Tree Fruit Varieties
Apples: Most apple trees are somewhat self fruitful, but will bear better with another species for pollination. Apples are prone to numerous insect and disease problems. Insecticidal and fungicidal sprays are usually required about every ten to fourteen days from the end of blooming until two weeks prior to harvest for clean, insect free fruit.
Jonathan - susceptible to cedar apple rust - a little tart, good for cooking
Gala - Fresh eating or cooking: pollinate with Red or Golden Delicious
Empire - Better for cooking and preserving than fresh eating
Red Delicious - fresh eating, okay for cooking
Golden Delicious - Good for fresh eating or cooking - does not store well
Jonagold - Excellent cooking and fresh eating (a cross of Golden Delicious and Jonathan)
Granny Smith - "sweet snappy flavor" late maturing, excellent for cooking
Lodi - yellow summer apple not much for fresh eating but makes good sauce. When it’s ripe you need to process it fast!
Pears: Pears are tough and are often one of the few trees that survive on an old homestead. Though trees should be sprayed, the chance of getting good fruit without spraying is much better than it is with apples. Usually, two trees are needed to get fruit.
Luscious - fresh eating or cooking, not well suited to canning, requires a pollinator
Summer Crisp - fresh eating, fire blight resistant
Seckel - Cooking pear, not for fresh eating
Moonglow - fresh eating and cooking
Duchess - fresh eating, cooking and preserving
Bartlett - fresh eating, cooking and preserving (would encourage using one of two above)
Production Hints: Apricots, Sweet Cherries and Peaches (but not sour cherries) are all subject to breaking dormancy early and blooming when there is still a great risk of frost. If you intend to plant any of these, do not plant them in a sunny spot on the south side of a building as this will just encourage them to break dormancy even earlier. Choose the north side of a building that is just far enough away from the building that it gets full sun in the summer but still shaded in late winter. This will help keep the tree dormant as long as possible. All of these stone fruits are susceptible to borers (Peach Tree Borer). Borers lay eggs at the bottom of the tree, the young larvae burrow into the side of the tree shortly after hatching and feed on the bark layer that conducts water and nutrients through the tree. If left untreated, these pests can greatly shorten the life of a cherry, peach or apricot. Recommended treatment for borers is to spray the lower trunk and larger branches with an insecticide labeled for borers (usually permethrin). Thoroughly soak these parts of the tree to the point of runoff and repeat about every three weeks until late August.
Apricots: Apricots are very susceptible to blooming way too early (some years in February) and then getting their blossoms frozen. Plan to only obtain a crop once every five to ten years! Recommended varieties include Moorpark, Goldcot, Manchu and Superb.
Cherries, Sweet: Sweet cherries (such as Bing) are not well adapted to Kansas. If you want to try one that might have success try Yellow Glass, Stella or Black Tartarian. Need two different varieties.
Cherries, Sour (Pie): Most cherry varieties ripen in June so few, if any, sprays are needed. Recommended sour cherries are Montmorency, Meteor and North Star. Only need one variety, but two may improve production.
Peaches: Usually a relatively short-lived tree (10 to 12 years) that needs a great deal of pruning to keep productive. Peaches have the same problem with late frosts that apricots do but may not be quite as bad. Only one tree is needed for fruit. Try Early Redhaven, Redhaven, Harken and Reliance.