Don't crowd into partially shaded places. To have more than one variety in limited space, plant multiple variety trees or dwarf trees. In choosing varieties, remember that good apples are not necessarily red. Make sure that eye appeal, slight taste preference or name doesn't influence you to choose a difficult to grow variety. It does best in deep soil but gets by in many imperfect situations.
Spurs normally begin to appear only after the tree has grown in place three to five years.
Careful pruning and training and some annual pruning and shaping are necessary to keep apple trees manageable in size, healthy and productive. Last Week Follow this link to last week's Feature section of the Weekly Alibi .