Apple Facts
In 2023 the top five produced apple varieties were: 1. Gala, 2. Red Delicious, 3. Fuji, 4. Honeycrisp, 5. Granny Smith
National Apple Day is October 21st.
October is National Apple Month.
The apple variety ‘Gala’ is the most widely grown in the United States with 19.5 million bushels followed by 'Red Delicious' at 13.9 million bushels in 2022.
41 million bushels of fresh market apples in 2020-2021 were exported. That was 24% of the total U.S. fresh-market crop.
Almost one out of every four apples harvested in the United States is exported.
In 2020/2021 commercial world production of apples was at 4.49 million tons.
In 2020/2021 the People’s Republic of China led the world in commercial apple production with 5 million tons followed by the United States with 4.5 million tons.
Total apple production in the United States in 2021 was 4.9 million tons.
In 2022/2023, the average United States consumer ate an estimated 17 pounds of fresh market apples.
In 2022 there were 5,000 plus apple growers with orchards covering 445,000 acres.
In 2022, 70% of apples produced in the United States were produced in Washington, 11% in New York, 8% in Michigan, 5% in Pennsylvania, 4% in California and 2% in Virginia.
The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California and Virginia.
36% of apples were processed into apple products; 18.6% of this is for juice and cider, 2% was dried, 2.5% was frozen, 12.2% was canned and 0.7% was fresh slices. Other uses were the making of baby food, apple butter or jelly and vinegar.
Sixty-percent of the 2022 U.S. apple crop was eaten as fresh fruit.
In the United States consumers ate an average of 46.1 pounds of fresh apples and processed apple products. That’s a lot of applesauce!
Don’t peel your apple. Two-thirds of the fiber and lots of antioxidants are found in the peel. Antioxidants help to reduce damage to cells, which can trigger some diseases.
The old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” comes from an old English adage, “To eat an apple before going to bed, will make the doctor beg his bread.”
Apples account for 50% of the world’s deciduous fruit tree production.
It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.
The world’s largest apple peel was created by Kathy Wafler Madison on October 16, 1976, in Rochester, NY. It was 172 feet, 4 inches long. (She was 16 years old at the time and grew up to be a sales manager for an apple tree nursery.)
Archaeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C.
A bushel of apples weighs about 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts of applesauce.
A peck of apples weigh 10.5 pounds.
Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they were refrigerated.
America’s longest-lived apple tree was reportedly planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant in his Manhattan orchard and was still bearing fruit when a derailed train struck it in 1866.
One of George Washington’s hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
In 1730 the first apple nursery was opened in Flushing, New York.
Newton Pippin apples were the first apples exported from America in 1768, some were sent to Benjamin Franklin in London.
The Lady or Api apple is one of the oldest varieties in existence.
World’s top apple producers are China, United States, Turkey, Poland and Italy.
Apples have five seed pockets or carpels. Each pocket contains seeds. The number of seeds per carpel is determined by the vigor and health of the plant. Different varieties of apples will have different number of seeds.
The largest U. S. apple crop was 277.3 million cartons in 1998.
In colonial time apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth.
Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States. Oranges are first.
It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
Most apples can be grown farther north than most other fruits because they blossom late in spring, minimizing frost damage.
Some apple trees will grow over forty feet high and live over a hundred years.
Most apple blossoms are pink when they open but gradually fade to white.
Charred apples have been found in prehistoric dwellings in Switzerland.
Many growers use dwarf apple trees.
The average size of a United States orchard is 50 acres.
Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.
The largest apple picked weighed three pounds.
25 percent of an apple’s volume is air. That is why they float.
Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42 pounds each.
Apples are a member of the rose family.
Apples were the favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans.
The apple tree originated in an area between the Caspian and the Black Sea.
Apples are propagated by two methods: grafting or budding.
Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit.
Most apples are still picked by hand in the fall.
Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
The science of apple growing is called pomology.
The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of fiber.
A medium apple is about 80 calories.
Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free.
Apples are grown in all 50 states.
Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.
Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, yellows.
The crab apple is the only apple native to North America.