Question
Hi . How are you, here we are enjoying winter and busy in planting new Apple trees. I have bought trees from  government  agencies. I also tried to get more information on varieties but could not obtain much and my last and believable source are you. I want to know the growing condition, height and specification of following trees:- Gale Galla, organ spur, early red, super chief and red chief. Waiting eagerly.

Answer
Dear Vivek, I hope you are well.  This is what I found out about the various apples.  For the most part, they will all have the same growing conditions, as they are all types of Red Delicious (except I don't think the Gale Gala is), but they will all have the basic chilling hour requirements, same soil, same schedule, etc.  The height on all these is going to be mainly determined by the root stock and how they are pruned.  Other than that, Gale Gala has a mild sweet flavor.  It is the second most popular apple (after Red Delicious), and makes a small to medium sized apple.  It is reported to be growing quite well in Himachal Pradesh.  It is somewhat self-fertile, and since it blooms mid season, it should be a good pollinator for all varieties, including some early and later bloomers.  This apple also keeps pretty well and is fairly disease resistant.  Organ Spur (I think it is actually Oregon Spur - it was I believe named in the state of Oregon and is a spur type apple, so that's where they get the name), is a late flowering, and is very resistant to rust and mildew.  It is a type of Red Delicious and it has a darker color.  I actually couldn't find anything on Early Red, but I do know that it is a type of Red Delicious, so it will grow the same, but will be a slightly earlier apple.  Super Chief is usually grown on MLA 111 rootstock.  It is an early coloring variety of Red Delicious.  The fruit fills in solid red 10 days before harvest.  Regardless of the rootstock this particular graft is grown on, the tree will usually have a compact growth habit.  This sounds like a very promising tree also because it is a consistent annual bearer even when the fruit is not thinned aggressively.  It will pollinate all early bloomers, and the fruit keeps very well and has excellent disease resistance.  Finally, Red Chief grows semi-strongly with a very good yield.  It produces medium to big fruit and can be harvested from the second week of September (this will be an average), and pollinates well from Golden Delicious which I remember you also have.  So essentially, these are improved varieties of Red Delicious which has shown to do quite well in your area.  I hope this information is helpful, if you have more questions, please ask me.  Once again, I apologize that I have not answered your question sooner.   I let tech support know that I am not getting questions sent to my email until they are late, so I hope the problem is now fixed, but I will periodically check in to see if I have questions waiting.  I wish you the very best of apples this year.  Melissa