All About Anna Apples

Deliciously crisp fresh off the tree and sporting a pretty rosy blush, Anna apples may be just the hardy variety you need to add to your southern homegrown orchard. Anna is a Golden Delicious style apple with an early harvest time and hardiness from zone 6 to zone 9 making it the perfect choice for warmer climates.

For the new-to-apple gardener or the seasoned fruit grower, Annas can be easily added to your southern home garden or mini orchard. As a prolific producer providing a crispy sweet taste, Anna should be your next apple tree.

Looking to buy an Anna apple tree? Check availability. Here too.

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Characteristics Of Annas

Sweet, crunchy, and semi-acidic, Annas are a delicious addition to your fruit tree orchard. The fruit is large with a soft rosy red blush against a yellow-green skin. Their firm juicy flesh is a beautiful creamy white and presents a mild, sweet-tart flavor.

These all purpose, crisp flavorful apples are perfect eaten raw, baked, or cooked. They work well in both sweet and savory preparations. The fruit trees produce a heavy crop with a very early season, bearing apples in June and July. As a precocious, semi dwarf variety, the Anna apple tree will bloom early and produce a copious crop.

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History Of Annas

As gardeners we are always searching for the best way to grow plants and trees in suitable for our climate. The desire to grow apples in a more temperate climate lead to the Anna apple tree, botanical name malus.

In search of a semi-dwarf fruit tree that produced a delicious eating apple grown in a warm environment, Abba Stein developed the Anna apple. In the 1950s Stein, at the Ein Shemer kibbutz in Israel, worked on perfecting this a low chill cultivar. Stein’s research culminated in the Anna apple tree which is designed to thrive in zones where the temperature rarely drops below freezing. Released as a cultivar to the world in 1959, Anna has been enjoying the warm summer climates of California, Texas, Florida, and other gulf coast areas for over a half a century.

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Growing Anna Apple Trees

The Anna is rated for USDA hardiness in zone 6 through zone 9 making it a perfect southern varietal. Anna apples are a staple in the fruit tree repertoire of southern gulf coast gardeners. Paired with the right pollination partner, Annas will provide you luscious fruit for years to come.

Anna apple trees flourish in warmer climates because they were developed to tolerate a low chill zone. Chill hours equate to a drop in temperature below 45 degrees. This low temperature allows the plants to rest in dormancy and induces bloom production when the temperatures warm up. With increased bloom production, the fruit trees become prolific produces.

A traditional northern apple tree variety requires between 500 and 1000 chilling hours. The Anna apple tree can grow in warmer climates because it requires around 200 chill hours to bloom. They also loves full sun which is easily provided in the southern growing zones.

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Selecting A Location For Anna Apple Trees

Considering where to plant your apple tree is an important decision that will affect the health, fruit, and longevity of your fruit trees.

The Anna apple tree requires full sun and well drained soil. When planted in the correct location, this fruit tree will reward you with more vigorous growth and fruit production. The semi dwarf Anna apple tree is well suited for a full sun, southern zip code. A slightly acidic soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.8 will ensure healthy tree growth. Additionally, the Anna apple tree prefers a well drained, sandy loam, to rest her root system.

This apple tree loves to be mulched in the Spring and Summer, but take care to not run the mulch up to the tree base. Keep a few inches free away from the tree trunk allowing for needed air circulation.

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Pollination And The Anna Apple Tree

Pollination is the only way to get those beautiful white blossoms to turn into fruit. Since this variety is not a self fertile fruit tree, it requires a pollination partner that blooms early and has a low chill hour requirement. The ideal candidate for a pollination partner is the Dorsett Golden apple tree. The Dorsett is has a low chill requirement and also blooms early. Additionally, the Dorsett is delicious and will add a nice variety to your harvest. Many white-blossom crabapple varieties can also be good pollination pairs, however, they don’t provide the wonderful edible fruit you get from the Dorsett.

Anna apple trees should be spaced 15-20 feet apart for optimum growth space and pollination.

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Pruning The Anna Apple Tree

The Anna apple tree is a prolific producer with a wide branch spread. In the preferred southern zip code, these trees can reach a mature height of 15 to 30 feet tall and wide.

While the Anna apple tree has an unruly habitat and requires regular pruning, you will be rewarded for your work with a bumper crop of delicious fruit. You need to prune the semi dwarf fruit tree to remove deadwood and cross branches. You can easily prune the tree to maintain desired size and shape. It is best to prune the semi dwarf tree in the winter while the tree is growing. Once the tree has reached its desired height, switch to summer pruning.

