3' Online Orchards Braeburn Apple Tree w/ Rare Sweettart Cinnamon Flavor Expired

$30 isn't bad for a 3' apple tree. I've never priced apple trees at local farms though, only at HD/Lowe's.

I bought and planted three trees several years ago and have had a total of two apples from them. I have one self-pollinating tree (McIntosh), one Liberty apple tree, and one semi-dwarf Mitsui -- the latter two are compatible with the McIntosh for cross-pollination. Apple trees are not easy to grow -- they require extensive pruning and spraying and are also subject to a number of diseases, pests, and weather (drought or too much rain). I haven't done much to mine, so they aren't thriving. The trees are growing and healthy, but the next step, fruit production, has proven difficult. I did have a significant problem with a fungus after the first year -- almost lost two of the trees but managed to save them with some spraying.

Also, the apples, if they do come in, all arrive at once -- if the tree produces, it'll be dozens all ripe around the same time unless you have multiple varieties. You can put them in the fridge to last longer, but even cold storage isn't forever. I know people who have fruit trees, and they tend to give away plenty of fruit when everything comes in. Or, they learn how to can and preserve them that way. What I'm saying is you should probably just keep buying apples in the store.

According to online sources, Braeburn apples are self-pollinating, but since this is a hybrid (I think?), I'm not positive that it's self-pollinating. It's not referred to as a hybrid though, so...??

Incidentally, I've noticed that Home Depot and Lowe's both seem to have fruit trees left over in the fall that they mark down 50%. I've seen that each of the last three years. I paid about $60 total for my three apple trees, and they were about 5-6' tall when I planted them. Planting trees in Fall is better than Spring anyway because the tree can come out of dormancy and grow the entire Spring to ready itself for the summer heat.

With apples, it isn't about hybrid or not. Apples are not stable, any seed is more likely to produce an inedible offspring, like a crab apple, than something you would want to eat. All the named cultivars you see aren't varieties, where you could cross two of the same and get something close to the parents, they're clones. Every Fuji is a grafted clone, on some crabapple root stock, of the first Fuji tree. Every Honeycrisp, every Granny Smith. Basically, breeders crossed randomly, and preserved and propagated, by cutting and grafting, every good tree. So, these are all clones of the original Braeburn. But... they're clones of a clone, and one of the clones, several cuttings back, had a branch with a mutation, and these originally come from cuttings of that branch.

It's not a Braeburn x something hybrid, it's a mutant Braeburn. Which means, if normal Braeburns are self fertile, this almost certainly is as well.

However, as with most self fertile apples, it will probably produce a lot more with another unrelated apple nearby.

That's what she said