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Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery
Apple Trees for Hot Climates and the Tropics
"We Ship All Over the World"
We will be closed through the
2024-2025 season due to a large project. You can try our friends
at 39th Parallel Orchard and Nursery, Trees of Antiquity, and Century
Farm Orchards
Yes, it's true; apples do grow in hot climates and the tropics, where
there are very few or zero chilling hours and hot days with warm nights.
And they have been growing there for years, producing colorful, crisp,
juicy, spicy apples. We have sought out these apple varieties from
all over the world and offer them along with the educational
materials needed to grow them.
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Our trees are growing from the blast-furnace
heat of inland Southern California to the tropics of Equatorial
Africa. We've shipped to Mumbai, India, Bangkok, Thailand,
Belize, the Caribbean, Phoenix, Arizona, the Middle East, and
the American Deep South. Our trees are growing in the
gardens of presidents and kings, as well as the gardens of tiny
remote African villages. With
such experience we are certainly able to service your hot
climate location. |
"Kevin
Hauser of Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery...is "the man" to
explore the possibilities of low chill with respect to apple
varieties..."
-Michael
Phillips, The Holistic Orchard
The Apple
Grower |
What We Sell We sell
exclusively
benchgrafts, infant trees consisting of a rootstock
(the roots of the tree) with a scion (cutting) of the desired
variety grafted onto it. The benchgraft is bare-root and
dormant and can be economically shipped long distances and grows
vigorously when planted, often reaching six feet (2 meters) the
first season. Our shipping season runs February through
April, with no availability the rest of the year. |
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Benchgraft,
about 14" (35cm) long and 3/8" (7mm)
caliper, with a single bud grafted on the end. |
Rootstock
The rootstock we graft onto is M111 EMLA, a
virus-certified clonal rootstock that is very adaptable to heavy
clay or light sandy soils, worn-out soils, and drought
conditions. It is well-anchored and resistant to wooly
aphid, an underground pest. It naturally makes a fairly
large tree but can be pruned to remain any size. We also
have limited numbers of Antonovka and MARK rootstock this season
that we can graft onto.
Our
Varieties
We've tested over 100
apple varieties in the 113ºF (45ºC) heat of Southern
California where the lack of chill also tests the apple's
productivity. Top varieties from these trials are
forwarded on to equatorial Africa for further
testing in
the tropics. We've picked a list
of our favorites that are well-adapted to hot climates and
the tropics and also keep notes on the losers for reference.
On another note, almost all of our varieties do well in colder
climates, and we ship to northern locations all the time. |

600-tree apple orchard near Kampala, Uganda |
Apple Education
Our book
Growing Apples in the Tropics is unique in the world, as it gives the warm-climate and
tropic apple grower the information needed to raise apples where
they're not supposed to grow.
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