Fruit Tree Books

Please enjoy these books about fruit trees. Also see our list of fruit tree sites and videos.

Apple Appreciation

• Apples, Frank Browning
• Apples, Roger Yepsen
• Apples of North America, Frank Burford
• Apples of Uncommon Character, Rowan Jacobsen

Beginners, Start Here!

Grow Fruit Trees Fast is a very simple, straightforward guide for the first time grower. It covers all the basics, can be read in an hour or two, and does not get bogged down in details or technical language.

For the Home Orchardist

• Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home (PDF), Cornell Cooperative Extension
• A Grower's Guide to Organic Apples (PDF), Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Fruit Production for the Home Gardener (PDF), Penn State Extension
• The Backyard Orchardist: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden, Stella Otto
• Growing Fruit in Your Backyard, Lee Reich
• Maintaining Your Dwarf Fruit Orchard, Lawrence Southwick
• The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist, Michael Phillips
• Espalier Fruit Plantings in Northern Gardens: Creating Fruit Trees as Art, Ron Perry
• Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory, Kent Whealy, ed.  An outstanding compilation of fruit varieties, with descriptions and sources.  Available from Seed Savers Exchange, 3076 N. Winn Rd., Decorah, Iowa 52101.
• Growing Fruit in the Upper Midwest, Don Gordon
• Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, Lee Reich
• The Pruning Book, Lee Reich
• Dwarfed Fruit Trees, Dr. H.B. Tukey.  Although 40+ years from the first printing, this classic is still great reading, especially the sections on espalier and other older tree training methods.  
• Pomona. The quarterly journal of the North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX).  Member-written short notes, covering every fruit crop imaginable, from Manitoba to Miami.  You must join to get access, but well worth the $8/yr membership fee.  Jill Vorbeck, RR#1, Chapin, IL 62628.  

For the Professional Fruit Grower

• Intensive Orchard Management: A Practical Guide to the Planning, Establishment, and Management of High Density Apple Orchards, Bruce Harold Barritt, K. Bert Van Dalfsen. The best book in the business. Order from Good Fruit Grower, 1005 Tieton Dr., Yakima WA 98902, or Amazon.
• The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist, Michael Phillips. The classic introduction for the organic-oriented orchardist.  Michael lays out the how-tos in excellent detail; he warns of the limitations. Lots of good common sense, too.   
• Old Southern Apples, Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr.  An exhaustive study of heirloom apple varieties, including many thought to be extinct.  Although focused on the South, many of the varieties Lee discusses have been important in the North as well.
• Good Fruit Grower.  A very high quality monthly magazine, focused on West Coast deciduous tree fruit crops.  
• Fruit Growers News.  A very high quality monthly newspaper, aimed at Midwest and Eastern orcharding.  PO Box 128, Sparta, MI 49345; $18/year.  
• American Fruit Grower.  Monthly magazine covering a wide range of fruit crops across the country.  
• Fruit Varieties Journal.  A Quarterly magazine of the American Pomological Society.  Variety and rootstock introductions and evaluations; heavy to scientific reports.  Membership $25/yr. to Dr. Rob Crassweller, 102 Tyson Bldg., University Park, PA 16802.
• Compact Fruit Tree. Proceedings of each annual meeting of the International Dwarf Fruit Tree Assoc., the top growers' organization in North America. Annual dues $50; to Charles J. Ax, Jr., 14 So. Main, Middleburg, PA 17842.

Historical Fruit Tree Books

• Fruit: From the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, Lee Reich
• Pomona's Harvest: An Illustrated Chronicle of Antiquarian Fruit Literature, H. Frederic Jansen
• John Chapman: The Man Who Was Johnny Appleseed, Carol Greene, et al
• The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, Peter J. Harch
• Apples: A Social History, Sally Twiss
• In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture and Recipes, Mark Rosenstein, Chris Rich (Editor)

Children's Books

• Johnny Appleseed, Steven Kellogg
• An Apple a Day! Over 20 Apple Projects for Kids, Jennifer Storey Gillis, Patti Delmonte (Illustrator)
• Apple Picking Time, Michele Benoit Slawson, Deborah Kogan Ray (Illustrator)
• Apples and Pumpkins, Anne F. Rockwell, Lizzy Rockwell (Illustrator)
• How do Apples Grow?, Betsy Maestro, Giulio Maestro (Illustrator)
• I Am an Apple, Jean Marzollo, Judith Moffatt (Illustrator)
• Picking Apples & Pumpkins, (Read With Me) Amy Hutchings; Richard Hutchings (Photographer)
• Pumpkin Pumpkin, Jeanne Titherington
• The Apple Pie Tree, Zoe Hall, Shari Halpern (Illustrator)
• The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree, Gail Gibbons
• An Apple Tree Through the Year, Claudia Shnieper, et al.

Cook Books

• An Apple Harvest Frank Browning and Sharon Silva
• Apple Orchard Cookbook Janet M. Christensen, Betty Bergman Levin, Rodelinde Albrecht (Illustrator)

Don't Forget

Your local Cooperative Extension service might have excellent "how-to" publications for little or nothing.  If they don't have the answer to your question, they will refer you to somebody who probably does. See our list of fruit tree sites for a few Cooperative Extension links.