Empire is a classic New York dessert apple bred from McIntosh × Red Delicious. It combines attractive red color, good firmness, reliable production, and strong storage quality into one apple. Flesh is crisp, firm, juicy and bright white. Skin is a rich medium dark red. Excellent for fresh eating, salads, and baking. Expect harvest in Sept. or early Oct.

The Empire apple is a diploid. Plant with another compatible apple for cross-pollination. It is also known to have low susceptibility to fire blight, which makes it a great choice for our area!

---
🍎 OUR APPLES AT SPLIT MOUNTAIN GARDEN CENTER:
Apples are something that we pride ourselves on here at the garden center. We've got so many unique varieties (over 20!) - suited for the Uintah Basin/western Colorado area. Each apple comes with its own unique taste, texture, color and storage ability.

Most apple varieties are grafted on to a specific rootstock to control vigor, hardiness, and disease resistance. In our area we recommend purchasing apple trees with semi-dwarf or standard rootstocks. As such, we do not carry dwarf rootstocks because dwarf rootstocks are usually shallow rooted and weaker than trees on semi-dwarf and standard rootstocks. Apple trees grafted on semi-dwarf rootstock usually grow 15-20 feet tall and 12-15 feet wide. Apple trees on standard rootstock usually grow 20-25 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide. If a smaller tree is desired then both semi-dwarf and standard trees take pruning well and can be kept smaller by yearly pruning. If planting more than one tree space the trees 15 or more feet apart. If you'd like to know if the tree you are interested in is a semi-dwarf or a standard size, please call or visit the store.