Apple
The apple is the temperate orchard fruit, and it positively needs winter: without a long cold spell to satisfy its chilling requirement it will not flower properly. So it belts the cool temperate zone — China, the US, Europe — and climbs to cooler highlands nearer the tropics.
How it grows
Apple grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 458 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits apple
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±60° · soil pH 4.5–8.
Growing calendar & hazards
A deciduous perennial that blossoms in spring after winter chilling and is picked in late summer and autumn.
- Spring frost. Frost during bloom is the perennial threat to the crop.
- Too-warm winters. Insufficient winter chill leads to weak, straggly bloom — a growing problem as winters warm.
- Hail & scab. Hail bruises the fruit; wet springs bring apple scab.