Apples - they seem like the simplest fruit to grow. I can take these Empire seeds, plant them in the ground, and in a few years I'll have a tree full of Empires, right? (Farmers): Wrong See, each apple seed is genetically unique. It will grow a completely different Apple from the one it came out of, which could be a major problem for farmers who want to grow the apples we know and love. But don't fear, we've come to one of America's oldest orchards to find out: How Does It Grow? The Lyman family has been growing apples here since 1741. They bought this land directly from King George. Today the ninth generation of Lymans work the farm, which has 100 acres of apples - that's precisely 27,500 trees, growing over 30 varieties of apples. Before Europeans brought their sweet apples to America, only sour crabapples grew here. Today, the US is the second largest producer of apples in the world. Americans eat more apples than any other whole fruit, except bananas - which don't even grow here... So how do farmers grow a whole orchard of the same type of Apple? Believe it or not, they use a technique borrowed from the ancient Greeks - it's called "grafting". (John): This is the rootstock, we're going to take a budd from the variety we'd like. We're going to cut right underneath, and we're going to put a T cut here, and as long as we go just under the surface, a cambium layer and... hit the cambium layer of the budd... matches to the rootstock...the two will fuse and create a new tree. It's vital to prune and shape each tree as it grows and to do it continuously for the life of a tree, which can be as short as twenty years, or as long as a hundred. The next important step comes in the spring when the apple trees bloom. Lyman brings in one beehive for every acre - that's 100 hives! For the flowers to turn into fruit, they have to be cross pollinated - that means the pollen in one flower has to be mixed with pollen from a different variety of Apple. The bees have about seven days to cross pollinate the whole orchard, and somehow they do it every time. The trees will produce way more flowers than they need for a full crop of apples, so it's key that farmers remove some of the fruit before it matures. As the fruit grows big and lush on the trees, it's a magnet for all kinds of pests. To limit their use of pesticides, Lyman follows a certified program called "Eco Apple", developed with Red Tomato - they're a nonprofit dedicated to supporting sustainable and innovative farming. Rather than spraying their trees to prevent insect attacks, Lyman monitors their orchards, so that they only respond when absolutely necessary. (John): What we have here is a red sphere, and with an apple essence we can make it like a ripe apple. We cover it with sticky material - it will capture incoming apple maggot flies. We'll monitor - if we see them, we know it's time to trim. (John): Another type of insect control is mating disruption - and basically it's an insect birth control...we have either twist ties or we have hoops - they got pheromone injected in them, and release it over time and that'll send off a scent and will confuse the male & female...they never get together. The harvest begins in early August, starting with Jersey Macs and Ginger Golds, and finishes in late October with Granny Smiths. Some of Lyman's pickers have been working these orchards for over 20 years. They wear buckets that hold almost 50 pounds, and look for apples that are 2 and 3/4 inches wide, and have their ripened color. Some apples go into low oxygen storage, which kinda puts the apples to sleep, so that they're available to eat the whole year round. apples are loaded with vitamins and fiber, but almost all of it is found in the peel - so put down those peelers! You can do so much more with apples than just make apple pie - you can put them in your salad with your favorite nuts and cheese; you can add them to your sandwich for crunch; or you can make them the bread itself by cross slicing the Apple and cutting out the core. That's just a small taste of what you can do - I'm sure you can come up with more and you better get started - there are 7,500 varieties of apples to try!
Thanks for posting this. I just watched the entire playlist. It was extremely interesting!
Great videos, but I'll boil my cauliflower because cauliflower puree is delicious.
I like how simple and to the point these videos are. I learned a fair amount without being overwhelmed by fact or choked with b-roll footage. Would be a great program to educate children.
There needs to be a "Morgan Freeman Voice" re-dub plugin to automatically re-do voice tracks, because that lady's voice is like nails on a chalkboard. Completely unwatchable.