending on your inclination. If you are growing you tree in a lawn, keep the area beneath the branches free of grass with mulch of an organic material that will also work as a fertilizer for your tree.

Planting and Initial Care

Always plant your Fuji Apple tree in a sunny location. It will grow best in a well-drained soil and prefer a slightly sandy soil rather than one with a lot of clay. If you have clay soil, add plenty of rich organic material to it and grow your tree on a raised mound to give better drainage.

When planting your tree, prepare the soil well with rich organic material. Dig a hole three times as wide as the pot. If you are planting in winter shake the soil from the roots and spread them out evenly around the hole. If you are planting a tree in leaf, make a cut an inch deep with a sharp knife from top to bottom of the root-ball at 3 or 4 places around the roots. This will encourage new roots to spread out from the tree. Replace most of the soil, keeping your tree at the same depth it was in the pot.

Do not cover the ‘kink’ you will see low down on the trunk which was where the tree was grafted. Fill the hole with water and when it has drained away replace the rest of the soil. Apply mulch over the root-zone, leaving the area against the trunk free of the mulch. Keep your tree well watered especially during the summer months. Young trees will need 5 gallons of water each week and increasingly more as they develop into mature trees with large harvests.

Care and Maintenance

Apple trees need pruning and training from the beginning of their life with you. Plan to develop a tree with a central stem and side branches radiating out almost horizontally. Use string tied to stones to pull the branches down while they are young. Upright branches can easily break when the trees are older and your tree will be damaged, so start training early. It only takes a little time. Older trees should be trimmed to control their height.

If you have a very large crop of baby apples it is best to remove some so that they are spaced about 6 inches apart on the branches. You will have fewer apples but they will be much larger and of better quality. Also, if you let your Fuji Apple have a big crop of small apples, the following year it may not produce anything at all.

Buying Fuji Apple Trees

Apples trees are grown by grafting a stem of the correct variety onto the root system of a special apple grown only for this purpose. This is a skilled operation and must be done by experts. It is also very important that the tree used for the grafted stems really is a Fuji Apple and so only specialized nurseries can create these trees. Apple trees cannot be successfully grown from seed. Trees that do not develop strongly are sold cheaply, so beware of buying cheap trees as they will not be sturdy plants ready to become healthy apple trees.

We sell only trees that are true to the original form and we have a wide range of sizes to give you the best plant for your purpose. However, we are constantly renewing our stock so our customers get fresh, healthy plants, so supplies of this tree may be limited. To avoid disappointment order now.