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Image by erwin nowak from Pixabay |
Historical examples of
the existence of apple trees are documented on the basis of folklore, legends,
stone pictures on carved boards, petrified apple slices on plates for grave
goods and an overwhelming number of references from Hebrew biblical passages
and countless writings from poems, songs and literary publications and many
other surviving reports about all civilizations in antiquity. One of the
earliest archaeological evidence of apple tree fruits comes from the remains of
excavations from Jericho, Jordan, in 6500 BC. Chr. Were dated by radiochemical
analysis of carbon atoms.
Many modern botanists
believe that the improved apple that we know today comes from the crab apple
that is usually planted with apple trees for cross pollination. Old documents
show that "cultivated apples originate from crab trees or wild apple pyrus
malus". Wild crab apple tree seeds appeared on the list of collected seeds
in the 1783 plant list by William Bartram and his father John Bartram. In William
Bartram's Travels in 1773, "He observed among them (fruit trees) the wild
crab (Pyrus coronaria) while exploring near Mobile, Alabama. Robert Prince
founded the first operating nursery in the American colonies in Flushing, New
York: In the 1700s, he offered apple trees for sale at his nursery, which was
visited by General George Washington, who later became the first President of
the United States, President Thomas Jefferson to plant and grow apple trees in
his orchard garden in Monticello, Virginia. in the early 19th century.
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Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay |
In colonial America,
apple trees were grown and planted from seeds in orchards in the 17th century
by William Blackstone in Boston, Massachusetts. Early documents stored in the
National Library in Washington, DC indicate that all Massachusetts landowners
had started growing apple trees in the 1640s.
Over the centuries, apple
trees have become susceptible to many disease problems such as fire blight; Dr.
However, C. S. Crandall from the University of Illinois conducted several
backcrosses involving modern varieties and the apple tree ancestor 'Crabapple',
Malus floribunda. The wild crab apple contained an immunity factor within its
genetic makeup against all major bacterial and fungal diseases of apple trees.
In 1989, researchers from the Pomellology Department at Cornell University
extracted an immune blight gene from a nocturnal moth and transplanted it into
an apple fruit, resulting in the complete defeat of blight disease in this
particular apple tree variety.
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Image by Karsten Paulick from Pixabay |
The fruit of apple trees
is perhaps the most disturbing characteristic that an orchardist or an orchard
gardener experiences in the backyard. Most apple varieties require
cross-pollination of two different varieties to put fruit on the tree.
Perhaps this mysterious
genetic quality of preserving apples makes it so important to offer medical
benefits that are underpinned by the memorable saying, "One apple a day
keeps the doctor away." Experiments by researchers in California have
shown that apple fruits are very rich in antioxidants, a biological compound
that works against stroke, heart disease and many other health problems.
It is necessary that the
blossoms of the two apple tree blossoms develop pollen at the same time so that
the fruits are planted, which can be a difficult problem. The simplest solution
to pollinating apple trees is to use the ancestor of modern apple varieties,
crab apple, which sheds its pollen over a long period of time and slightly
overlaps the flowering period of the apple tree variety. Crab apple trees
produce a fruit that is much smaller than the ordinary apple, but it can be
used for cooking in a variety of ways and is loved by wildlife in the fall and
winter when wildlife feed for animals and birds is scarce. Crab apple trees are
also valuable when used as flowering trees that begin to bloom in spring with
huge clusters of pink, white, and even red flowers. There are several
outstanding grafted flowering tree species available, including Brandywine, Red
Perfection, Radiant and Spring Snow.
The legendary Johnny
Appleseed was responsible for the rapid development of apple tree growth and
planting when he founded a nursery in the Midwest that sold both apple trees
and seeds that were to be planted in trees in the 19th century for growing.
Over 2000 apple varieties are classified as grown today. Many of the trees are
due to the tremendous spread of apple seeds, which began with Johnny
Appleseed's memorable ambition to completely cover the American countryside
with the fruit of apple trees.
William Bartram, the
famous explorer and botanist, wrote in his book Travels in 1773: "I
observed two or three large apple trees in a very blooming state" when he
was traveling near Mobile, Alabama. It is important to know that these large
apple trees that grow in Alabama in 1773 could very easily come from the seeds
of the Creek Indians. These seeds may have been obtained by the Indians from
American colonists on the east coast of the United States at a much earlier
date, or from French farmers who settled in areas with agricultural subsidies
north of Mobile. General Oglethorpe planned in 1733 "to plant various
subtropical and temperate plants that could prove valuable to Georgian farms
and orchards," said William Bartram in his book Travels, published 40
years later. William Bartram's father John Bartram, who traveled to "East
Florida" (Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas), was at least partially an
attempt to inventory the plant resources of the new acquisition of England
after the Spaniards were driven out of East Florida.
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Image by congerdesign from Pixabay |
Apple trees are easy to
grow, and if a gardener buys a large tree, they can experience fruit
development in the first year of planting and growing. Choosing the right
variety of grafted apple trees is extremely important because, although the
apple fruit can be grown in most areas of the United States, the trees need
different cooling temperatures to bloom. The interesting introduction of
low-chill varieties from Israel makes it possible to experience apple growing
and planting all the way to Florida. Certain popularly grown apple varieties in
the United States today are: Arkansas Black, Gala, Granny Smith, Red Rome,
Anna, Red Fuji, Yates, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Anna, Ein Shemer, and
Golden Dorsett. Apples have a mysterious quality that can keep them from
decaying for centuries. Apple slices can be dried and kept for a long time.
This mysterious feature can be recognized by the fact that the association of
man is connected to paradise and that Eva and Adam, for their eternal pleasure,
pick apples from a fruit tree growing in paradise, planted by God and as a tree
of life in the legendary world Garden was described by Eden. We see that this
fruit of paradise recurs in the history of many other ancient civilizations. A
similar report that we read as children in the book of Genesis from the
scriptures in the Hebrew Bible.
The fossilized remains of
apple slices found in a saucer from an ancient Mesopotamian tomb, the tomb of
the kings, date back to 2500 BC. BC and were uncovered in southern Iran. In the
old historical accounts of the fruit of the apple tree there seems to be an
incomprehensible trace of evidence that no other fruit can keep up. The
interest of Greek and Roman philosophers, poets, historians and literary
masters in apples was even extended to Renaissance painters, royal cooks of the
Tsars of Russia and too many other references to mention.
Thank you for Reading. :)
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