This Li’l Big apple tree is small in size, but large on fruit
Maybe you’ve always wanted to grow an apple tree but didn’t think you had enough space in your yard or garden. Or maybe you weren’t interested in climbing a ladder to pick your own deliciously sweet apples or prune hard-to-reach tree branches.
Get to know Gurney’s® Li’l Big Pixie Crunch Apple Tree—the sweetest and most crisp apple you’ll ever taste. At just 6 feet tall with a 6- to 8-foot spread, it’s startling how much fruit our customers harvest from their Li’l Big Pixie Crunch apple trees. Don’t be fooled by the tree’s diminutive size—it bears more than a half-bushel of full-size fruit in late summer. Its complex breeding at Purdue University is responsible for the other reasons you’ll love Pixie Crunch: Think unparalleled sweetness; fine, crisp texture; and excellent disease resistance.
Little and Big at the Same Time, Fruits in 18 Months
The small stature of Gurney’s Li’l Big Trees is due to the genetic traits of the rootstock we use, which induces early flowering and causes the tree to go through its juvenile period much more quickly than standard-size fruit trees. The result is full-size fruit in just 18 months—compared to 5 or 6 years for standard-size trees. The early and heavy fruiting keeps the tree small and easy to care for—perfect for smaller spaces.
Li’l Big’s small size makes picking fruit a breeze and simplifies pruning and spraying.
Pixie Crunch Rivals Popular Honeycrisp
Gurney’s Pixie Crunch rivals the popular Honeycrisp, a current favorite found at farmer’s markets, grocery stores, and sold by Gurney’s. Sweeter and even more crisp than Honeycrisp, Pixie Crunch is sugary sweet and juicy. Surrounded by thin skin, its flesh is light and almost delicate, and is described as breaking and popping crisp by industry experts.
Bred for Disease Resistance, too
Pixie Crunch was specially bred for resistance to apple scab, and it’s also resistant to cedar-apple rust and fire blight. The result of a complex cross originally bred at Rutgers University in 1971, Pixie Crunch has Red Rome, Melba, Golden Delicious, Edgewood, Rome Beauty and Crandall among its lineage. The seedling designate was selected in 1978 and tested at Purdue University, Rutgers University and the University of Illinois for years.
Want More Fruit?
If you love this li’l tree the way we do, want even more fruit and don’t mind some extra height, you might be interested in Gurney’s standard-size Pixie Crunch Apple Tree. At 18 to 25 feet tall with a similar spread, you can enjoy more than 10 bushels of fruit each season.
Love the Li’l Size?
Gurney’s offers all of its apple trees in the Li’l Big size: Sundance, Nova Spy, Sweet 16, Goldrush, Yellow Transparent, Gala, Liberty, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Granny Smith, McIntosh and Golden Delicious.
For more information on Gurney’s Li’l Big Pixie Crunch Apple Tree, send your readers to www.Gurneys.com/PixieCrunch or contact us at publicity@gardensalive.com.
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