Apple trees for southern California
Arkansas Black apple tree
Arkansas Black is an unusual and attractive apple, used as a winter apple after maturing in a cold store.
Ashmead's Kernel apple tree
The best russet for southern California, although the dry climate greatly reduces the extent of russeting.
Bramley's Seedling apple tree
Bramley is the essential English cooking apple, famous for its rich sharp acidity.
Cripp's Pink apple tree
Cripp's Pink is one of the best-known modern apple varieties, well-suited to the warmer apple-growing regions.
Cripp's Red apple tree
Cripps Red is a late-season dessert apple from Australia, with a crisp dense flesh and a good flavor.
Enterprise apple tree
Grows as reliably in southern California as it does everywhere else.
Fuji apple tree
Perhaps the best of all apple varieties for southern California, although it is not precocious in this climate.
Gala apple tree
Gala is popular supermarket apple - but better when home-grown, with a sweet pleasant flavor.
GoldRush apple tree
The best Golden Delicious-style variety for growing in Southern California.
Granny Smith apple tree
Granny Smith is the world-famous green apple from Australia, a good choice for warmer apple-growing regions.
Gravenstein apple tree
Gravenstein is a high-quality early-season eating and cooking apple, with an excellent strong apple flavor.
Honeycrisp apple tree
Originally developed for the cold climates of the northern states, Honeycrisp seems to do very well in warm climates too.
King of Tompkins County apple tree
An heirloom apple from New York state, primarily used for cooking.
Liberty apple tree
A popular disease-resistant variety that grows well in warm climates. The best McIntosh-style apple for Southern California.
Spitzenburg apple tree
Esopus Spitzenberg is one of the best-flavored American heirloom apples, said to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite variety.Wickson Crab
Wickson crab is a popular crab apple variety which is also useful in cider blends.More about Apple trees for southern California
As a rule most apple varieties prefer a climate where there is a definite winter period with temperatures around or below freezing, and summer temperatures not exceeding the low 90s. In contrast Southern California has a "Mediterranean" climate, with long hot dry summers and mild winters. Typical of a Mediterranean climate, almost the entire annual rainfall occurs in winter.
The key challenge for growing apple trees in this climate is the high summer temperatures and long growing season, which can play havoc with the flavor and texture of varieties which are not suited to it.
Southern California's mild winters mean it is a low-chill climate, with fewer than 600 hours of winter temperatures below 40F. Although low-chill varieties may be preferred for this reason, the lack of winter chill is more of an issue for the choice of rootstock than the choice of scion variety. It seems that more vigourous rootstocks are needed to counteract the loss of vigour induced by the low-chill climate. In addition, once the tree starts fruiting in this climate it won't grow much more, another reason for choosing more vigorous rootstocks.
Fortunately there are number of good quality apple varieties which are quite happy in these conditions, which we list here. Perhaps surprisingly, the climate of the place of origin of an apple variety is not a reliable indicator of whether it will thrive in southern California (although apples from Australia do consistently well). We are grateful to Kevin Hauser of Kuffel Creek for these recommendations.