While cutting away immature fruit can be painful to do, it is necessary when a tree is prolific and produces such heavy crops. Since this variety is an abundant producer with a fast growth rate, pruning heavy fruit from branches in late spring will help prevent damage from excessive fruit load.

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The Many Uses Of The Anna Apple

Anna apples are perfect for fresh eating off the tree; they will keep in the refrigerator crisper for 2 to 3 weeks.

Anna will be welcome in your home recipes and sharing with friends is always a crowd pleaser. Used in cooking and baking, their sweet-tart flavor profile makes them suitable for all types of recipes. Known for their firm flesh, the Anna holds it’s shape during cooking. Diced Annas add sweetness and crunch to salads, muffins, and breads. They make a killer apple sauce.

When paired with it’s pollination partner, the Dorsett Golden apple, you have a perfect duo for cooking. The Dorsett, with it’s yellow skin and crisp, firm flesh offers a balance of sweetness and tartness to your dishes and pairs perfectly with the Anna.

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Recipes For Your Apple Fruit Trees

We have collected 18 of the best Apple Muffin Recipes for you to taste test. Give one, two, or more a try and let us know your favorite recipe. Home brewing has become a great American pastime, and brewing cider with your own apples is the perfect way to personalize your party menu. Home Brew Ohio offers a spiced apple cider kit that will get you started on your home brewing adventure. One of the easiest ways to prepare your harvest is with a simple applesauce.

Applesauce recipe:

• Clean, peel if desired, and chop your apples.
• Sauté in a pan with enough water to keep them from sticking.
• Add cinnamon and sugar to taste.
• Enjoy!

Whether you sauté, bake, or brew, you will enjoy the wonderful taste of homegrown fruit.

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Healthy Benefits of Eating Apples

Is there nothing more of a harbinger of spring than an apple blossom. The prolific blooms covering the branches like a white veil. The sweet scent wafts across the air stirring up hopefulness of the promise of summer.

We all know that eating fruits and vegetables are healthy and apples really pack a nutritional punch.

They are loaded with vitamins and high in fiber and water which can help you keep your weight under control. When you eat fruit from your own orchard, you have control over how they are grown and the amount of applied chemicals. You can create an organic apple that will help you ward off disease and taste delicious.

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The Benefits Of Apple Trees In My Garden

Apple trees are beautiful plant specimens and add a rustic grace to any garden.

They are excellent for your health and that is one of the major benefits of growing them. Planting a small orchard of fruit trees will bring the bees to your garden which will help pollinate not only the apples trees but other fruits and vegetables.

We all want an increased garden yield!

Consider the Anna and Dorsett Golden apple trees as integral centerpieces in your Sustainable, Contemporary, or Zen garden scape. Anna is perfect for a Kitchen Garden, Orchard planting, and a showstopper Espalier. Additionally, Anna makes is a standout as a plant sentry, guarding in your favorite planting site.

The Anna apple tree is perfectly suitable for full sun container gardening too. This flexibility allows you to plant her in a smaller area or patio.

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Order Your Anna Apple Trees Today

Bare root trees are the best way to have your apple trees shipped. Trees from reputable dealers will be shipped to you at the optimum planting time. Correct shipping dates are key in the success of planting your bare root plants.

You can buy Anna apple trees at the following online nurseries:

• Nature Hills Nursery
• Fast Growing Trees

When you purchase a healthy young tree, you will get your orchard off to a great start. This Anna Apple Tree from Amazon clocks in at 6 to 7 feet tall. The Dorsett apple tree, a great pollinator for the Anna, would be a good addition to your planting selection. This Dorsett Gold Apple Tree is a good specimen at 5 to 6 feet tall. Both varieties flower early in the season making them the best of pollination partners. The two trees listed here are the ones you want to click add to cart when ordering, they have outstanding customer reviews and thorough a product description. And you can always rely on Amazon’s outstanding customer service. Adding fruit trees and gardening supplies to your shopping cart will make you happy.

For the best fruit production order one of each and your fruit trees will have excellent pollination and produce bushels of apples for years to come.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the best apple variety to cross pollinate with an Anna apple?

The Dorsett Golden apple is one of the best varieties to plant with the Anna apple because they both bloom early and have a low chill requirement.

What Variety is the Anna Apple?

The Anna apple is an early season variety – name malus domestica.

What apple is the Anna similar to?

The Anna is very similar in size, flavor, and crispness as the Gala apple.

What is the best way to eat an Anna apple?

The crisp flavorful Anna is perfect to enjoy freshly picked off the tree. It is also suitable for baking and cooking because of it’s firm flesh.

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